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This Early Childhood-LINC newsletter connects communities across the country as they build and strengthen systems to help children and families thrive. Click the box below and enter your email address in the Stay Informed box to sign up.
We encourage you to share LINC-UP with others. Please send feedback or suggestions for "Community News" to:
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Welcome Los Angeles County!
We are happy to announce that Los Angeles County has joined the Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities, with leadership from First 5 LA.
First 5 LA serves children and families throughout LA County, with a particular focus on four outcome areas: Families, Communities, Health and Early Childhood Education. First 5 LA leads Best Start, an innovative, place-based approach to strengthen families in 14 communities, and has been working with the EC-LINC network as one of the five communities currently engaged in the implementation and refinement of Project DULCE.
We look forward to working more closely with First 5 LA in the future, and invite you to check out LA's official EC-LINC community profile.
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"Telling the Story" about the Impact of Early Childhood Systems
EC-LINC members are engaged in ongoing discussions about how to document and measure the impact of aligning and coordinating services and building the infrastructure of an early childhood system. A report is now available from an EC-LINC Learning Lab that brought six communities together around the broad topic of Measuring the Impact of Early Childhood Systems. Stay tuned for additional products as this work continues, with a focus on the child, family and community outcomes and indicators that can be tracked to document that impact, as well as how to measure whether the system itself is performing as it should.
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The Status of Denver's Children
Lisa Piscopo, Ph.D., the lead author and Director of Research and Analysis at the Mayor's Office of Children's Affairs, presented the report, which covers demographics, population size and the current state of the health, education and family economics of children in Denver. Jenna Bannon, Manager of Early Childhood Systems-Building at Denver's Early Childhood Council, explains that the lunch and learn is "a more personal way to engage partners, share with them some of our work and highlight the amazing things happening for young children across the City."
Bannon added that "This report pairs Census Survey data with GIS mapping to visually capture the demographic patterns of strengths and disparities that exist for children and families, ranging from access to quality early care and education, to domestic and community violence patterns. We use this report to inform our work every day, including data to guide our funding requests, policy work and systems building activities. It is incredibly impactful to see on a map the inequity of opportunity, simply based on what neighborhood you are born in."
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Lamoille Family Center Sends Vermont Kids to Camp
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Lamoille Family Center raised $11,000 to send children in its service area to summer camps. With the help of its board, friends and supporters, the Center provided 40 "camperships" to kids whose families otherwise couldn't afford the expense.
The Center asked area schools and organizations to participate in the campaign by referring children whose families could not afford the cost of camp, and built partnerships with nine referring community agencies and schools. Recipients attended traditional overnight and day camps and participated in special interest programs including arts, drama, basketball and dirt biking.
Scott Johnson said, "When camp costs are prohibitive for families, the kids experience another level of exclusion. In one case, a family was eligible for child care subsidies at a local center that offers an adventure field trip option for children. The added cost of activities was beyond the family's means. If the kids could not attend, they would have to remain behind and watch their co-campers leave for swimming, hiking and museum visits. We were able to cover the fees to allow kids to participate, have fun and feel included."
Johnson added, "Sending kids to camp allows campers to take managed risks, encourages team building, builds new relationships and promotes resiliency."
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New Book: Innovative Approaches to Supporting Families of Young Children
This new reference text introduces successful strengths-based approaches for aiding families of young children in critical social contexts: family, school, community and policy. The book examines family support approaches across multiple levels of the social ecology. It proposes accessible and relevant constructs that are not traditionally addressed, while also outlining policy and funding strategies to support the well-being of families with young children. Of note, Center for the Study of Social Policy Senior Associate Charlyn Harper Browne, PhD, co-edited the book and authored the first chapter, entitled "The Strengthening Families Approach and Protective Factors Framework™: A Pathway to Healthy Development and Well-Being."
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New Webinar: Engaging the Community Development Sector
Center for the Study of Social Policy and Prevention Institute (PI) are partnering to present a webinar focused on engaging the community development sector to make communities safer and support early childhood development.
- Gain an understanding of the community development sector
- Learn from BHPN's work of supporting local collaboration between health and community development agents across the country
- Discuss how local communities are engaging this sector
- Understand why engaging the community development sector is important for public health and specifically for promoting community safety and positive early childhood development
This webinar is part of a project called Cradle to Community: A Focus on Community Safety, in partnership with PI and PI's UNITY City Network. The Cradle to Community project is meant to explore the intersection of community violence prevention and positive early childhood development and advance a community of practice at that intersection.
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RESOURCES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD SYSTEM-BUILDING:
Advocating for Equity
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The National Equity Atlas
This comprehensive online resource provides real-time data, charts and maps on demographic change, racial and economic inclusion and the potential economic benefits of racial equity. The Atlas also shares policy ideas and examples of how communities are using equity data to drive policy change.
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Understanding Neighborhood Environments
Diversitydatakids.org has developed a comprehensive new data set on neighborhood environments of children organized by race/ethnicity, age and poverty status for 19 socioeconomic, housing and demographic indicators. This data can help advocates address inequities in child outcomes and opportunities.
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EXPLORE MORE RESOURCES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD SYSTEMS
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For system-builders: This article from the Changemakers Initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explores how providing integrated services to low-income pregnant and new mothers can help strengthen parental resilience, healthy child development and neighborhoods.
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For providers: The new State of America's Fathers report provides policy and practice recommendations on what it will take to reach equality in caregiving, to achieve work-life balance for parents in all their diversity and to support nonresident, low-income fathers.
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For parents: This PARENT Acrostic from the National Parent Partnership Council of the National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds is a tool to help guide meaningful conversations about the value of true partnerships with parents. It can be used in groups of parents or professionals, and especially when practitioners and parents are meeting together.
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For researchers: Parenting Matters, a new report from the National Academy of Sciences, identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8, as well as policies, strategies and systems to promote them.
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For policymakers: The National Partnership's Expecting Better report is a comprehensive analysis of state laws and regulations governing paid leave, paid sick days, protections for pregnant workers and other workplace rights for expecting and new parents in the United States.
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For racial equity advocates: A story from the Fresno Bee highlights how Fresno County, California, is addressing high mortality rates for black babies through increased funding of existing programs, funding for new programs and the input and leadership of parents of color.
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Early Childhood-LINC is a learning and innovation network developed by and for communities. Our mission is to support families and improve results for young children in communities across the country with a focus on accelerating the development of effective, integrated, local early childhood systems. We are currently made up of nine member communities across the country. Learn more about the innovative work of our communities.
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