Smart Start & The North Carolina Partnership for Children

Monday, August 06th, 2012 | Author: Tracy

Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina Presents

The Learning & Leadership Summit: Advancing Child Well-Being Through Effective Prevention

March 4-6, 2013

Across North Carolina organizations are implementing innovative programs and strategies designed to build strong, healthy families and communities. These strategies have created significant long-term improvements for children and are the kinds of innovations we need in this time of increased accountability. With nationally recognized speakers and a diverse array of workshops, the Learning & Leadership Summit offers insight into the latest research, strategies for increasing protective factors, and effective implementation, public awareness and advocacy.

The opening plenary speaker knows all too well that when it comes to child maltreatment, time does not heal all wounds. Dr. Vincent Felliti, co-principal investigator for the internationally recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, will provide an inside look into the study and discuss its relevance to the everyday practice of medicine, mental health, and healthcare costs.

PCANC is now accepting applications to exhibit, participate in the poster session and present workshops. For more information on how you can participate in this event please follow the links above or visit our summit homepage located at www.preventchildabusenc.org/summit for more information.

For questions contact La-Mine Givens, Summit Coordinator by phone (919) 256-6612 or email lgivens@preventchildabusenc.org.

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Damaging Cuts to Early Childhood Education Proposed by NC Senate

Monday, June 11th, 2012 | Author: Patti Mulligan

Damaging Cuts to Early Childhood Education Proposed by NC Senate!

Updated June 13, 2012

The Senate voted the budget out of the Appropriations Committee yesterday. It will be heard on the Senate floor today and Thursday, and then be sent to a joint Conference Committee over the weekend to develop a compromise budget.

Your legislators need to hear from you before the end of the week! Tell them to support the House Budget for early childhood!

Compared to the House budget, the Senate Budget would mean damaging cuts to early childhood.

Smart Start:

No new money for Smart Start, which means:
1. Small, rural, low-wealth partnerships will get no relief from the impact of the cuts they have sustained over the past four years;
2. No new funding for grants to support early literacy programs for children at-risk of school failure.
$10 million swap in state Smart Start funds for CCDF subsidy funds, which may mean:
1. An increase in the amount of dollars that Smart Start partnerships have to spend on subsidy from $52 million to $62 million;
2. Cuts in health , family support, and other programs that improve child care quality.
Match requirement increase from 10 percent to 13 percent. The House budget also increases the match to 13 percent, but includes money for fundraisers to help us meet the higher match.

NC Pre-K:

$15 million cut* for NC Pre-K and significant reduction in the reimbursement rate, which compromises quality and could result in programs choosing not to participate and children not being served. (*As compared to the House budget)
No language on administrative funds for NC Pre-K new slots which means it is not clear if there is funding to recruit eligible children, determine eligibility, contract with Pre-K classrooms, or monitor programs.

Child Care Subsidy and Quality Initiatives:

Significant reduction in child care subsidy, which means that fewer working families will have access to help paying for child care, fewer children with receive high-quality care, and local partnerships will have greater pressure to cut other needed early childhood programs to fund more subsidy.
Cut to CCDF quality dollars, which:
1. Affects funding for licensing staff, the rated license, T.E.A.C.H., WAGE$, CCR&R, Infant-Toddler, School age and Healthy Social Behavior Specialists and other state infrastructure services; and
2. Means North Carolina will not meet the federal mandate that at least 4% of CCDF funding must be invested in quality.

Health and Family Strengthening:

Elimination of all funding for infant mortality prevention programs and major cuts to adolescent pregnancy prevention projects.

Links to the money report and special provisions are below.

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/sessions/2011/budget/2012/H950-CSMDxf-28.PDF

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/sessions/2011/budget/2012/Senate_Committee_Report_2012-06-12.pdf

Please call or email your legislators TODAY.

Thank House members for their support and ask them to stand firm on their commitment to early childhood.
Ask Senate members to support the House budget for early childhood. Remind them that investing in early childhood programs that help families raise smart, healthy and productive children raises North Carolina’s economic competitiveness and guarantees a prosperous future.

Here is a link to your legislators by County.
http://ncleg.net/representation/WhoRepresentsMe.html

Your Legislators Need to Hear from You! Ask your House and Senate members to support the House budget for early childhood.

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Category: Supporting Families | Tags: advocacy, budget, early childhood, policy | Comments off

Child Care and Military Families Web Conference on April 25

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 | Author: Tracy

The Child Care concentration of the Military Families Learning Network is proud to announce the second presentation of our Child Care and Military Families web conference series. You are invited to participate in the 60-minute web conference Using Books in Child Care to Connect with Military Children’s Lives on Wednesday, April 25 at 2 p.m. EDT.

This web conference will discuss:

effective strategies for getting the most out of reading books in child care settings
the role that books can play in supporting military children
the newly developed, searchable Children’s Book Database from the eXtension Alliance for Better Child Care

Presenters:

Dan Weigel, Professor and Extension Specialist, Human Development and Family Studies, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
Jane Lanigan, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Washington State University Vancouver

Audience:

This 60-minute web conference will be presented for child care providers (both on-installation and in local communities) who work with Military Families, as well as early childhood professionals who supervise, direct, or educate child care providers who work with military families.

How to Attend the Web Conference:

No registration is required to attend this event. Simply log on to https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/milfam as a “guest” a few minutes before 2 p.m. EDT on April 25.

Selected articles have been identified to prepare you for this web conference. If you want to learn more about using books to connect with military families before the web conference, we recommend that you review these articles. Links can be found at http://learn.extension.org/events/488. A recording of the web conference and additional resources will also be available at this site after the session.

To receive more information after the web conference, you can type your email address into the chat box during the session, or send an email to dbales@uga.edu after the session.

To learn more about the Child Care concentration of the Military Families Learning Network, please visit http://blogs.extension.org/militaryfamilies/child-care/

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New Early Learning Website for Families and Early Childhood Professionals

Tuesday, April 03rd, 2012 | Author: Tracy

“Ele” Provides Free Ebooks, Digital Games, Videos, Music Targeting Early Literacy Skills

The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College has launched a website that provides digital media resources for early learning teachers, family child care providers, and families of young children birth to age five, free of charge.

The Fred Rogers Center Early Learning Environment™—”Ele” (pronounced “El-Lee”) for short—is located at www.yourele.org. The site includes:

Activities: A library of more than 100 ebooks, digital games, videos, music, mobile apps, and other activities selected as quality resources that support learning and literacy development. Some activities help adults support children’s language and literacy skills; others are designed for use by adults with children.
Let’s Talk: An online community where teachers, families, and others can ask questions, and connect and share with others who care about issues affecting young children.
My Ele: By signing up for a free Ele account, users can organize the site’s resources around their own needs and interests, and then share them by creating Play!Lists. All resources include research-based suggestions and information on how and why to use Ele’s activities, under the headings, “Talk About It” and “Why This Is Important.”

Visitors meet Ele, an avatar that serves as the site’s friendly “guide.” Activities are easily searchable by age, educational setting, and media type; each activity includes accompanying user tips.

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Category: Supporting Families | Tags: child development, school readiness | Comments off

The Role of Fathers in Healthy Child Development Webinar

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 | Author: Tracy

Reframing Fatherhood:
The Role of Fathers in Healthy Child Development Webinar

March 14, 2012
1:00 – 2:30 PM

The future success of our state relies on the healthy growth and development of all children. When children have supportive, loving relationships with their parents their brain architecture is built in a healthy way, forming a firm foundation for future growth and development. Just like a house, a brain built on a shaky foundation will not be as strong resulting in long-term negative consequences.

Research conducted over the past several years has shown that fathers’ impact on child development is different than mothers’, and just as necessary. When fathers are actively engaged with their children, they are providing the interactive experiences necessary to build solid brain architecture. Yet, despite the research, many fathers still don’t understand their role in ensuring their children’s future success.

Some of the most powerful factors influencing human behavior are societal social norms: a community’s shared beliefs, expectations, and “worldviews” about how its members should act, behave and operate within the community. Social norms about fathers significantly impact how we see fathers, how they see themselves, and how they act with their children, their families and in the larger community of peers, employment, and community institutions (e.g., schools, health care providers, etc.).

During this free webinar we will explore how to utilize the research on brain architecture to learn how to help fathers understand the importance of their role in their children’s lives.

No need to register. To join the webinar, simply follow the steps outlined below on March 14.

On March 14 at 1:00 PM click or manually enter the following URL into your web browser: https://dss.ncgovconnect.com/fathersrole/
At the bottom-left of your screen, you’ll see, “Don’t have an NCID? Enter your name.” Simply place your cursor over the “Enter as Guest” button and a space will appear to type your name.
Upon entering the meeting room, click on the telephone icon on the bottom of the attendee list. Select “Call Me” and enter the telephone number you will use for your audio. This will generate an automatic call to your number. Simply answer the phone and you will be connected to the audio.
If you do not have a direct telephone line, simply dial 877-685-5350 and enter the following code: 455826

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From Crib to Classroom: Developing Language and Skills for Reading

Monday, February 06th, 2012 | Author: Tracy

Invest in Us has a new resource available based on a presentation by Dr. Kathy, Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University Lefkowitz Professor of Psychology and Director, Infant Language Laboratory.

“Today, we have a great deal of scientific evidence on the language and literacy development of infants. Much of it reinforces our intuition to engage children through relationships and to impart knowledge through intense interaction. Yet, the evidence also strongly suggests that there is much more we can do as parents and teachers to build stronger language and literacy skills in young children.There is a science to early language and literacy development. We can better prepare children for later school achievement by taking what we know and making it an intentional and integral part of early childhood education—particularly among at-risk children and families.

Parents and close caregivers are the main teachers of these critical early skills, yet not every one of them has the time, resources or ability to tackle the job. Providing parents and close caregivers with the lessons learned from science will help equalize the language and literacy skills of children when they enter school—and go a long way toward preventing the achievement gap.”

The paper highlights five lessons:

Lesson 1: Learning starts with engagement in relationships and interests.
Lesson 2: Talk with infants, but let them drive the conversation.
Lesson 3: Frequency Matters—infants and toddlers learn the language they hear the most.
Lesson 4: Infants need to hear diverse examples of words and grammar.
Lesson 5: Bilingualism is the norm and should be encouraged.

Download the resource.

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Family Engagement in Early Childhood: A Resource Guide

Thursday, January 26th, 2012 | Author: Tracy

From the Natural Resources listserv: The Harvard Family Research Project produced this selective list of resources about engaging and supporting families with young children as a support to Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grantees. Turns out this list of journal articles, practical guides, webinars, and presentations will be useful for grant recipients, along with any other states, districts, and local programs interested in building or expanding their family engagement work. Resources for planning, policy development, and professional development are organized into sections by topic, as follows:

Culturally And Linguistically Appropriate Standards for Family Engagement
Training Early Childhood Educators on Family Engagement
Promoting Family Support and Engagement Statewide
Sharing Data with Families
Creating Programs that Engage Families

Download a PDF of this publication (284 kb).

If you are interested in subscribing to the weekly listserv please send an email to listserv@unc.edu with a blank Subject line. The text of the message must be: subscribe natural_resources2. Be sure the Subject is blank. Then Send the message.

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Smart Start Partnering with Reach Out and Read

Monday, December 05th, 2011 | Author: Tracy

Reach Out and Read is partnering with The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. to add an additional 25 locations where books are distributed through pediatricians’ offices. The program now involves 89 medical offices across the state.

Most toys on kids’ wish lists will likely require batteries, but one North Carolina group is issuing a reminder that books can offer lifelong value to a child. Reach Out and Read distributes books to 130,000 children in need across the state through pediatricians.

This holiday, the group’s Regional Director, Callee Boulware, hopes people consider giving books as gifts for the children on their list.

“It’s just a win-win for the entire family. Having more books in the child’s life, and them asking whatever grownup is around to sit and read it with them, is such a special time.”

According to Reach Out and Read, one-third of the nation’s kindergarteners begin school without the basic skills necessary for learning to read. And research shows that reading to children, even at the earliest ages, builds their vocabularies and gives them a greater desire to read.

This holiday, the group is partnering with Barnes and Noble in several cities across the state, offering customers the chance to purchase books for children in need through the Reach Out and Read program. Boulware says there are plenty of children who could use a “good read,” and the holidays offer some creative opportunities to make that happen.

“Generally speaking, people’s place of work has a holiday gathering. Well, you know what? Why don’t you challenge your coworkers to bring in some books in lieu of gifts for office members?”

Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/23310-1.

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New Three-Part Video Series on Core Concepts in Early Development

Tuesday, November 08th, 2011 | Author: Tracy

“Three Core Concepts in Early Development” is a new three-part video series from the Center on the Developing Child and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. The link for each two-minute video includes related resources to explore these core concepts in greater depth. View videos & read more about this series.

Thanks to Zero to Three for sharing. Subscribe to The Baby Monitor for the latest info.

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Families in Most States Worse Off Under 2011 Child Care Policies

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 | Author: Tracy

Families in thirty-seven states are worse off under one or more key child care policies in 2011 than they were in 2010, according to a report released today by the National Women’s Law Center. The report shows that families in only eleven states were better off under one or more child care policy areas than last year, a sharp contrast to NWLC’s findings in the previous year when families in thirty-four states were better off in 2010 than they were in 2009 and worse off in only fifteen states. A year ago, states were benefiting from a $2 billion boost in child care funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act but, by the end of 2010, they had spent most of the funds and were battling severe budget deficits, making it difficult to maintain their prior level of support.

Read the report, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2011: Reduced Support For Families in Challenging Times.

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Damaging Cuts to Early Childhood Education Proposed by NC Senate!

Smart Start:

Please call or email your legislators TODAY.

Your Legislators Need to Hear from You! Ask your House and Senate members to support the House budget for early childhood.

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