Greetings! 
 
We're writing to share some terrific news--All Our Kin has just been selected to join the Aspen Institute Ascend Network. Read on for more details about the national attention we've been receiving! We have also been profiling several of the participants in our CDA class on our blog, and we hope you'll enjoy reading their stories below. Finally, we have two exciting events coming up, our ninth annual family child care conference and a celebration at our new Bridgeport location.
 
We couldn't do any of this without you, our supporters and friends. Thank you for sustaining our work with providers, families, and children in our community!
 
Warmly,
 
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AScend 

 All Our Kin Invited to Join New

Aspen Institute Ascend Network

 

We're very excited to announce that All Our Kin has been selected to join the Aspen Institute Ascend Network, which draws together innovative organizations from around the country using two-generation approaches to disrupt poverty. Aspen's Ascend Network will encourage leading two-generation organizations to share best practices and work collaboratively to build evidence and explore and advance platforms for scale and state-level policy innovation. All Our Kin is one of fifty-eight organizations initially selected to join the Ascend Network.

 

Two-generation approaches like All Our Kin's are based on the idea that families will have the best chance of moving out of poverty when parents and children are supported together. Since its founding, All Our Kin has worked to combat inequality through a holistic approach to addressing family's needs. Though our organization has grown over the years, we remain true to the mission we stated back in 1999: "To educate and empower parents and teachers, while expanding access to high-quality child-care in low-income neighborhoods." This approach, we believe, has the potential to enable families to move out of poverty-permanently.

 

Earlier this spring, Ascend at the Aspen Institute's "Gateways to Two Generations" report identified All Our Kin's efforts to equip and support early childhood educators as one example of a "promising approach."  

 

We are thrilled that two-generation approaches are gaining traction around the country, and we are honored that we have been chosen to participate in the new Aspen Institute Ascend Network. We look forward to deepening our work with the Aspen Institute and sharing best practices with the other Network members in the years to come.

 

To learn more about the Ascend Network and to see a complete list of Ascend Network members, please visit the Aspen Institute's website.

 

     

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openhouse 
You're invited to an Open House at our 
new home in Bridgeport!
 
We're very excited to announce that All Our Kin has a new location in Bridgeport. Until now, we've been fortunate to work out of the fabulous Burroughs Community Center. Our new office at 1150B State Street is now open to providers and friends, and we hosted our first network meeting at our new site, on preventing summer learning loss, earlier this month.

We're so grateful to all our friends and supporters who have made our expansion to Fairfield county possible. Please join us on May 21st for a light breakfast and open house to celebrate our permanent Bridgeport location! 
 
Please contact Rachel at [email protected] for details. 
 
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harvardAll Our Kin featured by the 
Harvard Center on the Developing Child 

 

We're thrilled to share the news that the Harvard Center on the Developing Child has featured All Our Kin in its "Innovation in Action" series. We're grateful that the Center has chosen to showcase our work, and we hope you'll take a moment to explore their multimedia portrait of All Our Kin

 

 

Return to top.

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cda 

 

Last fall, All Our Kin began training a cohort of licensed family child care providers in our Bridgeport network to obtain the CDA credential. The CDA is a rigorous, year-long course in the fundamentals of child development. Here's what three providers in our CDA class are saying:

 

 
    
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Dionne 
 
"You need to educate yourself to learn more about children," says Dionne. "When the [CDA] class is finished, I'm going to find another class to go to."

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                       Patti

  

"I love [the children in my program] and take care of them as I would my own," says Patti, "[but] I just used to wing it on my own. [The CDA class] opened my eyes." 

 

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Natasha

"In their mind, some parents think their kids just come in and watch TV, [but] over here we teach them so much." 

 

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Want to learn more about Dionne, Patti, or Natasha? Click on their pictures to read their stories!

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 conference
All Our Kin's Ninth Annual Family Child Care Conference

 
We will be holding our ninth annual family child care conference this coming Saturday, May 3, at Gateway Community College. Our conference is a full-day, bilingual event that celebrates the diverse group of providers we serve and offers them unique professional training.

This year's conference theme is "Wonderful: Fostering Wonder, Curiosity and Joy in Young Children," and we will offer a series of workshops that explore children's innate curiosity and joy in learning.
 Over 195 family child care providers from across Connecticut have already registered for the conference, which will help them strengthen their service to children and their communities. 

 

You can learn more about our conference offerings here. And stay tuned--we're looking forward to sharing updates, stories, and photos from the conference!  


 GreatGive
The Great Give 2014 
Looking for a way to support All Our Kin's work with providers, families, and children? We're participating in The Great Give, a 36-hour online-giving event on GiveGreater.org. This May 6-7, your donation to All Our Kin through www.thegreatgive.org will put us in the running to win thousands of dollars! We hope you'll mark your calendars from May 6-7 and help us spread the word.

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All Our Kin receives support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Anonymous, Arbor Brothers, Carolyn Foundation, Citizens Bank Foundation, the Clementina Foundation, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Community Fund for Women and Girls, Connecticut State Office of Early Childhood, the Dalio Foundation, David Slifka, the Eder Family Foundation, Fairfield County Community Foundation's Fund for Women and Girls, the Grossman Family Foundation, Jon Sackler, the Leever Foundation, the Lewis G. Schaeneman, Jr. Foundation, Inc., Lone Pine Foundation, The Miles and G. Elizabeth Lasater Fund, Ms. Foundation for Women, Netter Family Fund, NewAlliance Foundation, the New Haven Early Childhood Council, the New Haven Investment Fund, LLC, New World Foundation, Norwalk Children's Foundation, Oristano Foundation, RGK Foundation, Seedlings Foundation, Seymour L. Lustman Memorial Fund, Stratton Faxon Trial Lawyers LLC, TK Foundation, Trinity Church on the Green, The UIL Holdings Corporation, The United Illuminating Company and Southern Connecticut Gas, United States Department of Health and Human Services, United Way of Greater New Haven, Viking Global Foundation, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, William Graustein, and Yale University, as well as many additional supporters and friends.