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July 2022


Dear Ready Ready Supporter,
 
I’ve been thinking about advocacy this summer. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal: the act or process of advocating.” For those of us who have been advocates for causes dear to our hearts, you know at times it can definitely feel like a process. Sometimes trying to find the right words or examples to explain your cause or consider how your proposal will benefit your community feels like an uphill battle.

Photo of Charrise HartOn a busy or down day, it can feel like a process, but to me, it never feels like an act. I know the dictionary doesn’t mean “act” in the sense of pretend or performance, but working in service to the mission of building a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families feels like an urgent privilege. A calling. A vital movement for our community. I know many of you feel the same.

Thank you for your advocacy for Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) and Guilford County’s families with young children. Thank you for your dedication, your donations, and your determination to take action to create population-level change in our community.
 
Sincerely,

Charrise Hart
Chief Executive Officer

 


Build public will for early childhood priorities
  • Ready Ready continues to work with Guilford County officials on long-term American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding
  • House Bill 1009 proposed additional funding for Ready Ready’s legislative asks for the Integrated Data System and Early Childhood Workforce projects. The state budget was signed by Governor Roy Cooper at the end of the General Assembly’s short session, but the bill was not included in that funding. Ready Ready did receive $1.208 million in the 2021-23 biennial state budget in November 2021.
 
 
Develop navigation system to connect families with effective services
  • The Network (formerly Community Alignment) team has revised the process for onboarding new partners and is on target to meet the goal of 100 partner verifications. The partner verifications are a component of the Integrated Data System’s Agency Finder and Ready Ready’s public-facing Community Portal.
  • Currently, 94% of Guilford County’s OB/GYN practices have implemented or committed to implementing prenatal navigation services.
  • Prenatal navigators are enrolling clients in a Duke implementation study at four initial sites. The goal is to enroll 300 clients for the study. Additional sites will be included as more prenatal navigators complete the credentialing process.


Expand and integrate proven programs to meet community need
  • Nurse-Family Partnership graduated 25 clients in June – families who stayed engaged from intake to their child’s second birthday. The organization currently has 227 active clients.


Build a culture of continuous quality improvement (CQI) 
  • Four Cohort I programs are building their capacity to serve families and children in Guilford County by using the Model for Improvement (MFI). Those programs are Every Baby Guilford (Adopt A Mom), Family Service of the Piedmont (Healthy Start), UNCG (Bringing Out the Best), and YWCA Greensboro (Teen Parent Mentor Program). With support from Ready Ready and UNC's School of Social Work, they will identify, describe, and analyze strengths and problems before testing, implementing, learning from, and revising solutions. Their participation shows a commitment to driving population-level outcomes by helping build an early childhood system, engaging in continuous improvement coaching, participating in service coordination among providers, and sharing data about how their work improves as a result of this process. 
  • Each program has assembled its CQI team and created the aim statements that will provide the inspiration and vision for their work. At their next meeting, they will identify the measures for their work so they can begin to track the data that will show how CQI has impacted their organization and, ultimately, the families and children they serve.


Build technology to support data-informed decisions
  • The Governance Council continues to develop the process for data sharing across navigation delivery partners for the Integrated Data System.
  • The Coastal Cloud team is focused on new software releases for HealthySteps, and Community Alignment, as well as updates for navigation in the Integrated Data System.

Conduct rigorous evaluation process and build sustainability for system-building work
  • MDRC and James Bell Associates have worked with Ready Ready staff and partners to complete draft logic models for six components of our work to be included in the evaluation: Community Alignment, Continuous Quality Improvement, Early Literacy, the Integrated Data System, Prenatal Navigation, and Postnatal Navigation.

The Basics Guilford

Ready Ready staff have completed the second training for barbers and stylists and will outfit eight barber shops and salons with book nooks and informational signage later this month to share The Basics Guilford. We are partnering with the American Heart Association, the March of Dimes, and Every Baby Guilford in this effort.

We are piloting the use of The Basics Guilford video books in Carolina Pediatrics of the Triad’s practice. The books are designed to be easy to use for families with small children and explain how families can share The Basics together.

Our partnership with the Greensboro Public Library is progressing. We have shared information about The Basics Guilford at three events at library branches. It’s a wonderful way to bring public awareness to our efforts.

The Guilford Parent Academy has agreed to hold a three-part series on the Basics in October 2022. We look forward to sharing the message about The Basics Guilford with the school community.

 

Family Voice

The Guilford Parent Leader Network (GPLN) has elected the organization’s new Steering Committee. Please welcome Katina Allen, Eugene Penn, Nicole Peoples, Aierreia Pierce, and Erika Tart to their leadership roles. 

The GPLN and Ready Ready staff members gathered at Keeley Park in McLeansville for a “Mix N Mingle” event. With the pandemic creating so many virtual meetings, we felt it was important to gather in person at an outdoor event to get to know each other a little better face to face. 
Families enjoyed a catered dinner, played football, explored the community garden, and enjoyed time at the park’s Splashpad. A half-dozen Ready Ready staff members dropped in for the event, which was held from 3:00 - 6:30 p.m. on July 17.
 

Ages 3-5

As Ready Ready continues to launch the next phase of its work, expanding services to families with children ages 3-5, we are focused on the three strategies identified by the design team. The three strategies to be piloted in Guilford County this year are:
  • To increase alignment between early care and education programs and the school system, implement coordination activities, including offering joint professional development between child care center staff and kindergarten teachers and offering transition supports to families (e.g., coaching, virtual school tours, etc.).
  • To improve children’s early literacy skills, implement a county-wide active reading effort. We anticipate selecting evidence-based interventions to implement across settings (public libraries, home-based care, child care centers, etc.) that will encourage adults to read frequently with children, focusing on families reading with children more at home.
  • To improve adults’ and children’s social-emotional development, implement and expand evidence-based interventions targeting children ages 3-5. We anticipate training adults serving children in various settings, like educational and medical settings, so that they are better equipped to build children’s skills and competencies.

Welcome new staff member

Photo of Kelli Crawford
Kelli Crawford has spent her career entirely in the non-profit sector with a focus on providing inspiring and impactful educational experiences through volunteerism. Prior to joining the Ready Ready team in 2022, Kelli served as the Director of Impact at Junior Achievement of the Triad. Learn more about Kelli Crawford on our website.

EducationNC: With no action before funds fry up, some child care programs ‘will not be able to survive,’ providers say
“Child care providers are concerned about April 2023, when federal stabilization funds end that they have used primarily to increase teachers’ wages.” Read the full story at EducationNC.

The North Carolina Early Education Coalition (NCEEC) released a statement on the North Carolina budget earlier this month. Calling the budget a “missed opportunity,” the organization drew attention to the end of federal COVID relief funds for child care programs and families and the early childhood workforce crisis. Learn more

If you were unable to attend the NCEEC webinar “Addressing the Workforce Crisis through Stabilization Grants”, you may access materials and recordings here

The EarlyWell Initiative, a joint project of N.C. Child and the N.C. Early Childhood Foundation has released a report on mental health in early childhood. You can download “From Equity to Issue Campaigns: The Next Stop on the Road Map to Childhood Mental Health in North Carolina” here

NPR: Inflation hit a new high last month. Here’s how it’s changing life in the U.S.
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with William Spriggs, economist for the AFL-CIO, about inflation, which hit 9.1% for the twelve months ending in June.

 
 
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Mission


Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) is a collaborative effort to build a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families.
 

Equity Statement


Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) promotes equity, justice, diversity, and inclusion, which are woven through our mission, values, and principles. We stand against racism in all of its forms. Ready Ready will work with our community to address the structural inequities that drive disparate child and family outcomes and work towards an environment where equity, justice, diversity, and inclusion are core values. When we are working to address these structural inequities, Ready Ready will be bold in our actions.

When Guilford County Black and Indigenous children and families of color (BIPOC) feel welcomed, heard, respected, safe, supported, and valued, all of our community and our society benefit.
Copyright © 2022 Ready for School, Ready for Life, All rights reserved.


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