Congratulations Melina Mitchell, the September winner of the Partnership's "WIN A LIBRARY" contest!! Melina will receive a brand new library of books for birth to age 5 readers as well as a set of “Puff the Magic Dragon” bookends.  She is the final winner in our summer contest.  Thank you to all those who participated, and a big congratulations to the lucky winners.

Look for the Durham’s Partnership for Children booth at Fox 50 Family Fest on Saturday, Oct. 1st from 12 noon to 5 pm.  We will be there with games and prizes for children and early childhood resources to share with families. 

Held annually at American Tobacco Campus, the family-friendly festival features the Great American Tobacco Duck Race to benefit local nonprofits.  Along with a Duck Decorating contest, there will be field games, live music, gaming stations, face painting, prizes, a live animal showcase from Noah’s Landing, and a performance by National Jump Rope Champions “The Bouncing Bulldogs.”

The event is free and open to the public.  Click here for directions and parking information.

We hope to see you there!

Representatives Paul Luebke and Larry Hall, among others from our Durham delegation, are hosting a public “speak out” event on Friday, Sept. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the CCB plaza by the “Major” bull statue (or inside at Blue Coffee in case of rain) to discuss the impact of state budget cuts on education.  The Partnership has been invited to speak and is among many leaders from the whole education spectrum, including representation from Durham Tech, Durham Public Schools, and NCCU, that will be present.   
Young children and their families in Durham County rely on a comprehensive continuum of high-quality, early childhood programs and initiatives to be better prepared for success in school and in life.  In fact, the number of children birth to age 5 living in Durham County has increased 35% since 2000. Yet, Smart Start funding for vital services to meet the needs of this growing population has been cut more than 35% since 2000.

Note: Population data from Office of State Budget and Management

Our economy and the success of our children depends on quality education. Read the just released Economic Impact Report from Smart Start here.  Read more about local economic impact here.

From the Partnership’s 2011 Community Report

The job market in almost every corner of the world today is unprecedented. Job creation is slow in an economy that has yet to fully recover. Successful, competitive and highly-motivated students are trekking from across the globe to apply for jobs locally. So, how do we prepare Durham County students to have a fighting chance?

Many of the challenges faced by today’s schoolchildren are avoidable. Failing to invest in our children at an early age is often to blame for leaving children unprepared for entrance into school, experiencing teen pregnancies, dropping out of high school and misusing alcohol and illegal drugs. They are less likely to be healthy, productive adults and more likely to be involved in criminal activity.

In North Carolina, 300 students drop out of school every day resulting in $169 million cost for the state. And, increased delinquency and crime has a high price tag as well. According to the North Carolina Department of Correction, the average annual cost per inmate is just over $27,000.

These negative outcomes not only cost the victims both pain and suffering, but are also a burden on society. Taxpayers share these expenses through paying for larger public health care bills, higher costs to combat crime and delinquency, and an economy destabilized by less-educated workers who are less employable and earn fewer dollars.

It is the mission of Durham’s Partnership for Children to mobilize the community to create and support approaches to serving the needs of children birth to 5 years of age and their families. After 16 years of collaborative work, the organization has begun to broaden its role as an economic developer, helping others to prioritize early childhood education as a business strategy.

Effective early childhood investments with measurable returns include support for pregnant women, child health and early diagnosis and intervention, and high-quality early education and pre-kindergarten programs. According to the PAES study, paying $10,000 today for a child to attend pre-kindergarten could save taxpayers from paying $250,000 later to account for a high-school dropout’s lower earnings and dependence on public assistance programs.

Children who are prepared for success in school through high-quality early education programs are less likely to drop out. Longitudinal studies, such as the FPG Child Development Institute’s More at Four study, show that poor children enrolled in the More at Four Program had significantly higher math and reading EOG scores than similarly poor children who had not attended the More at Four Program.  This program is helping to lessen the achievement gap for disadvantaged children, thereby substantially reducing the effects of poverty on More at Four enrolled children. We know that the cost of poverty is high and the rewards of investing early in vulnerable lives have been proven.

Business leaders look at early childhood work on a grander scale, depending upon the education system to prepare their future workers, their human capital. Good workers are a result of good students. Future graduates will be competing for jobs with students living in other countries. Investment in early childhood can help to ensure that every child is reaching their highest possible potential.
Research indicates that current spending levels of U.S. resources in the early childhood sector are equivalent to 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product. That level of spending is far from adequate, according to the latest studies. Our nation’s youngest children make up over 8 percent of the U.S. population and will – in the near future – make up our entire workforce.

One indication that these investments are insufficient is that so many children are without access to high-quality early learning programs. Two-thirds of all low-income children are served in child care settings that lack the level of quality proven to produce developmental gains. Economic development strategies should include policies that ensure all children, especially those at highest risk of school failure, have access to high-quality early care and education opportunities.

Focusing appropriate levels of resources on children’s needs through evidence-based programs will produce a competitive workforce, improve the nation’s health, advance school and career success and amplify a skilled workforce on a national level. In order to maintain a competitive edge, we’ve got to do more to build upon the foundations of our youngest citizens. Investing today is fundamental for competing in the global economy.

To view the Community Report in full, visit the Partnership's Web site.

According to the most recent statistics (2009) from Action for Children North Carolina, there were more than 124,000 reports of child abuse and neglect in North Carolina last year.  Nearly 2,800 of those were reported in Durham County.  As a component of Durham’s Early Childhood Faith Initiative, Durham’s Partnership for Children invites congregation staff including faith educators, children ministry directors, and volunteers/parents that work with young children in faith-based environments to attend its fall Lunch & Learn Series, which is structured around child abuse prevention.  Two free trainings are scheduled for Tuesday, September 27 and Tuesday, October 11 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm at the Soul Café, Duke Memorial United Methodist Church on West Chapel Hill Street.

Durham’s Early Childhood Faith Initiative is a collaboration between Durham’s Partnership for Children and End Poverty Durham.  The fall Lunch & Learn Series follows a series of learning sessions held in spring of 2011 that allowed faith educators and children/family ministers to gain a greater awareness around ways to reach out to the underserved birth to five population.  The spring Lunch & Learn series focused on topics including early development, positive communications with young children, and welcoming children with autism to faith classrooms. 

The September 27th Lunch & Learn session will focus on “Child Abuse and Congregations.”  Ted Whiteside, MSW, Durham’s Partnership for Children and former Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse Rhode Island, will present an overview on what is child abuse, what are the indicators of possible abuse, and what is the reporting process.  This session will outline the importance of putting policies and systems in place to prevent child abuse in faith environments as well as to focus on adults’ responsibility on reporting suspected abuse.

The following team from congregations will share how prevention programs have been implemented in their faith community: Michelle Old, Child Care Coordinator at Watts Street Baptist Church, Rev. Jessie Larkin, Pastor of Family Life at Mt. Sylvan United Methodist Church, and Rev. Heather Lear, Pastor at Fletcher’s Chapel United Methodist Church. 

The workshop is free and open to the public. Bring your lunch, beverages will be provided.  Please RSVP to Winnie Morgan at (919) 732-1524 or winniewmorgan@juno.com.  Stay tuned for more information on the October 11th Lunch & Learn session.

Some helpful resources and links:

Prevent Child Abuse:  http://www.preventchildabuse.org/index.shtml
Childhelp USA: http://www.childhelpusa.org/
The American Humane Association: http://www.americanhumane.org
Prevent Abuse Now: http://prevent-abuse-now.com/

In America, one in four public school children drop out before they finish high school. That’s 7,000 students every school day.  As a state, North Carolina ranks 25th in the nation for rate of graduation.  According to the Department of Public Instruction’s 4-Year Cohort Graduation Rate report, 73.9 percent of Durham Public Schools students graduated in the 10-11 school year.

American’s Promise Alliance created the Grad Nation campaign in 2010 to help end the dropout crisis.  The goal of the campaign is to achieve a 90 percent graduation rate nationwide by 2020, with no school graduating less than 80 percent of its students. 

From a 2010 report by the Alliance for Excellent Education that outlines the economic benefits from lowering dropout rates across the country, an analysis of Charlotte, NC (the only NC city in the report) concluded that moving even just one student from dropout status to graduate status would make positive contributions to a local economy.  The projected benefits if just 1,000 local dropouts had graduated are outlined below.  These 1,000 new graduates would likely:

• earn $9 million in additional earnings each year;
• spend an additional $1 million each year purchasing vehicles
• buy homes worth $23 million more than what they would likely have spent without a diploma
• support 70 new jobs in the region
• increase the gross regional product by $12 million

In order to gauge progress toward the Grad Nation goal of raising high school graduations rates, America’s Promise Alliance and the U.S. Department of Education will track ten measures that researchers show predict student success.  The first on that list…preschool enrollment.  Other measures include reading test scores, health care access, expanded learning time participation, and successful promotion from ninth grade.

To learn more, visit www.americaspromise.org/gradnation.

While Durham is undeniably home to a number of well-equipped parks, recreation areas, nature trails, and community play areas, many of our preschool and early learning outdoor play areas mirror a nationwide trend in which playground equipment has been stripped down to nothing.  Because of an overenthusiastic movement to remove all risk from playgrounds, we have gone overboard in protecting these play habitats. Such protections have left us with many outdoor play areas that simply do not foster learning and curiosity. 

Beyond the typical checklist required for regulated child care centers (including teacher/student ratio, teacher qualifications, and indoor curriculum), additional attention needs to be placed on the outdoors. Children spend several hours in the day playing outside and some of the most exploratory learning often takes place in the natural outdoor environment.  According to Dr. Karen DeBord, retired professor in early childhood and NC extension specialist, there are five main areas of focus for outdoor learning:

1. The physical outdoor environment – Relates to both the context and layout of the physical environment.
2. Interactions - Negotiation, language development, and cooperation are all skills that develop through diverse opportunities that invite children to explore and ask questions.
3. Play and learning settings – Defined spaces such as an active play area, a storytelling circle, sand and water play, a tricycle path, or a vegetable garden.
4. Program – Curriculum that mirrors effective use of outdoors as a learning space.
5. Teacher/caregiver role – Application of knowledge to create effective outdoor programs and to improve the physical environment based on individual child need.

Fortunately, strides are being made locally.  Marking the culmination of a weeklong Durham Early Head Start (DEHS) training, teachers and professionals attended a workshop focusing on this very topic as they prepare to have the playgrounds at their child care centers transformed into rich outdoor learning environments by NC State’s Natural Learning Initiative.  Early childhood consultant Betsy Thigpen shared plans for new outdoor learning environments to be constructed this fall at four DEHS child care centers.  Thigpen was direct about the need to move children outside and highlighted what is being done at local child care centers to give value to the outdoor experience.

Aside from the well-known benefits of outdoor play – such as obesity prevention, learning from sensory experiences, and enhanced school readiness – bringing the learning environment outdoors for young children encourages development, albeit through sometimes “reasonably risky” situations.  The outdoor play space can ignite a child’s learning and imagination in a way that is difficult to replicate in the classroom.  Transformation of these outdoor playgrounds will have far-reaching benefits for the children served.  Check back in for progress on the project’s planning and construction.  These playgrounds will be unique to Durham and should serve as models in the area. 

DEHS is a collaboration between Durham’s Partnership for Children, Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project and Healthy Families Durham. The free, comprehensive child development and family support program is for low-income families with children aged birth to three years old and to pregnant women.  DEHS serves 120 children and their families in two program options: center-based and home-based.

Congratulations Sharon Fingerhut, the August winner of the Partnership's "WIN A LIBRARY" contest!! Sharon received a brand new library of books for birth to age 5 readers.  We will draw the final contest winner at the end of September!  For contest rules, click here.

Following a hugely successful Lunch & Learn Series in the spring of this year, Durham County’s Early Childhood Faith Initiative has announced the newest session of the series to be offered this fall.

The Faith Initiative is a collaborative initiative between Durham’s Partnership for Children and End Poverty Durham that recognizes the role that the faith community plays in providing support to families and children.  The initiative, through educational opportunities such as Lunch & Learn sessions, helps to shed light on the many possibilities and positive outcomes for children and families. 

Community members, parents, caregivers, and members of congregations are invited to attend the September Lunch & Learn, which will focus on: 1) child abuse, 2) the responsibility of those working with children to report suspected cases, and 3) the challenge of speaking up on this serious issue within the faith community.  Exact dates and times will be coming soon.

» The spring 2011 Lunch & Learn series featured the following topics:
February:  “Early Development: Brain, Language, & Social-Emotional,” Kate Gallagher, Director, Frank Porter Graham‘s Family and Child Care Program

March: “Turning No into a Yes: Positive Communications with Young Challenging Children,” Cindy Riley, Parent Educator, Welcome Baby

May:  “Welcoming Children with Autism to Faith Classrooms,” Anna Berkeley, Inclusion Consultant, Durham Inclusion Support Services

» Click here to read the August newsletter, Congregations and Early Childhood.

For more information on the Faith initiative, contact Faith Coordinator Winnie Morgan at winniewmorgan@juno.com or at 919-732-1524.