Last month, I enjoyed representing Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) as part of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce’s Intracity Visit. Often these events take participants to other cities to learn about the development outside of our area. It was so memorable to me, partly because we met in person as COVID-19 restrictions eased and physically toured important assets and development areas locally in East Greensboro, but mainly for the warm reception participants gave when they heard about Ready Ready’s work and our focus on creating a connected and innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. 

It can be complicated to explain what a backbone organization like Ready Ready does. But when my fellow “Intracity tourists” learned about Navigation, I could see the lightbulb moment in their eyes. All families can benefit from information and support during times of critical development for infants, toddlers, and young children.

I explained in various conversations that Navigators work with proven programs to integrate resources, programs, and support to provide a seamless experience for families and providers. Some families meet with a Navigator during prenatal visits, while others may be connected through pediatric visits. This support at the earliest age makes a difference for Guilford County children and our future workforce. 

There is still much work to be done. This year is off to an excellent start for Ready Ready. We are excited to have your support as we start the second half of 2021.

Sincerely,

• Navigation has added a sixth OB practice, Cone Women’s Health MedCenter in Greensboro. 

• Children’s Home Society (CHS) has filled a second Navigation Supervisor role. CHS is actively recruiting Community Navigators to staff OB practices, with bi-lingual candidates highly desired.

• The Community Alignment team has developed materials for an information session to onboard new partners to the Agency Finder process.

• A majority of families surveyed by Family Connects indicated they were somewhat or mostly comfortable with having in-home visits provided by nurses. These survey results will be used to plan service visits to families.

• HealthySteps has hired a specialist for the Cone Family Medicine location. Now the organization is recruiting candidates for additional positions to support expansion to other sites.

• We have created a draft of our CQI Theory of Change with MDRC.

• We have tested data infrastructure needs with the WIC director by creating a dashboard to meet the organization’s CQI needs. We documented the process in a WIC case study.

• In response to needs CQI Cohort 1 members identified, The Kellin Foundation led a webinar training on Key Components of Trauma-Informed Care. It was attended by 22 CQI Cohort 1 participants and their staff members.

• The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology release six went live in late June to provide additional reporting, security, functionality, and Navigator assignments.

• The Community Portal App program registry is complete. The Agency Finder Community Portal website goes live with Prenatal Navigators in mid-July. This technology will allow clients and Navigators to search program listings.

• Ready Ready staff and evaluators continue to make progress on critical evaluation activities such as the theory of change, implementation, and impact study designs for prenatal to 36 months.

• Legislative Action Subcommittee members are actively informing key North Carolina legislators about Ready Ready’s mission and work. This outreach supports the Chambers’ legislative agenda, including funding requests for Ready Ready’s Integrated Data System and Early Childhood Workforce pilot. The Senate released its two-year spending plan in late June. It proposes $25.7 billion in 2021-22 and $26.6 billion in 2022-21. The Senate bill provides additional funding for Smart Start in three buckets: child care-related activities, family support activities, and health-related activities. The budget also gives a two percent funding increase N.C. Pre-K rates for child care centers in both years of the biennium.

• The Communications Subcommittee has regrouped to review the updated Ready Ready standard presentation in preparation for training and outreach to civic groups in the fall. Training sessions will take place beginning in September.

• Ready Ready staff participated with the Pritzker Children’s Initiative/National Collaborative for Infants and Toddlers on a public relations toolkit for a national awareness campaign of a PBS NewsHour special series on the child care crisis. More information on that series is available below.

Family Voices
Parent leaders will have the opportunity to participate in a board/committee leadership academy. The training will help develop skills for serving in leadership roles within Ready Ready’s and other organizations’ governance structures.

COFI Phase 2 Training
Three parent leaders received training and will lead Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) Phase 2 training beginning this month. The five-session series is followed by community outreach and engagement to address an identified community need. 

State of infant-toddler care in Guilford County
Ready Ready’s partners in the Think Babies™ NC Alliance have produced fact sheets with county-level data about the state of infant-toddler child care in Guilford and other North Carolina counties. The fact sheets are being used to support advocacy efforts and raise awareness about the need for well-compensated, highly educated teachers and access to affordable, high-quality care. Information contained in the fact sheets will be updated quarterly. Guilford’s snapshot can be found here.

The Lincoln Financial Foundation has granted Ready Ready $25,000 to implement Guilford County’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Action Plan for 2021. The Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of the Lincoln Financial Group, funds programs that strengthen critical learning skills, improve academic performance, and prepare students for college and careers. In 2020, the Foundation awarded 115 youth education grants and corporate contributions totaling $2.7 million.

PBS NewsHour series highlights child care crisis
“Raising the Future: America’s Child Care Dilemma,” a five-part series that takes a comprehensive look at America’s child care crisis, ran on PBS stations July 12-16. The struggle to find affordable, quality child care has always been one of the most significant issues for American families, and Covid-19 only exacerbated the problem. This series examined the current state of the American child care system, its history, and the new movement for long-term reform in the post-Covid era. The series can be seen on PBS NewsHour’s YouTube channel.

Report on why children are left off the public agenda
The FrameWorks Institute engages in research to understand the cultural barriers to prioritizing children in policymaking and developing a new narrative that can help put children’s wellbeing more squarely on the public and policymaking agendas. In this strategic brief, we report findings from the first phase of this project, which centers on understanding these cultural barriers and identifying possible directions for developing a new narrative around kids. Download the report.

Child tax credit payments began this month
The IRS has begun sending letters to 36 million families it believes are eligible to receive them. This story from Yahoo! Finance outlines steps families can take to ensure they receive the payments. 

EdNC reviews Senate budget bill
The two-year budget passed by the N.C. Senate includes 3 percent pay raises for teachers and other spending plans for K-12 education. When it comes to early childhood education funding, the Senate bill focuses on additional funding for Smart Start. Read more in EdNC.