E-Update from Strengthening Families Illinois

Aug/Sep 2006
E-Update
Highlights for Leaders and Partners of Strengthening Families Illinois
Summer is ending as the school year gets underway. Expanded partnerships and new training opportunities highlighted the end of August and the initiative continues to progress as Fall approaches. If you have comments or suggestions, please send us an email. In This Issue Illinois State Board of Education Funds Learning Network Members New SFI Partners Protective Factors Align Well with NAEYC Accreditation Standards Stronger Together TOT Opportunity in October Memoranda of Understanding Enhance Collaboration with Illinois Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies Formal Agreement with Prevent Child Abuse Illinois Advances Training, Parent to Parent Public Awareness Campaign SFI Pilot Sites Kick Off New Year DCFS Spreads Education Message at Parade & State Fair SFI is Key to Center's A+ Evaluation Spanish Hotline Launches for Kane County Learning Network CSSP State Leads to Meet Refill Your Tank: Creating a Time and Space for Reflection SFI Centers Pledge Their Commitment to Families Updated 6 Ways to Keep Families Strong Brochure Now Available Save the Date: IL AEYC Symposium In Memoriam Welcome to Thanks to Calendar Illinois State Board of Education Funds Learning Network Members A number of SFI Learning Network members received funding from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Of 15 programs funded through ISBE’s Prevention Initiative, two were SFI Learning Network Hubs—Crittenton Centers in Peoria and Wabash Area Development Inc. in southern Illinois; the Prevention Initiative included SFI as a supplemental service. Other Learning Network members received funding as well through the larger Preschool for All category. Click here to download lists of all ISBE grantees. New SFI Partners Caregiver Connections: John Roope Family Resiliency Center at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Laurie Kramer McHenry County Youth Service Bureau: Janice McConnelly Protective Factors Align Well with NAEYC Accreditation Standards How does Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education relate to quality childcare? One way is, “understanding the importance of the relationships that need to be developed between caregivers and families,” says Jamilah Jor’dan, national expert on NAEYC quality standards, SFI Evaluation Work Group Chair, President of the Partnership for Quality Childcare and Vice President of NAEYC’s National Board of Directors. The new NAEYC Accreditation criteria for Family and Community Relationship Standards identify family strengthening strategies as a key component of quality. As part of her role with SFI, Dr. Jor’dan crosswalked SFI program strategies with those standards. The results showed the strategies were in alignment, making clear that SFI is a way for childcare centers to enhance quality in this area. Click here to download the crosswalk document. Stronger Together TOT Opportunity in October On October 11 – 12, the Chicago Children’s Museum will host a second training of trainers (TOT) on SFI’s core curriculum, Stronger Together: Family Support and Early Childhood Programs, developed by Parent Services Project of California. In addition, SFI will hold an all day intensive on October 13, in conjunction with the Illinois AEYC Symposium in Springfield, focusing on training issues such as: the process of change, developmental framework for adult learning, and cultural competence and walk through strategies that address them. Lisa Lee, Chief Editor of the curriculum and creator of many of the activities contained therein will lead the intensive. She says, “The Stronger Together curriculum encourages practitioners to question their current assumptions, attitudes, and practice in order to create a caring community where everyone can experience family support, equity, and community building principles.” Local trainers will co-deliver with Lisa. Contact us for an application. Memoranda of Understanding Enhance Collaboration with Illinois Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies Illinois Action for Children and John A. Logan College are the first two child care resource and referral agencies to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with SFI. The agreements outline plans for providing training and disseminating information on the protective factors. The agreements also include building trainer capacity on the Recognizing and Responding to Signs of Family Stress and Advanced Communication Skills with Families curriculum and a three-day condensed training of Stronger Together being adapted by John A. Logan College. Click to see Action for Children’s MOU. Click to see Child Care Resource & Referral at John A. Logan’s MOU. In partnership with Jan Maruna, Director of the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and SFI Leadership Team member, SFI is pursuing formal collaborations with all 16 of Illinois’ child care resource and referral agencies.
Calendar September 14-15: CSSP SF State Leads Meeting, Washington D.C. September 18: Early Learning Council Meeting, Chicago September 20: Hub Coordinator Monthly Call September 26: Protective Factors TOT, Bloomington September 27: Evaluation Workgroup Meeting, Chicago September 28: Professional Development Workgroup Meeting, Chicago; SFI Focus Group, Chicago September 29: SFI Focus Group, Southern Region TBD October 3: Building Resiliency Workgroup Meeting, Chicago October 4-6: IL Head Start Association Fall Conference, Peoria October 11-12: Stronger Together TOT, Chicago October 13: Stronger Together One Day Intensive, Springfield; Recognizing & Responding to Signs of Family Stress Training - Partnership for Quality Childcare Learning Network, Chicago October 12-14: IL AEYC Symposium, Springfield October 19: Hub Coordinator Monthly Call October 19-20: Prevent Child Abuse Illinois Conference, Springfield October 27: SFI Leadership Team Meeting, Chicago October 28: IAFCC Leadership Summit, Palatine	Formal Agreement with Prevent Child Abuse Illinois Advances Training, Parent to Parent Public Awareness Campaign Prevent Child Abuse Illinois’ Prevention Resource Developers (PRDs), located at DCFS offices in every sub-region, are full partners in conducting SFI trainings this fiscal year, including: Understanding the Protective Factors, Recognizing and Responding to Signs of Family Stress and Collaborating with Child Welfare Providers. This will help to expand the audience for SFI’s strengths-based, family-focused child abuse prevention approach. Click here to see the MOU. SFI Pilot Sites Kick Off New Year As summer comes to a close, SFI Hub sites are throwing back-to-school celebrations for their Learning Networks as part of regularly scheduled meetings. “We wanted to thank our network for their dedication and commitment to Strengthening Families in its first pilot year,” said Chicago Hub Coordinator Leslie Janes. The celebrations are also a way to bring together DCFS and the SFI pilot site programs around the new enrollment policy for 3- to 5-year-old wards, going into effect this fall. DCFS Spreads Education Message at Parade & State Fair As part of the state’s Preschool for All effort, DCFS will inaugurate a new policy requiring all children ages 3-5 in the foster care system to be enrolled in a quality early learning program. The Illinois child welfare department mixed its education message with summer fun by giving away IDCFS beach balls at the Illinois State Fair. And at the Bud Billiken Parade, over 60,000 participants watched as a float spread one of its messages, “Education Begins at 3 … and Lasts a Lifetime.” The state fair booth also promoted school readiness and foster care among the more than 5000 visitors. Materials on the protective factors were distributed as well as information on the “Don’t Write Me Off” campaign, and school readiness initiative. Billiken float shows DCFS commitment to early education SFI Is Key to Center’s A+ Evaluation Happy Days Childcare Center, a small rural program in southern Illinois, has something new to celebrate: The center’s recent licensing evaluation was the most positive ever, yielding not a single violation citation. Director Connie Ury says taking part in SFI’s Southern Region Learning Network “made all the difference” in her center’s great performance. And while getting a clean bill of health was a pleasure, “the true joy is the strength that we as providers gather from each other,” she added. “This is about providing the best quality to our parents and staff.” For resources on forming a SFI Learning Network, visit our website or contact us.
Spanish Hotline Launches For Kane County Learning Network Thanks to local United Way funding, Kane County’s SFI Learning Network recently launched a Hotline that will help connect Spanish-speaking families to community resources. After discussing the need for the hotline at their monthly meetings, Learning Network members received approval from the United Way in May. Hotline coordinator Ineabelle Mercado has been preparing for launch since July. The hotline was formally launched in conjunction with the start of the school year and families have already started lighting up the switchboards. To access the hotline in Northern Kane County, call 847/426-2211. CSSP State Leads to Meet Leads from all of the states piloting the Strengthening Families approach will meet September 14–15 in Washington, DC. Along with providing updates nationally and within the pilot states, the group will discuss state plans for sustainability and plans for keeping the national Strengthening Families network intact, and will brainstorm content for a national Strengthening Families conference planned for next May. At the meeting, SFI will present on the trainings it has developed with the Midwest Learning Center for Family Support, the upcoming parent-to-parent public awareness campaign on keeping families strong, linkages between early childhood and child welfare, and evaluation tools for the Illinois pilot. Click here for Year One highlights from the all of the pilot states. Refilling Your Tank: Creating a Time and Space for Reflection This is the first of a series of strategies for “refilling your tank” by Marcia Zumbahlen, Ph.D., Infant Child Mental Health Specialist and SFI Consultant. Being an SFI center means relating to and taking care of not just children, but entire families. These relationships can evoke strong reactions, which can add stress to your body and mind and leave you feeling drained. The trick is to express and examine your reactions through reflection. Reflection can mentally prepare you for the day, help you meet families where they are, and help you discover reasons for your own responses. In the end, you may change in ways that positively impact your relationships with families, freeing families to change as well. There are many ways to build reflection into your work. Click here for 10 quick strategies that you can start using now. For more ways to refill your tank, request our 101 Ways to Nurture Your Spirit poster. SFI Centers Pledge Their Commitment to Families We all know the importance of parents feeling valued and respected by early childhood centers. To help in that process, SFI learning networks have developed a simple flier describing the family-centered philosophy as a commitment to families. The flyer can be customized by each center. Click here to download. Updated 6 Ways to Keep Families Strong Brochure Now Available SFI’s brochure describing the Protective Factors, just got updated—and now includes the 6th protective factor, identified by the Building Resiliency Workgroup and adopted by the Leadership Team in April. The “6 Ways to Keep Families Strong” brochure adds “promoting healthy parent-child relationships” and also shows the importance of staff-family partnerships to all of the factors. Click here to download the brochure in English (Spanish available soon) Contact us to place an order Save the Date: Illinois AEYC Symposium The Illinois AEYC Symposium, Critical Issues Facing Children and Families: Building Resiliency Through Programs is October 12 – 14, in Springfield. The symposium includes a keynote by IDCFS Director Bryan Samuels and more than 50 workshops, including presentations by SFI. Click here for more information. In Memoriam SFI’s Southern Region Learning Network lost a true partner and friend to children and families when Bill Malone, Co-Director of Malone Early Learning Center, passed away on August 10. Those who worked with Bill describe his genuine love for children and for his colleagues as unparalleled. The southern Illinois early childhood community will not be the same without him. Welcome to … New Kane County Hub Coordinator Ashley Tomes Thanks to … Action for Children, Voices for Illinois Children, Partnership for Quality Childcare, Metro Chicago Information Center and Illinois Family Partnership Network for hosting SFI Leadership Team and Workgroup meetings … Caregiver Connections for partnering on the Protective Factors TOT ... The Baby Fold, The Chicago Children's Museum, and the Illinois AEYC for agreeing to host SFI’s upcoming TOTs … DCFS Communications Division for pictures from the Bud Billiken Parade … Workgroup Committee Chairs Karen Freel, Gaylord Gieseke, Joanne Kelly, Beth Knight, Leonette Coates, Kendall Marlowe, and Jamilah Jor’dan for their continued leadership and support in guiding SFI’s strategic plan into year 2 … all SFI Learning Network hubs and centers for their tremendous commitment to this initiative … and the many other people who contribute their time and support to strengthen Illinois children! Know someone involved with SFI who deserves thanks? Send us an email. SFI Speakers Available To have an SFI representative speak at your next event, email us.
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