What if early childhood educators had all the resources they need to support quality learning and healthy development for young children? What if they were valued, respected, and fairly compensated for the work they do?
Ohio's Power to the Profession Network (P2P), launched by the Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children, is part of a national movement to ensure early childhood educators at all levels of the profession are valued, respected, and well-compensated. Through convening members of the early childhood workforce across the state of Ohio, P2P is able to foster a network of educators, as well as allow opportunities for individuals to build authentic relationships.
Last Friday, nearly 100 early educators from across the state came together for the third Ohio P2P convening. Embedded throughout the day were opportunities for robust group discussion where educators reflected on current practices that are enhancing learning environments for young children, opportunities to better serve our littlest learners, and ways we can work to advance the early education profession in the coming years.
Interested in learning more about the Power to the Profession movement? Check out the Ohio AEYC website or participate in the next P2P webinar on September 13th.
P.S. Keep an eye out for some new early education workforce-focused advocacy resources... coming soon from Groundwork Ohio!
Dayton Daily News: How Medicaid can help protect kids from lead poisoning
The following is an excerpt from "How Medicaid can help protect kids from lead poisoning" by Kaitlin Schroeder of the Dayton Daily News. The full article can be accessed here.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced last week that the Ohio Department of Medicaid is now federally approved to enhance and expand Medicaid’s lead abatement program in partnership with the Ohio Department of Health... With this approval, Medicaid will have greater flexibility to fund Ohio Department of Health lead hazard control projects in homes where a Medicaid-eligible child or pregnant woman lives, and to remove lead hazards in residential properties within targeted areas of the state...
Shannon Jones, executive director of Groundwork Ohio, which advocates on early childhood issues, said the best intervention is to prevent children from lead poisoning in the first place. But because of how common older housing is, she said it is important that the DeWine administration’s approach also includes helping children with lead poisoning get help early, well before they are school age.
“What we know about the interventions and about the brain science around young children is we have to get there much earlier for the intervention to be really maximized,” Jones said.
Ohio Benefits Releases New Early Childhood Services Eligibility Self-Assessment
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) in partnership with Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD), Ohio Department of Education (ODE), and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) have designed and developed an Early Childhood Services Eligibility Self-Assessment tool. The tool, which consists of a brief survey, lets parents know which early childhood services they are likely eligible for and provides direct links to more information and referral opportunities.
We hope you will share this new tool with families as a great first step in understanding what resources are available to best support early learning and healthy development for their young children.
Simply copy and paste the following URL in your browser to access the tool: https://ssp.benefits.ohio.gov/
Note: If you share the webpage as a hyperlink, it will come up with an error message--be sure to instruct families to copy and paste the link to access the site.
Free Online Trainings on the Impact Substance Abuse on Pregnancy & Early Childhood
The Ohio Department of Health this week shared a series of free trainings on substance abuse disorder and its impact on pregnancy and early childhood development. Click any of the options below to access the free training modules and be sure to share with friends and colleagues in the field:
Registration Open For Building Resiliency: A Pediatric Mental Health Summit
Registration for Building Resiliency: A Pediatric Mental Health Summit is now open. The Summit is free and open to adults across the state who touch the lives of children, such as parents, coaches, school personnel, counselors, and health care professionals. Attendees will learn how to spot the signs and symptoms of trauma in children and tangible strategies to address it from experts in mental health, health care education, and other fields.
The summit will be held on Thursday, September 26, 2019 at the Sinclair Conference Center in Dayton.
