September 2021 

Dear Friends of Ready Ready,

With Labor Day weekend approaching, the end of summer is truly here. For some, children going back to school at the end of August is the season’s marker. For others, it’s the sudden appearance of pumpkin spice flavored everything in stores and online even though autumn officially begins on September 22.

September brings religious holidays, Hispanic Heritage Month, National Grandparents Day, and a focus on hunger awareness. Ready Ready partners with several organizations in our community working to end food insecurity. Read this month’s partner spotlight to learn more about one of them, the Greater High Point Food Alliance.

This month’s newsletter also includes our organization’s stance on equity. The creation of this statement was the work of our Equity Strategies Committee of the Board of Directors. They sought the input of many stakeholders, including our parent leaders, staff, equity consultants, and the Board.  We have posted this statement as approved by our Board of Directors on our website. Please read our statement below, and join us in this important system-building work.

Sincerely,
Kelly McKee
Vice President of Operations

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.

Family voices

COFI graduation

Eleven parent leaders have graduated from Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) Phase 2 training. The COFI model makes positive changes in parents’ lives by using their strengths and commitment to their children and their neighborhoods. These Guilford Parent Leader Network (GPLN) members first engaged with the program through COFI Phase 1 last fall.

The COFI model focuses on self, family, community, and policy and systems in the various training levels. Phase 1 focuses on creating supportive parent teams, setting goals, and establishing plans. In Phase 2, the training focuses on creating community-based agendas that start with common concerns parents raise.

“COFI presents a platform for parent leaders to fulfill their desired roles in their respective communities,” said Harrison Spencer, a GPLN member who recently graduated from the COFI Phase 2 training. “In addition, COFI offers key training, resources, services, and compensation for participants and members that may be otherwise overlooked or not offered by other organizations. COFI encourages parents to become involved, engaged, and active leaders.”

COFI uses a “train the trainers” approach to deliver its model to communities like Guilford County. In April, three parent leaders were trained on the Phase 2 model and led the five training sessions for the 11 new graduates over the summer. 

“As a recent social work graduate, one of the primary issues I had with the structure was the top-down and lack of autonomy that were/are rampant in our practice, support, and approaches,” Spencer said. “This is where COFI is unique in its approach and geared towards revealing some insight or new perspectives to others.”

According to its website, the COFI way has trained more than 4,724 parents in 44 communities like Guilford County. “About 50 percent of Phase 1 participants go on to Phase 2 within about six months, according to COFI,” said Heather Adams, Ready Ready’s Director of Engagement and Literacy Initiatives. “In November, we had 15 parent leaders graduate from COFI Phase 1, so 93 percent of our graduates have now gone through Phase 2. These parents will be the change they want to see in their communities.”

Adams says additional COFI Phase 1 sessions are in the works. Families with children involved in Early Head Start and Head Start through Guilford Child Development will be trained this fall. Plans are underway for families with children at Falkener Elementary to be the next cohort, and a High Point-focused series will be held in spring 2022.  “This training creates a powerful space for connection,” she said. 

Spencer says he would recommend COFI to other parents and caregivers in Guilford County. “COFI not only creates a platform for others but a possibility for additional support and friends that could be considered family and commonalities from the group and organizational bonding.”

Join our parent leaders

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 remain 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.

Ready Ready partners with Guilford Parent Academy for early education workshops

• The Basics Guilford: Attendees will take a tour through the Guilford Basics tools and learn how to support brain development growth from birth.
  • September 8, 2021 — noon to 1 p.m.
• Living the Basics: This session provides different ways families can use the Basics, such as in the grocery store, at the laundromat, and even just walking down the street.
  • September 15, 2021 — 6 – 7 p.m.
• The ABCs of Active Reading: Active Reading is a simple tool to make reading fun and interactive for children. The shared reading experience of Active Reading helps children’s minds expand beyond the pages of the books and help them in all academic areas.
  • September 22 — 6 – 7 p.m.

The Basics Guilford: Count, Group, and Compare

Did you know even infants are wired to learn simple math ideas -- small numbers, patterns, and making comparisons? You don’t have to whip out your flashcards or be a math teacher to start preparing your child to solve problems. 

Ariel Everett with Greensboro Day School recently appeared on WFMY-TV to talk about easy ways you can help your youngest children count, group, and compare.

Here are some more tips:

Tips for infants:

• Play music. This is a fun and easy way to expose your child to rhythms and patterns. Lots of children’s songs and nursery rhymes involve counting.

• Less and more. Find opportunities to compare amounts using “less” and “more.” For example, “Do you want more bananas?” and “Now they are all gone.”

• Fill up and dump out. Give your baby a container to scoop and dump water in the bathtub. Use words like “in” and “out” or “full” and “empty.”

Tips for toddlers:

• Put things in order. Your child could arrange dolls or trucks from smallest to largest or heaviest to lightest. See what categories they can come up with.

• Name shapes. Look for shapes around you at home or running errands. “That box of cereal is a rectangle. Do you see any other rectangles?”

• Puzzle time. Expose your child to shape sorters or simple puzzles. Let them take the lead and problem solve.

Would you like to be trained in The Basics?

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.

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Learning more about contributions made by different groups of people helps our society foster mutual respect and admiration for each other. September 15 - October 15 has been celebrated as National Hispanic Heritage Month since 1988, after 20 years as a weeklong celebration. It educates, honors, and celebrates the contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, North Carolina is one of 12 states with a population of one million or more Hispanic residents in 2019.

The Veinte Veinte Latin Festival will be held in Baber Park Amphitheater in Greensboro from noon until 7 p.m. on September 18.  This free family event will include live entertainment, dancing, food, and merchandise vendors.

Here are some other ways to celebrate:

• PBS offers a list of 11 picture books celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

• Share music. Chose age-appropriate music or music by key figures in Spanish music such as Juan Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt, José Alfredo Jiménez, Carlos Vives, Celia Cruz, and Gloria Estefan.

How about arts and crafts? Momtastic offers 31 crafts for Hispanic Heritage Month that range from paper fiesta flowers to picado flags to wave.

Partner Spotlight: Greater High Point Food Alliance

The Greater High Point Food Alliance (GHPFA) is a grassroots organization formed to address food insecurity. When it started in 2014, the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was number two in the nation in food hardship. The following year, it moved to number one. Since that time, it has moved to number 14, according to GHPFA’s website.

“We take a collaborative approach and work with four neighborhoods. We asked them how they would solve food insecurity, and then we work alongside them to help them achieve those goals,” said Carl Vierling, the organization’s executive director. “We work behind the scenes at a higher level to connect resources to each of the groups we work with.”

The High Point neighborhoods working with GHPFA are Burns Hill, Washington Street, Highland Mills, and West End. Representatives from each area are board members, along with a wide variety of community leaders. Recently, the organization held a “Walk to the Store” to demonstrate what it would take for a person in the Highland Mills neighborhood without transportation to walk to the closest store, the Walmart on South Main Street. The route has no sidewalks and crosses Business 85.

“Many of the people that we work with are one car repair bill away from walking,” Vierling explained. “When you have to walk to the store, you have a limit on how much food you can carry, so that means multiple trips each week.”

GHPFA built an app with information about food pantries, backpack programs, community gardens, hot meals, and feeding sites at Guilford County Schools. “The app is location-based, so it will not only show you the food pantry closest to you, but the hours that it is open, and what requirements might be needed,” Vierling said. “We also have emergency assistance, financial assistance, and shelters as resources on the app.”

According to Feeding America, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, food insecurity in the United States was at its lowest rate in more than 20 years. When it measured food insecurity in Guilford County, the overall rate was 13.1 percent in 2019. As a result of the pandemic, the organization projects that number has risen to 15.1 percent in 2021.

Learn more about which benefits Vierling sees as helpful for High Point families and how GHPFA and Ready Ready work together in the full story on our website.

We've updated our website

Join the conversation