Category: News

Ready Ready gives nearly 1,000 books to High Point pre-K students

By Stephanie Skordas, Director of Communications

In partnership with Book Harvest of Durham, N.C., Ready Ready distributed nearly 1,000 books to children in pre-K classrooms in High Point. “Books on Break is a program designed to have kids choose their books,” said Rachel Stine, Book Harvest’s director of book abundance. “We know that when kids choose their own books, not only do they identify as a reader, they become more intrinsically motivated readers.”

Ready Ready’s Ages3-8 Director Coretta Walker and Literacy Coordinator Megan LeFaivre set up rooms at Children & Families First’s Staley and Macedonia Head Start Centers with attractive groupings of books on tables – like a pool party-themed book fair. Children entered five at a time to choose the five books they wanted to take home in a personalized book bag.

“The books are culturally relevant in terms of the characters, the storylines, and the language,” Walker said. “The pre-K students were able to take home five books that they chose. They had hundreds to pick from – some early reader books, hardback, paperback – whatever they wanted to take home.”

Each child’s book bag had resources for families about kindergarten readiness and tips from The Basics Guilford.

“This is going to encourage literacy between the child and parent and boost what they’ve learned in our center so they don’t lose it over the summer,” said Donnishia Casterlow, assistant director at the Staley Center.

According to Book Harvest’s website, children growing up in homes with at least 20 books get three years more schooling than children from bookless homes, regardless of their parent’s education, occupation, and social-economic standing. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that parents start reading to their children at birth.

“We know that children learn best when they are exposed to books and hear more language spoken,” said Megan LeFaivre, Ready Ready’s literacy coordinator. “Having more books in the home, especially over the summer, will help them get ready for kindergarten.”

Ready for School, Ready for Life staff members graduate from local leadership programs

Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) staff members have graduated from Guilford County leadership programs.

Network Engagement Specialist Felicia Evans and Director of Communications Stephanie Skordas graduated from the Other Voices program on May 1, 2023.

Other Voices Diversity Leadership is the signature diversity, equity, and inclusion program of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. The community-building curriculum brings together individuals from all life experiences to engage in frank and open dialogue to build insight and understanding of the roots of prejudice. The Class of 2023 attended monthly program meetings from September 2022 through April 2023 and is the 30th cohort to graduate from this program.

Family Engagement Manager Yuri Alston graduated from Leadership Greensboro on May 10, 2023.

Leadership Greensboro aims to create a community of leaders committed to inclusivity and collaboration. It is a unique three-part development program that looks to education, volunteer leadership, and alumni engagement to guide participants’ leadership skills over the nine-month curriculum. Each year, a diverse cohort of 45 leaders from public, private, and nonprofit sectors explore essential issues in the community.

Ready for School, Ready for Life receives Leon Levine Foundation support

(Greensboro, N.C., May 12, 2023) – Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) has received a $100,000 grant from The Leon Levine Foundation (TLLF). The grant will provide general support for Ready Ready’s mission to build a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families.

“Ready, Ready is a collaborative, innovative organization that we are thrilled to be in partnership with as they work to drive population-level change for Guilford County families,” said Gillian Small, program officer at The Leon Levine Foundation.

“We are grateful for The Leon Levine Foundation’s renewed grant,” said Ready Ready CEO Charrise Hart. “TLLF’s support has been important to our organization’s growth and implementation of the first phase of our work for children ages 0-3 and their healthy development. Now we are in the second phase, developing strategies for children ages 3-8 to bolster their transition to kindergarten and find success in school by third grade.”

Third-grade success is the number one indicator of high school graduation and future education or workplace goals.

Research shows that 80 percent of a child’s brain grows during their first three years of life, with a million neural connections forming every second. Creating a strong brain foundation in the first 2,000 days of a child’s life — from birth to kindergarten — is critical to emotional, physical, and cognitive well-being.

“Every child deserves a great start in life, but not every child starts from the same place,” Hart said. “Ready Ready wants every child born in Guilford County in 2023 and beyond to have the resources their families need to thrive. This grant from The Leon Levine Foundation will greatly aid our mission.”

About Ready for School, Ready for Life
Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization working to create a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. Learn more at www.GetReadyGuilford.org.

About The Leon Levine Foundation
Established in 1980 by Leon Levine (Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Family Dollar Stores, Inc.), The Leon Levine Foundation supports programs and organizations that improve the human condition through investments in education, healthcare, human services and Jewish values. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the Foundation invests in nonprofits across North Carolina and South Carolina with strong leadership, a track record of success, and a plan for financial sustainability. Through its investments, the Foundation intends to create pathways to self-sufficiency, champion strategies for permanent change, and facilitate opportunities for growth.

Partner Spotlight: Child First – Family Service of the Piedmont

For more than 80 years, Family Service of the Piedmont (FSP) has been empowering individuals and families to resource hope, achieve stability and thrive through quality support services, advocacy, and education.

“It’s better to build a healthy child than repair a broken adult,” said Andrea Huckabee, FSP family support division director. “The work we are doing with Child First is a comprehensive and holistic approach to helping families in our community.”

Since June 2022, FSP has offered Child First in Guilford County. It is an evidence-based program based on scientific research that tells us early trauma and adversity lead to biological changes in young children that damage their brains and metabolic systems – which leads to long-term problems in mental health, learning, and physical health.

“The community has been very supportive of offering preventive services like Child First,” said Huckabee. “When we can offer help to families with young children – birth through age five – we can help the caregivers become healthier parents and break cycles of abuse and neglect or offer actionable steps children need to thrive.”

“Early brain development is a crucial time for good mental health in the family,” said Abrianna Trower, Child First clinical supervisor. “Working with multiple generations, we frequently find young parents with children who are living with their parents. We can work with up to three caregivers, so it may be a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, or an uncle; we can redefine what the definition of a family is and focus on support for the child or children.”

Huckabee and Trower mention that making a connection with the caregivers is critical to the success of Child First. “Since we are in their homes, we can see dynamics in action and practice hands-on solutions,” Trower said. “We can also push into child care centers or the school system to help children with services they need to succeed. So we are preparing them to better function in the school and community.”

Families they work with may also work with other providers like speech therapists, occupational therapists, or nurses. The Child First team can consult with them all to provide wraparound care.

Trower said parents benefit from these services as well, learning how to advocate for their children early in their school careers. “We had a child in our program whose behaviors may have prevented them from attending school. But now they are in school, they are flourishing, and we’re getting ready to discharge them from the program. A graduation of a sort. Successes like this inspire us to keep going.”

Early childhood development through reading aloud

Fowota Mortoo of the N.C. Early Childhood Foundation mentions Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) in her article published on March 29, 2023 in Education NC.  Mortoo states that “reading aloud is one of the best ways to not only promote children’s strengthened brain development but to plant seeds for a lifelong positive association with reading.”

Ready Ready is mentioned in a section about the state’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. You can read the story on Education NC’s website.

 

Partner Spotlight: Child First

Child First helps families build strong, nurturing relationships that heal and protect young children from the devastating impact of trauma and chronic stress. The program uses a two-generation approach, providing mental health services to parents and children through home visits and connecting them with resources, information, and support to make healthy child development possible.

“We use a team approach to help caregivers and their children ages 0-5. The caregiver isn’t always a biological parent, and sometimes it’s multiple caregivers,” said Anita Faulkner, LCMHCS and Family Solutions owner. “In many cases, there are kinship care placements. Many of the children we serve have parents who are incarcerated or may not be available due to substance abuse or other factors, and they have many different housing situations.”

Family Solutions is one of two host agencies in Guilford County for Child First. The other is Family Service of the Piedmont. Each agency has four teams of clinicians and a supervisor, so there are 18 new staff members focused on this issue, according to Faulkner. “Our teams have trained together since we began the program in June 2022. I think it’s an excellent example of community collaboration and how Ready for School, Ready for Life is bringing local organizations together to meet these gaps in services,” Faulkner said.

Science clearly shows that the early childhood years lay the foundation for later economic productivity, responsible citizenship, sound mental health, cognitive development, and physical health. According to the Child First website, high-risk environments of extreme poverty, maternal depression, domestic violence, substance abuse, homelessness, and other factors lead to toxic levels of stress that are harmful to young brains.

Because Child First focuses on two generations, the program begins with a series of assessments for the child and caregiver. “We help them understand their own trauma histories and their own stressors. It gives them insight into what they have been through and helps us set strategies to address behavior issues and deepen the relationships between a child and caregiver,” Faulkner said.

The program has two aims: to decrease the stress the family experiences by connecting them to the resources, support, and information they need and to provide parent-child psychotherapy to repair the impact of trauma on the child and strengthen the caregiving relationship.

“Because we are a home-visiting program, we realize it’s something big to let someone into your home and open up about issues your family faces,” Faulkner said. “We are helping families get to a place where they can make a positive change. Our resource partners help us with housing, furniture, food, clothing, and child care, for example. The resources are always changing, and we work together to ensure families have what they need.”

Partner Spotlight: GuilfordWorks

GuilfordWorks is a public-private organization that helps businesses with various workforce needs, such as locating, screening, selecting, or training workers. In turn, enabling job seekers and employees to gain employment and the skills they need to earn a living wage. Executive Director Dr. Danielle Harrison explains that while the City of Greensboro is technically her employer, the organization offers services throughout Guilford County.

“We offer various services to career seekers and employers,” Harrison said. “Our career centers help connect the workforce with career and educational opportunities, offer career advice and candidate resources, including free resume feedback and makeovers. For employers, we provide talent engagement services, employer training, and incentives for that training. It’s a workforce ecosystem.”

GuilfordWorks recognizes that creating skilled and successful workers starts early. In 2022, the organization launched the NCWorks Emerging Workforce Career Center in downtown Greensboro. “This center is designed for 16- to 24-year-olds,” Harrison said. “We all know that people, especially our younger populations, learn based on experiences. If we expose our young adults to career information and teach them the life skills they need, they will be more successful when they enter the workforce.”

Harrison said COVID-19 impacted these younger workers – due to the isolation, anxieties, and other stresses the pandemic imposed. “We are focused on their social-emotional development and health,” she said.

GuilfordWorks has many community partners, such as Guilford County Schools, Guilford Technical Community College, and the Department of Health and Human Services, to name just a few, to support workers holistically.

“For us to understand the workforce and be impactful, we have to connect the dots,” Harrison said. “Some career seekers may need help with child care, so we can link them with the Department of Social Services to provide vouchers. We can connect them to the United Way of Greater Greensboro’s Family Success Center, which offers job education assistance and child care. We do a lot of barrier elimination work to help people find employment and create their own success.”

GuilfordWorks is a member of Ready Ready’s Continuous Quality Improvement Cohort II. Learn more.

Maximize Love, Manage Stress – Basics Guilford tips from the heart

Ready Ready’s Literacy Coordinator Megan LeFaivre shared science-based tips about the Basic Guilford’s Maximize Love, Manage Stress for Valentine’s Day. She was interviewed on Fox 8 WGHP.

The Basics Guilford are five easy, science-based concepts born at Harvard that any adult can do to boost baby and toddler brain growth. Science shows us that 80 percent of brain growth happens up to age three, so these are critical years. Infants and toddlers thrive when their world seems loving, safe, and predictable. When we as parents or caregivers express love and respond to their needs, children learn they can count on their grownups.

How do we maximize love and manage stress for babies?
· Showing and responding to love helps children learn to manage their feelings and behavior.
· For infants, it’s as simple as holding them. Hold, kiss, and cuddle your infant – there is no worry about spoiling them or holding back on sharing your love.
· Respond to them: Your infant depends on you to meet their needs. Watch and listen for clues about how they feel and what they need, and respond to what you notice. It helps them learn that you care.
· For toddlers – cuddle them! Hugging and cuddling your toddler helps them feel safe and loved – boys need just as much love as girls do.
· Talk about feelings – teaching your toddler to name their feelings can help them understand and express their emotions. You can say things like “It looks like you’re scared because you fell. Falling can be scary! But now you’re OK” Naming the emotions is important. These are just a few of the tips we offer through the Basics Guilford.

We’ve talked about maximizing love – what about managing stress? Why is that important?
· We all face stress. It’s normal. But too much stress is bad for a baby or toddler’s developing brain and has a lifelong impact.
· Some things that cause stress for infants are loud noises, adults who seem angry or upset, or adults who don’t respond to their needs.
· It’s important to have strategies for coping when your life gets stressful – talk to friends, family, or your doctor about ways to deal with stress.
· If you can think about situations that tend to be stressful, you can plan ahead of time for how to improve or avoid them. For example, try to avoid trips to the store right before your child’s nap time.
· Go easy on yourself – life can feel overwhelming, and we all make mistakes. Focus on the big picture and ask for help. All parents need help.

You can learn more about The Basics Guilford including how to receive weekly emails or no-cost twice weekly text messages by clicking on the image below or scanning the QR code with your smartphone.

Ready for School, Ready for Life receives Pritzker Children’s Initiative Grant

(Greensboro, N.C., January 27, 2023) – Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) has received a $50,000 grant from Pritzker Children’s Initiative. The grant will create a plan to share Ready Ready’s core approaches, strategies, and lessons learned with other North Carolina communities and states developing a comprehensive prenatal-to-three system.

“While Ready Ready is building a system of care for young children and their families in Guilford County, we have always planned to share our unique work and impact across North Carolina. It’s a population-level change movement that started in Guilford County but won’t end here,” Ready Ready CEO Charrise Hart said. “We are so grateful that Pritzker Children’s Initiative will enable more communities to create a comprehensive and high-quality prenatal-to-three system.”

Research shows that 80 percent of a child’s brain grows during their first three years of life, with a million neural connections forming every second. Creating a strong brain foundation in the first 2,000 days of a child’s life — from birth to kindergarten — is critical to emotional, physical, and cognitive well-being.

“Every child deserves a great start in life, but not every child starts from the same place,” Hart said. “Ready Ready wants every child born in Guilford County 2023 and beyond to have the resources their families need to thrive.”

By partnering with families through the critical early stages of childhood, Ready Ready and its community partners seek to understand and address the systemic challenges that impact families in our community, supporting young children’s early cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development.

These resources supplement the care provided by medical practitioners, address gaps in healthy childhood environments, and add support beyond the love and attention of primary caregivers.

Media contact: Director of Communications Stephanie Skordas — stephanies@getreadyguilford.org