This week we released a new video to show appreciation for Ohio's pandemic child care providers who are supporting the front-line workers responding to the current coronavirus pandemic. In less than a week, the video has already been viewed by over 15,000 people! As we go through this pandemic, we are leaning on child care professionals, now more than ever, and we want to send them thank you cards from all over the state to show that we are all here to support them. How can you get involved in showing support? It is really easy and simple! All you need to do is take a few minutes of your day to do the following:
Watch, share, and like our posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn by clicking on each of their hyperlinks
Write a thank you card and send to 4041 North High Street, Suite 204, Columbus, Ohio 43214. Creating thank you cards can also be a fun stay-at-home activity for you to do with your children
Post a picture of your thank you card on social media and tag @GroundworkOhio
Thank you for your continued support and collaboration in making sure that child care does not go unnoticed during this unprecedented time!
New Resources from National Experts
Over the past week, many organizations at the national level have released new information, guidance, upcoming webinars and other resources. Here are a few great new resources from this week:
ZERO TO THREE Webinar Series: Addressing Abuse and Neglect During COVID-19 (available to clinicians, home visitors, early educators, child welfare professionals, and military/veteran providers)
Ohio Practitioners’ Network for Fathers and Families is hosting "A Virtual Gathering of Ohio Dads: Fathering in the Pandemic" on Saturday, April 18th, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Ohio Department of Education announced that the Seventh Annual Trauma-Informed Care Summit: Creating Environments of Resiliency and Hope in Ohio will be held virtually on May 19-20th
The Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University created a new hub of COVID-19 resources pertaining to early childhood development
First Five Years Fund released a new report for child care providers and self-employed individuals to learn more about unemployment benefits in the CARES Act
Child Care Aware of America's Resource Hub provides helpful resources and guidance for child care providers, families, and policymakers
United States Government Accountability Office released a new report, "Maternal Mortality: Trends in Pregnancy Related Deaths and Federal Efforts to Reduce Them" detailing recent data trends in maternal mortality rates throughout the country.
Supporting Children and Families During the Pandemic
In case you missed it, we created a new resource to provide guidance and resources on how we can all work together to prevent child abuse and build child resiliency during the pandemic whether you are a parent, family member, provider, community member, or policymaker. In Ohio, we saw a 43% decrease in March for child abuse and neglect referrals, but this does not mean that it is not happening. The common reporters of child abuse (teachers, child care providers, home visitors, family members, etc.) are not regularly seeing these children, resulting in child abuse and neglect going undetected. While this may be true, child abuse IS preventable and we can all make a difference by taking the steps outlined in our resource.
Child Care Programs: Share Your Story with Us
As you may already know, Groundwork Ohio is participating in conversations at both the state and national levels to provide leaders with insights and solutions to address the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on child care providers and we need your stories. If you are a child care provider in Ohio--whether you're from a family child care or center-based program and whether you've closed or are providing pandemic care--we hope you will fill out our brief survey to share how your program has been impacted by the recent pandemic.
Resources for Providers & Families
We know there is a lot of information and resources swirling around right now and it may feel overwhelming to some. This is why we created two pages to centralize these resources for providers and families to include background information on COVID-19, financial assistance, grant opportunities, and activities for young children. We will regularly update both these pages as we receive more information, so keep checking back for the latest resources.
We are currently working on developing resources for all early childhood related programs and hope to have this information posted within the coming weeks.
Do you have a resource that you would like us to list on our page? Please contact Julia Jackels at jjackels@groundworkohio.org to share your resource.
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