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Center opens its doors, launches website and announces grant opportunities
The Center for Early Learning Professionals, part of the state's Exceed initiative, is officially open! It's located at 535 Centerville Road in Warwick in the same building as RIAEYC and BrightStars.
The Center will be the home of many of the free courses and training that will be available to early childhood educators in Rhode Island over the next few years. For the convenience of educators, classes will also be held at other locations around the state, including the training rooms at Ready to Learn Providence.
If you're an early-care professional, do visit the Center's new website. This is where you'll find information about upcoming courses, technical assistance and other resources you'll want to know about. The first courses are expected to be posted by the end of the month.
And be sure to check out the information on the state's Quality Improvement Grants. This is a great opportunity for early-childhood programs and providers enrolled in BrightStars with a Quality Improvement Plan. The deadline for the first round of grant applications is March 24, but there will be other opportunities in the next few months. Click here for application materials and dates for next week's overview sessions.
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BCBSRI grant will fund program to stem childhood obesity
 | | (L-r) Leslie Gell, R2LP director; Carolyn Belisle, BCBSRI's managing director of community relations; and R2LP AmeriCorps members Hannah McConnell and Isabel De La Rosa at a BCBSRI reception on March 5. |
With a $75,000 Blue Angel Community Health grant from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, we'll be bringing the popular I Am Moving, I Am Learning (IM/IL) program to 10 child-care centers and more than 30 home-care providers.
The beauty of IM/IL, developed by Head Start to address childhood obesity, is that the movements and nutrition covered in the program can be implemented in any child-care setting and are easy to build into the daily routine.
Collaborating with us in this effort are Children's Friend, the Providence Community Library, 10 center-based child-care programs and three WIC organizations. Our AmeriCorps members assigned to these sites will play a crucial role in executing the program. All have been trained in IM/IL, as have many of the providers.
BCBSRI honored its grantees at a reception on March 5. This year all of its grants focused exclusively on programs impacting childhood obesity.
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