Month: May 2021

The Basics Enhance Tot Spot at Greensboro Children’s Museum

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications

The Greensboro Children’s Museum re-opened on May 29, 2021, after months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the museum was closed, several exhibits were added or updated, including Tot Spot, an area specially designed for infants and toddlers.

The new Tot Spot features The Basics Guilford, five fun, science-based parenting and caregiving concepts that anyone can do. Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) is pleased to present The Basics. They are:

  • Maximize Love, Manage Stress
  • Talk, Sing, and Point
  • Count, Group, and Compare
  • Explore through Movement and Play
  • Read and Discuss Stories

Each one of The Basics is explained in Tot Spot, with a QR code parents can scan with their mobile devices. The code opens up The Basics Guilford website where parents can watch videos and learn more quick and easy tips to explore the tips. 

Ready Ready staff members were on hand for the Kickoff to Summer reopening event at the museum on May 29, 2021 to share The Basics Guilford materials and explain how they work to parents and caregivers.

Learn more about The Basics at www.guilfordbasics.org.

Community Survey launched

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications

Working with our partners at UNC-Greensboro, Ready Ready is developing a community survey to gather information on how best to prepare children for school. The survey will run May 10-31, 2021.

The survey groups follow targets established during the focus group campaign: parents/caregivers of children ages 3-5, parents/caregivers of kindergarteners, early childhood educators, community members, and early childhood service providers. 

Additionally, the UNCG team is gathering relevant early childhood data such as birth rate statistics, education data, kindergarten entry assessment, and more to inform strategy development of the Ages 3-5 design work. The Community Survey information will be added to this dataset.

Survey results are expected this summer.

Read our 2020 Impact Report

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications

We are pleased to share our organization’s first annual report. Our 2020 Impact Report shares information about Ready for School, Ready for Life and the work accomplished with proven programs and our community partners.

For example:

  • 15,000 Guilford County children were served in 2020 through well-child visits at pediatricians and virtual home visits.
  • We participated in 405 hours of parent-led leadership through training sessions, workshops, and monthly meetings with our Guilford Parent Leader Network.
  • Through our Continuous Quality Improvement process, 100 percent of programs in Cohort 1 improved in four or more quality areas.

An electronic version of our 2020 Impact Report is available for viewing here.

Parent leadership training

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications

Seven parent leaders in the Guilford Parent Leader Network have attended the Spiral of Transformative Change Equity Webinar Series. This education series is similar to the training Ready Ready staff and board members received through the Equity Strategies Committee. Parent leaders having access to the foundational information that guides Ready Ready equity work is key to living our value of being equity-driven.

Additionally, three leaders from the Guilford Parent Leader Network have completed training in the Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) Phase 2. They will use their training to train their fellow GPLN members in community outreach and action. COFI Phase 2 teaches teams to reach out and build partnerships with parents and other community residents, community associations and organizations, businesses, schools, and other institutions. GPLN members completed COFI Phase 1 training in Fall 2020, and a second COFI Phase 1 training is in the works for this summer.

Worthy Wages for Worthy Work

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications

Ready for School, Ready for Life and our partners believe that 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.

See what these early child care teachers and administrators are experiencing daily. We collaborated with EQuIPD to create this video focused on Guilford County’s early child care teachers.

Take action! Tell your legislators to improve pay and benefits for early educators. Find your representative at www.ncleg.gov. 

Learn more! Read this blog post from the North Carolina Early Education Coalition.

Partner Spotlight: EQuIPD

When the organization that became Ready for School, Ready for Life was a grassroots effort in Guilford County, we were glad to have partners like EQuIPD by our side, even as EQuIPD was starting its important work.

EQuIPD’s mission is to nurture and empower early care and education professionals with sustainability and success tools.

“We’re small but mighty,” said Ashley Allen, EQuIPD’s work environment and compensation coordinator. “We come at the issues from many perspectives and offer coaching, mentoring, and professional development.”

EQuIPD holds community learning events for early childhood educators. At the events, educators learn information they can use immediately. “What makes us unique is that we offer follow-up events where educators can discuss challenges and successes. We connect people to support peer to peer growth and build communities of practice through the process.”

Allen says EQuIPD began in 2014 with support from UNC-Greensboro through its Department of Human Development and Family Studies and The Guilford County Partnership for Children. “So many pieces of what we do really fit with Ready Ready’s strategic plan,” Allen said. “It’s a natural collaboration since we both bring different strengths to the table.“

EQuIPD is committed to lifting early care and education professionals’ voices and experiences to inform and inspire systems change. Current policy efforts include early child care wage increases. “We expect early childhood educators to get degrees and build curriculum but don’t support them with liveable wages or even enough planning time or resources. And during the pandemic, we see even more stress on the system since they are essential workers.”

According to its website, EQuIPD staff members are champions for equity, diversity, and inclusion through personal and professional practice, provisions of services, and engagement with stakeholders and the community.

“We have knowledgeable, talented, passionate educators preparing the next generation of our workforce,” Allen said. “The work EQuIPD and Ready Ready are doing to support them and system-level change will make a difference for Guilford County and North Carolina.”