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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.”

Partner Spotlight: North Carolina Early Education Coalition

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications

The North Carolina Early Education Coalition (NCEEC) works to ensure that all children have access to high-quality early care and learning experiences. Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) has partnered with the Coalition on the Think Babies NC Alliance. Together we are focused on N.C.’s youngest children – prenatal to age three. As part of the Leadership Team, Ready Ready joins other public and private early childhood organizations on this statewide initiative.

“Ready Ready’s involvement on our leadership team is a testament to how focused the organization has been on infants and toddlers from the beginning,” said Coalition’s Senior Campaign Director Michele Rivest. “At the Coalition, we’ve always supported a whole child development approach, and infusing that model into other ways of thinking helps us lift up babies and families at the same time as we focus on early childhood.”

Rivest said the increased focus on infants and toddlers, especially in North Carolina, has positively affected partnerships and networks and allowed the Alliance to examine its work and progress through an equity lens.

Formed in 1990, the Coalition is a statewide advocacy group with membership including statewide organizations, regional and local child care agencies, child care providers, and individuals committed to improving the quality of child care and early education in North Carolina. Rivest’s work is focused on policy for the Coalition and Think Babies NC, leading the lobbying team and developing relationships with policymakers.

“I work with our partners and allies to support young children’s healthy development and early learning, particularly from a policy perspective,” said Rivest. “We look at state law, state budget, rules, and regulations, as well as a national policy to advance and support young children and families in North Carolina.”

As with many systems in North Carolina and other states, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the foundational weakness in our child care system, Rivest said. “Parents have primarily financed child care by paying the costs, which is extremely expensive – approximately $10,000 a year. That’s more than a year’s tuition at a public university in North Carolina. That’s beyond the reach of so many families. Then with COVID, families stopped being able to go to work and use child care.”

As research has shown, early learning experiences have a lifelong impact. A stable, secure relationship with a caring adult is a critical factor in young children’s development.

“The key to whether we have a stable and successful early childhood system depends on the early childhood workforce,” Rivest said. “Young children having these supportive environments, building relationships with teachers who are building relationships with their families is sort of a surround-sound approach to getting young children off to a good and healthy start.”

According to the Coalition, many children and families don’t have the resources or opportunities to meet these needs, particularly families of color or families with low incomes. These challenges and risk factors expose babies to stress and trauma that negatively impact their healthy development.

“The opportunity we see from COVID in North Carolina and nationally is that state policymakers are saying child care is essential,” Rivest said. “Despite these devastating circumstances, we are in a position to push for really robust high-quality early care and education. Issues like paid family leave are gaining traction in North Carolina and around the country.”

Describing herself as an “eternal optimist,” Rivest commends the collaborative team approach of state and local organizations as part of the NC Early Education Coalition. “We all come to this work from different roles in the field of early childhood education. But we’re all committed to making sure young children and families get off to a healthy start,“ she said. “We’re starting to see these supports for families and infants and toddlers across North Carolina that give me a lot of hope about how we’re going in the right direction.”

With assistance from the Cemala Foundation, North Carolina A&T State University is focused on literacy for young children in Guilford County. Project LLIFE aims to increase skills and performance in language and literacy for children between the ages of 1-4.

LLIFE stands for Language and Literacy Impacting Families and Educators.

“Our program is focused on children in culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in southeast Greensboro, and our overall goal is to try to close the gap for children of color around language and literacy when they enter kindergarten,” said Dr. Valerie Jarvis McMillan, associate professor of child development early education and family studies at N.C. A&T State University.

She is the principal investigator (PI), working with co-PIs N.C. A&T professors Dr. Deana Lacy McQuitty, associate professor in speech language pathology, Dr. Jeff Drayton Wolfgang, assistant professor in counseling, and Dr. Sharita Williams-Crossen, adjunct faculty in speech language pathology and Project LLIFE Coordinator.

The project encompasses three disciplines: child development, speech language pathology, and counseling. Researchers in each of those areas, along with graduate and undergraduate students from N.C. A&T, have worked to collect data from child care centers, educators, and families from southeast Greensboro.

The goals and objectives include:

• Enhancing language and literacy development of children from diverse populations in southeast Greensboro
• Supporting culturally responsive practices of educators and families in promoting literacy development
• Training students to become facilitators for language and literacy development and learning in children with diverse backgrounds

Working with Ready Ready
Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) has partnered with Project LLIFE in active reading training sessions in late 2020. Due to the pandemic, these training sessions switched from in-person to online, as did much of Project LLIFE’s work.

“Working with Ready Ready, we had two very intense active reading training sessions virtually,” Dr. McMillan said. “Our students practiced the active reading approach, and it allowed them to develop labels and terminology for these strategies. They will use this training with the families during collaborative learning sessions with families in February and March.”

“Working with Project LLIFE and N.C. A&T students was so rewarding,” said Heather Adams, Ready Ready’s director of engagement and literacy initiatives. “We’re excited for them to take these strategies into the community.”

During the collaborative learning sessions, student instructional facilitators will enter into a coaching relationship with families and children who are part of Project LLIFE. The active reading strategies will help parents and children discuss what they’re reading by asking open-ended questions, for example.

“It’s about using a daily routine with children centered around reading books,” Dr. McMillan explained. “We want to engage children in conversations around a book they’re reading, getting them to discuss content and characters in the book, and ask questions to gather their understanding of content and how it may relate to activities or experiences in their life.”