News Archive

Governor Announces Plan to Reintroduce OEC Legislation

donna — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:13:39 +0000

Governor Malloy announced his intention to reintroduce legislation to officially create the state's Office of Early Childhood. After the legislation failed to be called in time during the last session, Governor Malloy signed an executive order to create the office.

Congratulations to Our 2013 Pacesetters- Bridgeport and Harford

donna — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 18:35:13 +0000

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading has recognized two states and 37 communities as 2013 Pacesetters, an honor that recognizes their efforts to mobilize civic, business and community leaders to work with schools, libraries and other organizations toward the goal of improving early reading. Bridgeport and Hartford, Connecticut were among the community honorees.The Pacesetters announcement marks the first of three announcements this year to recognize exemplary efforts and accomplishments of the 140 communities participating in the GLR Campaign, a nationwide movement to improve high school graduation rates by increasing the number of children from low-income families who read proficiently by the end of third grade.

CT Voices Releases Annual State of Working Connecticut Report

donna — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:43:10 +0000

The State of Working Connecticut 2013: Young People in the Workforce is the latest annual State of Working Connecticut report from CT Voices for Children. The report focuses on young Connecticut workers and their rates of unemployment and racial and ethnic wage gaps and analyzes demographic trends for this group.

Every Day Counts! Video

donna — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 19:38:51 +0000

The Coalition of New Britain's Children worked with the Color of Words to produce Every Day Counts! - a video that answer parents' questions about why preschool is important and the value of children attending pre-school every day. This video was produced with the goal of making it available to all communities, so please check it out!

Parent Leadership Training RFP

donna — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:09:08 +0000

The State Education Resource Center (SERC)/Connecticut Parent Information and Resource Center (CT PIRC) has released an RFP for parent leadership training to support parents, grandparents, foster parents, and others to become skilled advocates and strong voices for children at the local, state, or national level. An optional pre-proposal meeting will be held on August 13, 2013 from 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. in Room MCR#3 at 25 Industrial Park Road Middletown, CT. Proposals are due by 2:30 p.m. on Monday, September 16, 2013.

The Dynamics of Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

donna — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:03:51 +0000

This report, prepared for the Memorial Fund by Marion Orr and Kenneth Wond of Brown Univesirty, looks at the the implementation of ARRA on Title I schools and early childhood education in Bridgeport and Hartford. The Dynamics of Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Early Childhood and Title I School Improvement in Connecticut focuses on the complexity of translating social policies into action.

Success Indicators in Early Learning and Education

donna — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:37:43 +0000

Markers that Matter: Success Indicators in Early Learning and Education is a new report by FSG with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that includes 48 early childhood indicators that reflect healthy development of young children (ages 0-8). The report also identifies 10 emerging themes that are not addressed by existing indicators and merit further inquiry. Also on the FSG site, a recorded webinar discusses the emerging trends in the field of early learning indicators and includes a discussion of how indicators are being used in communities across the country. A blog focused on a study of early learning success markers offers a series of posts that follow-up on questions posed by webinar participants.

Save the Date for the 2013 Stone Soup Conference

donna — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 11:19:29 +0000

Stone Soup '13, "The Impact of Race and Economic Status on Early Childhood--Opportunities for Community Transformation" will be held on October 22. Rinku Sen, executive director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and publisher of Colorlines.com, will be this year's keynote speaker. Rinku is a leading figure in the racial justice movement, and has positioned ARC as a national home for media, research and activism on these issues.A conference brochure, with descriptions of the breakout sessions, will be available in mid-August and registration will open in mid-September.

Community Conversations DEADLINE EXTENDED

donna — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 17:20:54 +0000

The deadline for the 2013-2014 Community Conversations Request for Proposals for the has been extended to August 15. In addition to the traditional grant opportunity, Community Conversations is partnering with the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, the University of Hartford, the Kettering Foundation of Ohio, and 10 parent co-researchers in a specific effort to get communities talking about parent access to information. This effort builds on two years' work of the other partners to build an "issue guide" entitled, "Looking for Answers Together: How Should We Nurture Children to be Healthy and Make Better Choices?" Community Conversations is seeking 10 communities to conduct conversations specific to this guide. Five of those communities' conversations would be slated for the fall of 2013 and part of ongoing research. The other five would be held in the spring of 2014 and after the data collection is completed. The grant for each will be $1,500.

Tools for Better Community Planning Guide Published

donna — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 12:41:27 +0000

The Local Government Commission, with help from The California Endowment, has recently published Participation Tools for Better Community Planning, a guidebook that outlines tools to encourage resident engagement in the planning process for land use and transportation in communities that have been historically underserved.