Community Media Center working with Power of We
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December 2006
Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five Vision Statement:
Every Ingham County child ready to succeed in school and life"
AGENDA - Wednesday, December 13, 2006
1:30 Introductions - All
1:35 ECIC updates, KIDS Count - Michelle Nicholson
1:45 Community Needs Assessment – small group discussion follow-up
Review the work of the small groups from last month’s meeting, and share the questions the groups raised. Discuss next steps.
2:15 Power of We Updates – Ken Sperber, Peggy Roberts
A brief report on information from Nov 17th meeting, including, 2-1-1, Compassion Capital Fund, and VISTA volunteers.
2:20 Parent Liaisons Updates
2:25 Advisory Sub-Groups – Updates
Great Parents Great
Start, Early On, Jump Start
2:25 Workgroups - Updates (see written reports)
Literacy Coalition Beany Tomber
Public Awareness Mary Clark
Safe Sleep/Infant Mortality Lisa Chambers
Quality Initiatives Michelle Nicholson
Kindergarten Transition Bev Phillips/Lucy McClintic
Parent Education Michelle Nicholson
Operations Committee
Michelle Nicholson
2:45 Agency Spotlight: Safe Sleep – Lori Brasic
PowerPoint presentation and Keeping Infants Sleeping Safely (KISS) Toolkits. Safe Sleep Coalition members will also be available to answer questions.
3:20 Updates – All
3:30 Meeting ends
Next
Meeting will be January 10, 2007, 1:30-3:30 at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 549 E. Mt. Hope in
Lansing (1 block East of Cedar). Child
Care will be available by Reservation Only - Call 371-1347.
Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five
MEETING MINUTES - Wednesday December 13, 2006
Members Present: Mary Adkins - Tomorrows Child, Lori Brasic - OYC, Carol Buzzitta - Expectant Parent Organization, Lisa Chambers - Jump Start, Mary Clark - CAYA, Maureen Dillon - Sparrow Hospital, Kimberly Fiero - ICHD PHN, Rona Harris - Parent, Sergio Keck - Lansing School District, Lucy McClintic - CACS Head Start, Bishop Maxwell - Lansing Mayor’s Office of Community and Faith-based Initiatives, Kristy Moeller - Oak Park YMCA, Thomas Mumby - Lansing School District, Michelle Nicholson - IISD, Wendy Nowicke - Parent, Kristin Patnos - Tomorrows Child, Stephanie Peters - IISD, Bev Phillips - Lansing School District, Yvonne Phillips - Lansing Mayor’s Office of Community and Faith-based Initiatives, Sharlina Pye-Mack - Parent, Holly Roderick - Ingham DHS, Marcia Rysztak - LCC, Mindy Smith - OYC, Ken Sperber - Community Rep, Beany Tomber - MSU/WKAR, Diane Weinberger - CEI/CMH
Michelle Nicholson chaired the meeting. It was announced that Mary Clark has resigned as Executive Director of CAYA, and has begun working as staff for State Representative elect Joan Bauer, 68th District (Lansing). The Ingham Great Start Collaborative offered Mary congratulations, and members expressed that they look forward to continuing to work with Mary in her new position.
During introductions the Collaborative met Yvonne Phillips our new contractor working with the Lansing Mayor’s Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives. Yvonne will be working half her time as a liaison for the Great Start Collaborative on Birth to Five issues.
ECIC Updates, Kids Count
Michelle recapped that we submitted the revised GSC budget and workplan at the end of September to the ECIC and have finally received approval. The ECIC is still maintaining that there are some issues with the quarterly Statement of Expenditure Report submitted for July- Sept 2006. Michelle is working to resolve those issues.
Michelle is still receiving weekly updates and changes to the ECIC Community Needs Assessment data from ECIC. Although Ken, Lori, and Michelle are reviewing the data as it arrives, we are waiting to do any additional analysis on the new data until it all arrives and is in the final form.
The Ingham GSC helped organize a successful press conference on Dec 12th to announce the release of Kids Count Data Book 2006. At the press conference speakers from Kids Count, Michigan League for Human Services, Ingham County Health Dept, and Ingham DHS spoke about the picture the Kids Count data portrayed about Ingham County. The link to the Ingham County statistics in the Kids Count Data Book 2006 is: http://www.milhs.org/Media/EDocs/InghamKCBk06REV2.pdf . In addition at the press Conference, John Melcher representing the Power of We, spoke and focused the media attention on the many community collaboratives that have been initiated to address these issues (including the Ingham Great Start Collaborative and each of the Birth to Five workgroups).
Community Needs Assessment
The Operations Committee suggested that the Collaborative take time at the November Birth to Five meeting to break into small groups and discuss the Data Reports in six areas: Physical Health, Community Conditions, Social Emotional Health, Parent Education & Family Support, Early Care & Education, Basic Needs, Economic Security & Child Safety. Each small group did review the data in the ECIC template collected by OYC and tried to answer a few questions – What does the data tell us? What other questions does the data raise? What else do we need to know?
At the Dec 13th meeting Ken, Lori, and Maureen began the process of sharing back the small group comments and questions to the larger group covering the first two areas (Community Conditions, and Physical Health). GSC members shared additional comments and questions, which will be added to the list. This process of sharing the small group comments for two areas, with the larger group, will continue at the next two GSC meetings.
It was noted that the Community Needs Assessment is an ongoing process, the data and its presentation will be continued to be refined. After the data sets are finalized, the Collaborative will begin prioritizing the information to develop a presentation that can be used to engage the wider community in conversations about early childhood issues.
Power of We - Updates
Ken
Sperber offered a brief report on three items from the Nov 17th
meeting:
1) The call center, 2-1-1 of Mid-Michigan, will become available in February of
2007. This United Way supported
help-line, 211, will
use the In-Touch database of community service agencies, to answer caller
questions and provide agency referrals, 24/7
2) Ingham County will be coordinating the services of 13 VISTA volunteers at agency sites. For more information contact
Peggy Roberts at proberts@ingham.org
3) Ingham County received a 17 month, $500,000 Compassion Capital Fund grant to help community service agencies thru sub/mini grants. The sub/mini grants are for capacity building not services. The specific eligibility criteria are being developed and will be included in the Request for Application packets that will be ready soon. Community and faith-based agencies will be able to apply, for more information contact Melanie Mack at mmack@ingham.org
Parent Liaisons Updates
Sharlina Pye-Mack reported that along with Wendy Nowicke they had collected updated information about the parenting programs listed on the Great Parents Great Start (GPGS) website. From the updates they gathered Ken made the changes on the Ingham GPGS website: http://www.migreatparents.org/coparents.cfm?county=Ingham
Advisory Sub-groups - Updates
Stephanie reported that the State is proposing to change the Early On Developmental Delay category definition from the current “any degree” of developmental delay to “at least 20% delay” for young children 2 months to 36 months of age. This is a significant change in that many children would no longer be eligible under the new definition. The effect may be a reduction in the number of children served by Early On. Stephanie also shared two handouts on state-wide utilization of Early On.
Agency Spotlight: Safe Sleep Coalition
Several members of the local Safe Sleep Coalition shared information about their current initiatives. As background information, Kim Fiero presented slides from Ingham County Death Scene Investigations which graphically indicated the dangers of infants sleeping in unsafe sleep environments (such adult beds, soft mattresses, quilts, pillows, sofas and “killer couches”). Other Safe Sleep Coalition members including Carol Buzzitta, Mary Adkins, and Maureen Dillon outlined the main points for creating a Safe Sleep environment for infants including:
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Babies sleeping alone in a crib or portable crib
- Babies sleeping on a firm mattress with a tightly fitted sheet
- Babies put to sleep on their backs, even when able to roll over
- Babies’ sleep area to be free of loose bedding, pillows, quilts, comforters,
stuffed animals and other soft
things.
- Babies sleeping in a smoke-free environment
- Babies’ faces kept uncovered during sleep for easy breathing
- Babies dressed in as much or as little clothing as adults are wearing, as to
not overheat
Each GSC member present received a copy of the 2006 How to Keep Infants Sleeping Safely (KISS) Toolkit. The Toolkit was developed by the Capital Area Infant Safe Sleep Coalition to provide a practical, usable document that assured consistent Infant Safe Sleep message, materials, strategies and resources. Mary walked GSC members through the three Toolkit sections: Infant Safe Sleep Fact Sheets, Community Audiences, and Resources. Samples of other free Safe Sleep materials were also distributed (noting the brochures are now available in Spanish and Arabic). Those present also received an order form for additional Safe Sleep materials (see attached), and an invitation to contact the Safe Sleep Coalition for help setting up a training or in-services on Safe Sleep (Mary Adkins at Tomorrow’s Child by phone: 517-485-7437 or email: MAdkins@tomorrowschildmi.org ).
Birth to Five Sub-Committee Workgroup Sharing
Written Reports
were made available from each of the Great Start Collaborative Workgroups. The Workgroup Summary Report covers the
workgroup activities during November 2006 (see
attached).
Next Meeting
The next Birth to Five, Ingham GSC meeting will be on Wednesday, January 10th from 1:30pm – 3:30pm at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 549 E. Mt. Hope, Lansing. Childcare will be available on-site with advance reservation before 1/3/2006 at the Family Growth Center 371-1347.
Visit the Birth to Five, Ingham GSC website at www.cacvoices.org/birthtofive for Agendas, Minutes, meeting Calendars and more.
Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five
WorkGroup Summary Report for November 2006
Kindergarten Transition |
Questions/Clarifications/ Comments |
· The committee will continue to look at opportunities for Lansing School District staff to collaborate with the Early Childhood programs in the area of professional development · The Transition Committee will seek feedback from the kindergarten teachers that are currently being used for the fall transition week or the transition summaries that are completed by the early childhood programs. Revisions may need to be made or forms deleted based on teacher feedback. · Suggestion for new committee members from the Y-Care Program and EC-3. Current kindergarten student count for 2006-07 – 1245, less than last year at 1383.
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For more information contact Bev Phillips at 517-755-2810 or |
Literacy Coalition |
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At the Nov. 21 meeting, members evaluated the Literacy Week events using goals established earlier. They were pleased with attendance (450-500), performers, promotion, volunteers/food and format at the Nov. 4 Kick-off. Individual sites were also pleased with their events. A number of suggestions were made to keep the schedule and theme running smoothly. (See minutes for details.) It was agreed to pursue hosting the Kick-off event again on Nov. 3, 2007 at the Library of Michigan.
Members heard a presentation from Michelle Nicholson about the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program. She asked the Coalition to consider supporting and promoting the program since the goals fit well with those of the Coalition. It was agreed to make this a standing agenda item and pursue further.
No meeting in December. Next meeting, Tuesday, January 16, East Lansing Public Library, 8:45-10:30 am.
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For more information contact Beany Tomber at 517-432-3120 Ext 406 or
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Parent Education |
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At the suggestion of the Operations Committee Julie Kepler (CACS Head Start), Barry Kaufman (CEI-CMH) and Ken Sperber set up a meeting to strategize ways to possibly coordinate parent education efforts in the area
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For more information contact Ken Sperber at 517-332-6516 or kensperber@comcast.net
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Public Awareness |
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November 28, 2006 meeting. ECIC logo has been developed “ Great Starts Here”. Business proposals were discussed. In addition, the status of the Faith Based toolkits were discussed at length, Mayor’s Faith Based office has sent out 80 “Compassion Capital Surveys” with 50 returns– [see Minutes on CACVoices website for details]. Information articles were discussed. Topics have been selected through 4.07. Next meeting is 12.19.06 at 2:00 pm.
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For more information contact Mary Clark at 517-319-2121 or
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Quality Initiatives |
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There were 92 participants at the Laying A Foundation of Literacy conference held 10/27/06. They cam from 3 counties and a variety of positions and programs. Evaluations were very positive. SB-CEUs were provided. Members will be reviewing the information on the training page of the Birth to Five website and updating training resources. Information was shared about a MDE grant to develop personal libraries for children birth to 5. It is a competitive application for $25,000 seed money that must be matched dollar for dollar. There was a lot of discussion about the feasibility of writing for the grant and being able to implement a book-a-month program. The group recommended that we not try for the grant, but pursue funders for a long term project. The workgroup meeting time will be changing to 1:30-3:30.
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For more information contact: Michelle Nicholson 517-244-1384 mnichols@inghamisd.org
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Safe Sleep/Infant Mortality |
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The roll-out for the toolkit orientation was discussed. The approach for the Dec 13th Birth to Five Subcommittee meeting will be to focus on the toolkit orientation. The coalition members will be available to answer questions after the meeting. Michelle announced information about the Mayor's Faith-based Initiative. The Coalition agreed that this will be an opportunity to reach more families with the safe sleep message.
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For more information contact Mary Adkins at |
Operations Committee |
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The ECIC has also requested that we arrange for Parent Representative Alternates for Birth to Five. It was suggested that the Lansing Housing Commission might be open to a series of monthly meetings that could feature an “agency spotlight” and family fun and learning activities, rotated among GSC members. This may be pursued at a later date. Members agreed that the small group activities worked well at the last GSC meeting. A follow-up discussion will be planned for the 12/13 meeting, the Safe Sleep Coalition will do a presentation, and we will talk about Kids Count since the kick-off starts on December 12th. The Infant Health Disparities Coalition is invited to present at the Jan 7th meeting and CAPS to the February meeting as the next “Agency Spotlights”. Next meeting is on Dec 20th from 9-11am. 2007 meetings will be on the 1st Thursday of each month from 2:30-4pm, all at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. It was recommended that we accept the Parent Coordinator position proposal submitted by Wendy Nowicke. More follow-up needs to be done with the Business and Faith Initiative proposals. Michelle met with Ken Sperber and they discussed committee work and other responsibilities he could take on as he started to work as staff to the GSC.
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For more information contact: Michelle Nicholson 517-244-1384 mnichols@inghamisd.org
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GSC Website Navigation GSC, Birth to Five homepage GSC Agenda and Minutes GSC Workgroups GSC Training GSC Members GSC Meeting Calendars |