A daylong summit designed to develop a comprehensive early-childhood plan for Douglas County ended with the conclusion that the public and decision-makers need to hear more about existing child-care efforts.

“I think there’s a broad general awareness,” said Carolyn Kelly, director of Lawrence Head Start. “But I think, with specifics, we’ve not done a good job advocating for quality programs for children.”

Kelly was one of more than 30 people at Friday’s summit, representing government agencies, nonprofits and businesses from across Lawrence. The meeting, at South Park Recreation Center, was sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and Success by 6, a program that provides parenting resources.

“Douglas County is fortunate to have an extremely well-endowed set of organizations involved in early childhood,” said Rich Minder, collaborative projects coordinator at Success by 6 and a Lawrence school board member. “But we also have a lot of needs.”

A 2003 report by The Partnership for Children and Youth suggested Douglas County performs relatively well in the areas of health and education of young children but could improve safety and child care efforts.

Participants brainstormed ways to make affordable child care, health care, economic and educational support available to families with young children.

After the meeting, summit participants were asked to sign up to develop “action plans” to create the proposed publicity and lobbying efforts. They said such efforts might help create new funding and support for early-childhood programs.

“That’s what it’s all about — having an impact on children and their families,” said Michael Maude, a consultant who acted as facilitator for the meeting.