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August 2021 CEO Priorities Update

Dear Ready Ready Supporters,

Now that we are halfway through August, it feels like we are saying goodbye to summer even though technically, that farewell comes in September with the start of autumn. It’s a good reminder that we have busy months ahead of us as we work to build a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. 

Our work is progressing as we have developed strategies for children ages 3-5, and we are considering  Phase 2 of our vital work to ensure children prenatal to age eight are ready for school and prepared for success in life.

Read on for our August updates, and please know you have our thanks and gratitude for your support and encouragement.

Sincerely,


Kelly McKee
Vice President of Operations

 


Build public will for early childhood priorities.
  • The North Carolina House has included $1.8M in state funding for two Ready Ready legislative requests: our Integrated Data System and an Early Childhood Workforce pilot project. As a reminder, you can learn more about these projects in House Bill 215 and Senate Bill 217. The House and Senate will work together on a final budget that should go to Governor Roy Cooper later this month.

  • The Think Babies NC Alliance, of which Ready Ready is a member, continues its push for state funding for the early childhood workforce and to increase child care subsidy rates for parents and caregivers.
 
 
Develop navigation system to connect families with effective services
  • Prenatal Navigation has commitments from 11 of 16 Guilford County OB sites. Implementation has already begun at six locations, with training and onboarding continuing.

  • Navigation staff has multiplied as the program scales. There are seven prenatal Navigators, two supervisors, and one coordinator who cultivates new OB and pediatric office partners. Ready Ready staff recently supported Children’s Home Society (CHS) to fill five option positions for these new sites. One new and one existing Navigator are bilingual.

  • CHS reports consent rates and contact rates at new Navigation sites are increasing, rising from 77 percent and 71 percent in May to 95 and 85 percent respectively in June. 

  • The Ages 3-5 Navigation Planning Team has begun to develop the structure for the program to include children ages 3-5.

  • The Community Alignment Team hosted its first introductory Community Advisory Board (CAB) meeting in collaboration with Every Baby Guilford.


Expand and integrate proven programs to meet community need
  • Family Connects invited family feedback to inform its staged approach to resuming in-person visits while monitoring COVID-19 rates in Guilford County. In early July, Family Connects began offering short in-person visits combined with remote follow-up for a small number of families with an identified child or maternal health risk factor. Such factors include issues such as low birth weight or hypertension, for example.

  • Healthy Steps will begin implementing its program at a new site, Cone Family Health, its 10th pediatric or family practice site. Nearly all Healthy Steps specialists have returned to on-site service delivery.

  • Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) has expanded its presence in High Point. NFP has established an on-site office presence and dedicated four nurses and one supervisor to serving the High Point community. NFP’s national office is also sending community outreach workers to assist in grassroots engagement with potential clients.

  • Families from the Guilford Parent Leader Network, Family Connects, and Navigation served as a focus group to inform consent documentation and data sharing processes for Navigation delivery across providers.


Build a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI) 
  • We have created a draft of our CQI Theory of Change with MDRC.



Build technology to support data-informed decisions
  • Before the Prenatal Pilot (PNP) moves to the new Navigation organization, the latest and final major release allows Navigators to share resources with links to referral agencies with parents and caregivers. An automated email will enable families to browse the Agency Finder.

  • The Agency Finder website and app are now live for the prenatal pilot.

Conduct rigorous evaluation process and build sustainability for system-building work
  • MDRC provided an overview of the evaluation design that describes the scope and data collection plans for each evaluation substudy -- implementation, outcomes monitoring, impact, and cost studies.

Ages 3-5
The Design Team has developed a refined set of strategies to support Guilford County’s children ages 3-5. Essential components include strategies to support literacy development, expanding Active Reading, and distributing books to young children and strategies focused on accessing resources and social-emotional learning.

Equity & Inclusion
The Equity Strategies Committee, supported by our equity consultants, has identified equity choice points for inclusion in the Equity Action Plan. These points include committing to open and transparent communication, building a culture of accountability, and building/maintaining trusting relationships. The work on the Equity Action Plan will continue this fall with anticipated completion in December.

Family voice
This month, parent leaders are beginning a Board/Committee Leadership Academy to develop their skills for leadership roles within Ready Ready’s governance structure or other community organizations. Additionally, Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) Phase 2 training is led by three parent leaders who graduated from COFI Phase 1 training earlier this year. This five-session training series is followed by community outreach and engagement to address an identified community need. The group graduated on August 17, 2021. And lastly, recruitment for a new COFI Phase 1 training is underway to develop more parent leaders in Guilford County. We have seen a good response and may need to split this training into two to accommodate demand.

Ready Ready partnered with BackPack Beginnings and other organizations for a successful drive-through event on August 7, 2021. BackPack Beginnings reports double the response to its May event, with 380 cars, 1,131 kids, and 813 adults attending. Together we distributed:

  • 17,011 lbs of pantry staples

  • 3,100 lbs of fresh food

  • 2,698 books

  • 7,795 diapers

  • 530 packs of wipes

  • 199 cleaning supplies

  • 600 masks

  • 578 plush toys

  • 184 Food Lion $25 gift cards

  • 513 backpacks (half contained school supplies.)

Updated website
Have you visited us at www.GetReadyGuilford.org recently? Please check out our refreshed website.

Associated Press: Court order splits House over N. Carolina education spending
This AP story begins: “House Republicans are trumpeting their two-year North Carolina government budget proposal for an education construction spree, and state teacher raises at levels that are higher than what the Senate passed in June.” Read the full story.

Forbes: U.S. Maternal and Infant Mortality - More signs of public health neglect
“In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to the largest decline in U.S. life expectancy since the Second World War. Yet, before the pandemic, the U.S. was already experiencing a decrease in life expectancy, unlike any of its peer nations with comparable Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Among many factors contributing to this long-term trend are infant and maternal mortality,” according to Forbes. Read the full article.

Child care workers and WAGE$
To learn more about the Child Care WAGE$ program, read the North Carolina Early Education Coalition’s fact sheet and frequently asked questions. Another fact sheet details the child care subsidy program and how increasing subsidy rates and reducing geographic inequities will help stabilize child care programs in all 100 counties.

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