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850 W. Sharon Avenue, Suite 6
Houghton, MI 49931
Cathy Benda, Director
906.482.9365
906.482.9353 [fax]
ccgreatstart@gmail.com |
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Director's Update |
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| Director's Report, October 19, 2011 |
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Introduction
Hello, I’m Shelly Smith, the new Director of the Copper Country Great Start Collaborative. I started this position at the beginning of October and so I’m still just getting oriented to the Great Start system and the amazing work that is being done, both by the Collaborative and the Parent Coalition, here in the Copper Country. The former Director, Emilie Krznarich retired effective September 30, 2011. Emilie had been the Director of the Copper Country Great Start Collaborative since its inception about three years ago and she has been instrumental in its growth and success. She will certainly be missed!
During this period of transition I hope to maintain the momentum that exists for current projects and to continue to foster positive working relationships between our community partners and parents as we work toward improving the lives of young children and families in the Copper Country. Over the next several weeks I plan to meet with each of the Collaborative members to introduce myself and to review membership expectations. I’m also looking forward to discussing the importance of early childhood programs at a meeting with our Legislators which is being hosted by the HSCB and is scheduled for early November.
Progress Report and Budget
We just submitted our Year End Report and Budget for fiscal year 2011. The Collaborative has consistently received positive reviews and we are hoping to continue this pattern. The ECIC extended a six month contract for the current fiscal year, meaning that our current scope of work runs from October 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012. ECIC has applied for a Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant. Award notification is due by December 31, 2011.
Meetings
I attended an excellent training in Marquette earlier this month that was offered by the Upper Peninsula Association for Infant Mental Health. The topic was “Neurodevelopmental and Neurobehavioral Impact of Traumatic Stress and Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children”. The training was presented by two doctors from the Children’s Trauma Assessment Center at Western Michigan University.
I also attended meetings for the Superior Child Abuse and Prevention Council and a Regional Director’s Meeting hosted by the U.P. Regional Child Care Resource Center. Additionally, there are two upcoming HSCB meetings that I will be attending as well as an ECIC Advocacy and Communications Training in Escanaba on November 8, 2011.
Technical Assistance
As part of ECIC’s comprehensive orientation program for new Directors, I have been in contact with Lisa Temple who provides Technical Assistance for our area. She and I are planning to meet in person at some point in the next few weeks as an adjunct to the online training and orientation.
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| Director's Report, October 1, 2009 |
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Technical Assistance Meetings
I attended a Technical Assistance meeting in St. Ignace on July 28th. The budget and strategic plans were discussed as well as opportunities for fund development.
Heather and I will be hosting the Technical Assistance meeting here at the ISD on October 15th.
Regional Child Care and Early Education Resource Center Grant
Louisa, Taryn, Heather, and I participated in three planning meetings in August and September for the Upper Peninsula Child Care Regional Resource Center. Gail Juntunen and Lisa Schmierer also assisted with the planning. I was informed yesterday that it appears ECIC will continue to be funded through the DHS budget which means the Regional Resource Centers will retain their funding.
Budget Extension
ECIC has extended our contract through the end of October to allow time to plan for the new budget when it is decided.
Strategic Plan
The Physical and Social Emotional Health Committee and Child Care, Early Education and Parent Support Committee have worked tirelessly during the past six weeks to refine the Action Agenda Goals and Objectives. The draft will be presented within the next week to the ECIC for comments. The final version will be completed by the end of the month.
Communication Committee
The Communication Committee has met twice with an ambitious agenda focusing on name recognition, messaging, and increasing use of the website. We have developed cards which will be placed in a variety of places in the community where we hope to get the attention especially of parents. You will also notice two billboards that will each run through the month of October. We will also place a paid article in the Gazette. Thanks so much to Dave Olsson for his expertise.
Presentations
On Monday evening, September 28th, I presented a program to the League of Women Voters. Although the turnout was small, the group was very enthusiastic. We may have the Portage Library as a new member and interest head of the nursing program at Finlandia was interested in some sort of collaboration. I will be following up on their interest.
I was to present at the U.P. Legislative Conference on Wednesday, unfortunately, I became ill. My portion of the presentation was very capably handled by Kathy Lammi and Lisa Temple.
We will continue to present the Great Start agenda to the community and interested groups.
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| Director's Report, July 23, 2009 |
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Star Power
The first local Star Power event held on May 21st was a huge success. There were over a hundred fifty parents, children, family members and friends in attendance. What an excellent way to show the Copper Country that young children are important. Thanks to all who helped.
Technical Assistance Meetings
Heather, Cathy and I attended the Great Start Conference at Boyne Mountain from June 15th through 17th. The conference focused on team building. Heather and I attended Technical Assistance Meetings on the 15th, and the three of us attended sessions geared to Chairpersons, Parent Liaisons and Directors. We all heard a terrific keynote on “Collaboration: What Does It Really Mean?” presented by Karen Ray. We will be purchasing a copy of her book – The Nimble Collaboration: Fine Tuning Your Collaboration for Lasting Success.
We were also updated on the state budget process. We may not receive our new Work Plan application until September. We must, however, continue to work on this remainder of this year’s plan and be positioned to continue the important work that we have begun this past year. I have sent a number of informational emails regarding the budget. Please don’t hesitate to call me or email me if you have any questions.
Regional Child Care and Early Education Resource Center Grant
On June 21st I traveled to Iron Mountain to assist with the evaluation of the grant application for the Regional Resource Center Grant. Five representatives from U.P. Great Start Collaboratives were present for the meeting. The grant was awarded to 4C’s of the U.P. Members from the Western and Central U.P. Collaboratives will meet three times before the end of September to assist in writing the work plan for the project. I sent an email on the 20th to invite people to be part of this planning. Our team will include Taryn, Heather and me.
Progress Report and Budget
The 2nd trimester Progress Report and budget was submitted at the end of June.
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| Director's Report, May 7, 2009 |
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Committee Updates
The Executive Committee met on April 27th. The group discussed the Wilder and presenting the results at the Collaborative meeting. The Infrastructure Review was also discussed and committee members will send preliminary information to Emilie before the meeting on the 20th of May. We also finalized our agenda for today, and discussed logistics and a date for the Strategic Review. The group was brought up- to-date on Star Power, the Community Presentations, Doctors’ presentation, and fulfilling our obligation for a Diversity Event and Legislative Events.
The Data and Communications Committees have not met since February, but will need to meet in the next month or so.
Technical Assistance Conference Calls and Meetings
A monthly technical assistance conference call was held on March 19th and focused on the Social Emotional Area of the Great Start Strategic Priorities. We have posted a report for parents on our website on Social Emotional Readiness for School. Taryn participated in the call with me. I will continue to share the dates and contents of the calls with you. Members are welcome to participate.
Heather and I attended a TA meeting in Escanaba on the 12th of March. Star Power was discussed, as well as having a conference call from Matt Gillard, the Legislative Liaison for ECIC. He stressed the importance of keeping Early Childhood money in the budget. I attended the April TA as a conference call, as that was the day of the big storm. I sat in on a conference call regarding the RFP for Child Care and the role of GSC Directors. Cathy sat in on a conference call last week regarding use of Title I funds for Early Childhood, the ECIC Strategic Fund, and the State budget.
Community Report Presentations
I have presented the Report to the Community on the Status of Young Children to the following groups: ISD Staff, ISD Board, Elementary Principals, Health Department Staff, Mike Lahti, KFRC and BHK home visitors, HSCB, Portage Health Doctors, MTU Child Care Advisory Board, the Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education, and Community Presentations in each county. I will meet with at least nine more groups in the next month, including the Kiwanis, Rotary, Baraga County Human Services, DHS staff, SKIP group, BHK parent group, Mental Health staff, KBIC parent group, and Infant Toddler staff from BHK in L’Anse. If there are any other groups that would like to meet, please let me know.
Media Events
Heather and I were on “Copper Country Today.” I was also on the “Copper Country Today” program by myself to discuss the Community Report. Ray and I were on “Keep it in the U.P.” with Dick Storm, and Cathy and I were on the “Education Corner” with Kris Schourek. There were two articles in the Gazette and the Sentinel, as well as ads for the community presentations.
We will be running spots on the radio and doing press releases for Star Power. We hope to have some TV coverage
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| Director's Message, April 11, 2009 |
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Our days are getting longer and sunnier and it finally seems as though spring may be around the corner. With spring comes more activity and more energy.
Our Great Start Collaborative will be very busy this spring. The results of our fall and winter data collection and analysis of how Copper Country kids are faring in the five focus areas of our grant have been published in a Report to the Community on the Status of Young Children in the Copper Country. The Report is available on our website, as well as in local Elementary Schools, libraries, and at Portage Health Services.
We are hosting three Community Conversations to discuss the report and solicit public input on what our community and our collaborative should do to help our kids to be healthy, safe and ready to succeed in school and in life. We will also be presenting the report to area agencies, parent groups, and service organizations. If you are unable to make the conversations, please fill out our web survey. We need your opinions.
The Parent Coalition has been meeting and had a table at the Family Fair. Heather Store, our Parent Liaison, shared lots of information with area parents and there were a number of parents who showed interest in the Coalition.
On May 21st at 6:30 p.m., everyone is invited to participate in our first annual Star Power Rally. The Star Power event will be a bridge walk and ice cream social. The walk will begin at the Ramada Inn parking lot in Hancock and proceed across the bridge to the Houghton waterfront park and the Kestner pavilion where ice cream will be served. We’ll have some fun activities for the kids, t-shirts, and other goodies, and a trolley ride back to the parking lot in Hancock. We hope to see you all there.
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| Director's Report, March 5, 2009 |
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Committee Updates
The Executive Committee met on February 12. The group reviewed the Work Plan Progress Report, the six month calendar and the Communication Plan. The First Trimester Progress Report and Budget were submitted last week. Phase 2 of the Strategic Review was discussed and it was agreed that the Wilder Collaborative Factors Inventory be sent out to the group to be completed and returned prior to the May meeting. The meeting schedule for the summer and the next year was discussed and will be submitted for approval at the March GSC meeting. The tentative agenda for the March meeting was also discussed. The Executive Committee will meet again in early April.
The Communication Committee met on February 2. The group previewed the Power Point, website and the Communication Plan. The Committee concurred with the schedule and audiences for presentations. The website is up and running. Peggy will be gathering information for the calendar and we will be updating the resource page and the Director’s information. I have scheduled to meet with the Health Department staff as a stakeholder’s group on March 17.
The Data Committee met on January 23. Information to be included in the Report to the Community was finalized. The next step in the Strategic Review was discussed. The group will meet following the March meeting. The group will move from a focus on data collection and review to a focus on Strategic Planning
Technical Assistance Conference Calls
Monthly technical assistance conference calls were held on January 15th and February 19th. The next call will be on March 19th and will focus on the Social Emotional Area of the Great Start Strategic Priorities. If you are interested in sitting in on part or all of this conference call, please let me know. Each call has been better than the previous one – they are trying very hard to get the “bugs” out and we appreciate their efforts to save us travel time and money.
Professional Development
The Copper Country ISD served as a video conference site for “The Protective Factors of Parental Resilience; Social Connections; Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development; Concrete Support; and Healthy Parent-Child Relationships”. The session focused on the Strengthening Families and Protective Factors approach to supporting children and families with evidence based programs and services. We had four participants from our Collaborative, including myself. There were a few technical issues, but it was a good opportunity to discuss what we are doing locally using a strength based approach to parenting. We will be receiving several extra copies of the manual that accompanied the presentation. Please let me know if you would like a copy.
Upcoming Events
Heather and I will be attending the Regional TA meeting in Escanaba on Thursday, March 12. We will also meet on April 21st in Iron Mountain.
Kindergarten Teacher’s Survey
ECIC has sent out an online survey to kindergarten teachers to get feedback on their opinions about how prepared their students were to enter kindergarten. The results of the survey are confidential and will be tallied and aggregated results will be distributed this spring.
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| February 2009 Great Start Update |
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Welcome to the Copper Country Great Start Collaborative website. In the next few weeks we will be adding more information about the Collaborative, our Parent Coalition and our initiative to help Copper Country children get a "Great Start." While we all agree that the Copper Country is a wonderful place to raise children, there are many things that can be done to assure that every child in the Copper Country is ready to succeed in school and in life. In the next few months we will be meeting with members of our community to get your opinions on how we can work together to provide the best future for our kids.
Here in the Keweenaw, our Great Start Collaborative has begun sifting through information to identify areas in which we can improve. Our charge is to focus on five priority areas:
--Physical health – pediatric and family health
--Social and emotional health
--Early care and education (child care and preschool)
--Family support and parenting education
--Basic needs, economic security and child safety
Our Collaborative Board, which includes parents, representatives from many local agencies, the faith based community, the business community and local government, has begun discussions in all of these areas. In addition, we are forming a Parent Coalition to gain input and feedback from those with young children.
I will keep you informed as we address these challenges, identify gaps in services, and help build partnerships among agencies.
Emilie Krznarich, Director
Copper Country Great Start Collaborative
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