Dear Ready Ready Supporters,
 In remarks last week, First Lady Jill Biden expressed her frustration with our national political process. She said that the Build Back Better bill shouldn’t be tossed around like a football to pass or pivot. “Governing isn’t a game. There are no teams to root for or against,” she said. “Just people, Americans from all walks of life who need help and hope.”
Help and hope.
Her words resonated with me, especially in the context of our mission. As you know, Ready for School, Ready for Life is building a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. We want every child in Guilford County to get a great start in life.
We believe that starting with the youngest will help our entire community thrive. Strong communities start with strong families. We want everyone on this team, working together to achieve population-level change. The science is clear: during the prenatal period, and the first three years of life, the brains and bodies of infants and toddlers make huge gains in development.
By making sure all infants and toddlers and their families have access to resources — including mental and physical health services, high-quality child care, paid leave, financial security, and support networks, regardless of their skin color, gender, or life experiences — we can strengthen our communities and live up to our promise as a community and a nation.
Every child deserves a strong start in life, but not every child starts from the same place.
Your support to create a system of care in Guilford County makes you a champion for children, families, and our future workforce. Thank you for your dedication. Please help us share our work with your networks so more people in our neighborhoods understand and join our efforts.
Sincerely,
Charrise Hart
Chief Executive Officer
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Build public will for early childhood priorities.
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- Early Learning Nation, a web publication with a national footprint, featured Ready Ready in an article on January 25, 2022. The article includes quotes from Board Co-Chairs Susan Schwartz and Ed Kitchen, CEO Charrise Hart, and Board Member Sanaa Sharrieff about our work. Read the article.
- Vice President of Public Will Building Ricky Watson joined the Ready Ready team on February 1. Learn more about Ricky in his bio below.
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Develop navigation system to connect families with effective services
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- The Community Alignment Team is working with Guilford County home visiting programs to establish a home visiting network to help align services and decrease duplication.
- Postnatal Navigation field testing is taking place at two practices in Guilford County. Early feedback from families shows that they are receptive to these services.
- The rate of consent/enrollment in nine obstetrics practices with navigation implementation underway is 85 percent, based on 2021 data.
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Expand and integrate proven programs to meet community need
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- Due to the rising spread of COVID-19, Family Connects Guilford paused offering brief home visits in January. Nurses continue to provide services remotely through calls or virtual visits.
- HealthySteps, Family Connects, and Nurse-Family Partnership collectively served more than 12,000 Guilford County children in 2021. These proven programs reached families through in-person and virtual home visits, along with well-child visits at pediatric practices.
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Build a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI)
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- In collaboration with UNC-Chapel Hill and the Community Alignment Team, we are ensuring that the vignettes associated with the CQI Infrastructure assessment will resonate when used with CQI programs in 2022.
- Cohort I programs are participating in a CQI readiness self-assessment facilitated by the implementation specialists at UNC. The results of this self-assessment will provide guidance to programs as they engage in upcoming CQI training opportunities.
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Build technology to support data-informed decisions
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- The Core Navigation Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system went live on January 24, 2022. It includes the core birth process and enhancements to the prenatal navigation process.
- New Salesforce reports reduced time to compile data for funder reports from days to hours of effort.
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Conduct rigorous evaluation process and build sustainability for system-building work
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- UNC-Chapel Hill delivered to MDRC a comprehensive overview of the current plan for CQI. MDRC is determining whether more information is needed to start logic model development.
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Ages 3-5
The Active Reading Implementation Planning Team is working to identify curricula to pilot. The group aims to select a model that can be implemented in the home and early childhood education classroom.
The Basics Guilford
Demand is high for the Basics Guilford Kits. Nearly all of the original 200 kits have been distributed, and we will create another 150 for community use.
Reach Out and Read’s Pam Bacot was interviewed by WFMY-TV on February 6, 2022, about Active Reading and The Basics Guilford. You can watch the interview here.
Basics family leave brochures have been given to 25 employers who have signed on to share the information with employees who take maternity/paternity leave. If you have a contact with a local employer you think could benefit from these materials and information, please contact Megan LeFaivre at meganl@getreadyguilford.org.
Family Voice
We continue to increase family voice representation on all Ready Ready committees and teams. Currently, family voice is represented on the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Governance Committee, System Building Committee, Basics Advisory Committee, and Equity Strategies Committee.
Early childhood workforce
Ready Ready, EQuIPD, and N.C. A&T State University are discussing a proposal to best use a portion of the N.C. General Assembly directed grant for the first year of the Early Childhood Workforce pilot.
Equity and Inclusion
The Board of Directors reviewed the Equity Action Plan at their February 16, 2022 meeting. Our consultants presented the plan to Ready Ready staff and the Equity Strategies Committee and will share it with the Guilford Parent Leader Network later this month.
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Meet our new Ready Ready team members
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Vice President of Strategic Impact Jacqueline McCracken joined the Ready Ready team on February 7, 2022. Jacqueline has devoted her career to serving children, their families, and vulnerable adult populations. An accomplished leader and organizational strategist, she has a proven track record of driving operational excellence and streamlining processes to advance missions and achieve positive community outcomes. Learn more about Jacqueline.
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Vice President of Public Will Building Ricky Watson started his new role at Ready Ready on February 1, 2022. Attorney Ricky Watson brings a unique perspective informed by years of service to children and families who encounter the youth legal system. As Executive Director of the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN), Ricky led the development of an anti-racist coalition that centered the voices of those most impacted by the injustices of the legal system. Read more about Ricky on our website.
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Fortune: The cost of child care has risen by 41% during the pandemic with families spending up to 20% of their salaries
Staffing, inflation, and safety precautions all contribute to the rising cost of child care in the last few years. Families across the country are spending a significant amount of their earnings on child care. Read the story in Fortune.
CNN Business: Child care workers are vanishing and it’s hurting the entire economy
Working from home, virtual classrooms, labor shortage, and increased health risks have all contributed to the already struggling child care industry. As we are hitting the third year of the pandemic, working parents struggle to balance careers and families. Learn more at CNN Business.
Hechinger Report: In-home child care could be a solution for rural working parents
Rural America was dealing with a child care crisis long before the pandemic. Many families depend on informal child care within their communities, this has allowed parents/spouses to go to the workforce knowing their children are taken care of. Read the full story.
Forbes: Diaper Need: The invisible public health crisis
This opinion piece was written by Bridget Cutler, founder of Moms Helping Moms. She suggests diaper needsshould be elevated as the public health crisis that it is in the United States as families are struggling to provide this essential need for their children. Many child care facilities require families to supply diapers for their children, proving to be yet another barrier to low-income families in need of care. Read the piece in Forbes.
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