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Dear Friends of Ready Ready,
 Last June, widespread protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd swept the nation and Guilford County. We were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many could not stay home in the face of inequality and racism and took to the streets to make their voices heard.
It made a difference.
A June 2020 Gallup poll showed that 58 percent of Americans felt that policing needs a significant change.
According to Gallup, a year later, Americans continue to be more focused on race-related issues than before the protests. In 2021, 10 percent of U.S. adults mentioned race relations, racial justice, or racism as the most critical problems our country faces. That’s up from 4 percent in 2020. Ten percent may not seem like a high figure, but it’s twice the average the poll has tracked for the last two decades.
 The Greensboro History Museum’s Pieces of Now exhibit is a good reminder of the kind of expression that burst forward last summer and continues today. You can see the exhibit either in-person or virtually. It features street art, objects, photos, and video interviews with artists and organizers from last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. The exhibit also invites you to share your experiences, and it is still collecting the impact from last summer on our lives.
It’s fitting to take this time to reflect on equity and inclusion in June.
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This year, for the first time, City of Greensboro employees will receive a paid holiday on Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates the June 19 liberation of the last slaves in 1865 in Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had abolished slavery.
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Additionally, June 12 is Loving Day, which observes the 54th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage in the United States. In addition to its landmark status for interracial marriage, Loving vs. Virginia was also invoked in many same-sex marriage cases.
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This brings us to Pride Month. Also born out of protests after the 1969 Stonewall Riots, gay pride parades have been a fixture in many U.S. cities beginning in the 1970s. President Bill Clinton issued the first-ever proclamation on June 11, 1999, declaring June to be Gay and Lesbian Pride month, according to History.com.
One year ago, the Ready Ready team issued a statement reaffirming the foundation of equity that informs our early childhood system-building work. Since the statement, we have implemented equity training for our staff and board members and widely shared our values and principles, including equity and inclusion.
In this edition of our newsletter, we are excited to present a new section called Family Voices that features Guilford Parent Leader Network members. We are grateful for the support they bring to Ready Ready, and we are also grateful to you for your interest and action.
Charrise Hart
CEO
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The Guilford Parent Leader Network (GPLN) is an integral part of the decision-making structure at Ready Ready. Families who participate are valued consultants, partners, and change agents who work on priorities important to families in Guilford County.
We have asked GPLN members to share their voices in our monthly newsletters. For our first Family Voices segment, we asked them two questions: What do you look forward to this summer? What barriers do you face in the summer?
For example, April Butler, whose children are 12, 10, and 6, looks forward to summer family vacation but faces obstacles when it comes to summer camp costs.
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Ready Ready and GPLN members also work to connect families to resources in the area. In between monthly meetings, Ready Ready staff stay in touch via emails with resources, and members stay in contact via group chat to support each other, discuss issues they face, or share tips.
Would you like to be part of the GPLN? Meetings are held on the third Monday of the month from 7-8:30 p.m. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these meetings are being held via Zoom. When meetings resume in person, child care is provided to alleviate barriers to participation.
For more information, please contact Heather Adams, Director of Engagement and Literacy Initiatives, at (336) 579-2977 ext. 2004 or heathera@getreadyguilford.org.
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Whether you have school-age children or younger, summer is a wonderful time to read books together. According to Scholastic, research has proven that summer reading supports skill gains in a typical year, and when children don’t keep up their reading skills over the summer, gaps can widen in that time.
Here are some great local and national resources:
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Now: Greensboro Public Library Summer Reading
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June 5 - August 22: Guilford County Schools (GCS) Summer Reading Challenge. Students who read (or are read to) at least 900 minutes this summer will earn a ticket to one of two Kersey Valley attractions. Free e-books are also available through each school. The website includes flyers in English and Spanish, reading logs, and more information.
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June 7: The High Point Public Library begins its Summer Reading Program. Parents and caregivers are also encouraged to read 1,000 books with their children before they enter kindergarten. (You’ve got five years for this challenge!)
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Barnes & Noble offers a Summer Reading Journal you can print at home and fill out. Children in grades 1-6 can earn a free book by participating. You can usually pick up the forms in the stores as well. Redeem books between July 1 and August 31.
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Through September 3, Scholastic Summer Reading Program offers an online program through Home Base where children can read books and stories, attend online author events, and interact with their favorite characters.
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The Basics Guilford: Explore through Movement and Play
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With summer just around the corner, the great outdoors is tempting us to be more active. Movement and play are good for children’s coordination, strength, and overall health. These activities are easy to do whether you’re inside or out. This month’s Basic is Explore through Movement and Play.
Tips for infants:
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Let them move around. Let your child explore their surroundings by reaching, rolling, scooting, and crawling. This is good for coordination.
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Practice reaching. Hold a toy over your infant’s head or put one on the floor just beyond their reach. This will encourage your infant to reach and build coordination.
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Play search and find. Put an object under a bucket or blanket and see if your child can find it.
Tips for toddlers:
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Take a walk. Everything is new for young children, so an activity as simple as a walk around the block offers many opportunities for exploration. Stop and examine rocks, bugs, or plants. Talk about what you see.
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Fast and slow dancing. Play a fast song for your child to dance to, then a slow song. Talk about the different speeds and how your child’s dancing changes with the music.
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Use position words In all of these activities, use words like “over, under, near, far, through, around.”
Looking for more ideas? Shelli Scott, Youth Programs Specialist for the City of Greensboro’s Parks and Recreation Department, authored a Triad Moms on Man blog post about Exploring through Movement and Play. It's a great read.
The Basics are five fun, science-based parenting and caregiving concepts that anyone can do. Learn more about them at www.guilfordbasics.org.
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We're excited to share the updated Tot Spot area at the Greensboro Children's Museum with a special focus on The Basics Guilford! Parents and caregivers can use their phones to scan codes that take them to resources for each of the five Basics.
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We can train your team in the Basics!
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As we share information about the Basics across Guilford County, we need your help. We’re offering virtual training on the Basics for teams of three or more at organizations that interact with young children. Each session lasts 30-45 minutes. To schedule a training session or learn more about Ready Ready and the Basics Guilford, please contact Literacy Coordinator Megan LeFaivre at meganl@getreadyguilford.org.
Our goal: train 1,000 Guilford County residents!
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We have been celebrating Father’s Day since 1910, according to History.com, but it didn’t become a nationally recognized celebration until 1972.
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Support for immigrant families
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The Biden Administration has reversed the Trump public charge policy, which affected immigrant families who might seek health and well-being services. For example, enrolling eligible children in programs like Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, or WIC won’t affect immigration applications or the immigration status of family members. No ID or insurance card is required to get the covid vaccine. Pharmacies may ask, but documents are not required, and the vaccine is still free. With the public charge rule ended, families can access many supports with no immigration consequences.
You may know someone in your network who needs to know about these changes. Please encourage your organization, friends, and family to share this information with the downloadable flyers linked below.
Know your rights (English)
Know your rights (Spanish)
Know your rights (Arabic)
Know your rights (Chinese)
Know your rights (Korean)
Know your rights (Vietnamese)
Know your rights (Haitian Creole)
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Worthy Wages for Worthy Work
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Our Values and Principles drive our work at Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready). Among those values, we believe in being equity-driven, responsive to evidence, and collaborative.
The data clearly shows that the early child care teachers are underpaid and undervalued for the important work they do -- educating our youngest children who will grow up to be our future workforce and leaders.
The median pay for child care workers in Guilford and 50 other counties in North Carolina care is between $10-$12 an hour with few benefits. Many child care teachers who love their jobs can’t make ends meet and look for better-paying jobs elsewhere. That staff turnover is tough on child care centers, and the children in these centers experience loss when their teacher leaves.
Eliminating disparities is the central goal of our work. We recognize and celebrate collective action across agencies and organizations in service to young children and families. Through our work, we see up close what early child care teachers and administrators are experiencing daily -- a broken system exacerbated by the pandemic.
Because we wanted you to see it too, we collaborated with EQuIPD to create this video focused on Guilford County early child care teachers. We want you to hear from the teachers themselves and then join us to take action.
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Ready for School, Ready for Life and our partners believe the early child care workforce is underpaid and undervalued for the important work they do. See what these early child care teachers and administrators are experiencing daily.
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Take action! Tell your legislators to improve pay and benefits for early educators. Find your representative at www.ncleg.gov.
Stay informed! Share this newsletter with your network and urge them to subscribe.
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The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) works to achieve a racially, economically, and socially just society in which all children, youth, and families thrive. Through community partners like Ready for School, Ready for Life, CSSP tests and shares lessons learned about innovative, comprehensive local early childhood systems across the country and advances policies that help parents succeed and young children flourish.
These partners are part of the CSSP’s Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network (EC-LINC), which brings together communities across the country with the common goal of improving equitable outcomes for young children and developing a system that helps all young children and their families thrive.
“Ready for School, Ready for Life is one of 14 organizations that participate as learning partners. It’s a learning laboratory where system leaders at the community level learn from each other, share innovations, solve problems, and figure out how to make a stronger early childhood system," said Ngozi Lawal, CSSP’s project director, prenatal-three initiative. Ready Ready joined the EC-LINC in 2018.
In Guilford County, CSSP is helping support Ready Ready to accomplish its prenatal to three agenda. “Guilford County has laid its PN-3 goals really clearly. For instance, the County is working to increase in HealthySteps usage, the pediatric intervention that helps more low-income families get access to parenting education, credible information about child development, and connections to needed resources,” Lawal said. “The foundation of all of this work is advancing racial equity and supporting parent and family engagement.”
“Ready Ready’s approach to universality, the premise that anyone, regardless of who you are, what you look like, what zip code you live in, can receive Navigation support is something that other jurisdictions can learn from because all families can receive support,” Lawal said. “When we take out the notion that only certain families need this support and just look at the humanity of having a baby and how hard that is, making the service available to everyone makes a difference and better supports families.”
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NC Early Childhood/School-Age Workforce Registry
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North Carolina (NC) is one of only nine states that currently does not have an EC/SA workforce registry system. Planning for this registry is very important as it will position the State to bring individual and aggregated real-time data about early childhood and school-age practitioners’ education, credentials, work locations and demographics into one place. An EC/SA Workforce Registry is an information system that:
- Captures real-time data about early childhood and out-of-school time (OST) practitioners in a variety of roles and settings.
- Recognizes and honors professional achievements of the early childhood and school-age workforce.
- Promotes individual professional growth and development.
- Is based on State career-level systems that provide a framework for professional development.
Having one integrated system where all early childhood workforce data can be housed will decrease the burden and frustration that educators and programs face having to input data in different places/systems. Because NC is often recognized as a leader in early childhood, the lack of a statewide integrated workforce registry is a long-standing need. Once complete, not only will the data prove important to the state, but it will allow NC to participate in the national EC/SA workforce data pull that informs federal policy on young children. Please consider taking this survey and sharing your thoughts with us as well as share this with other early childhood and school age colleagues. The survey will remain open until June 11th at 5:00 p.m. EST.
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