Bright Spots:
In partnership with Champlain Valley Head Start, our Substance Use Disorder Families Collective Impact project is moving forward with the implementation of a new parenting curriculum from the Devereux Center for Resilient Children called, Your Journey Together (YJT).YJT shows parents how to use ordinary, everyday routines, activities and interactions as resilience-building opportunity through a strength-based curriculum designed to promote the social and emotional well-being of vulnerable children and their families. The YJT curriculum focuses on empowering parents to promote safe, trusting and healing environments—all key elements of a trauma-sensitive program. Stay tuned for dates and locations of upcoming group sessions. For more info on the program click here: https://centerforresilientchildren.org/your-journey-together/
Our regional council has been invited to sponsor and plan the first Early Childhood Pediatric Grand Rounds at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital later this spring. The aim is to create an annual Grand Rounds Lecture on Early Childhood for an interdisciplinary audience, hosted by the Department of Pediatrics, to foster shared knowledge and interdisciplinary networking around shared efforts in Early Childhood health, wellness, and education. This year the proposed theme is Social Emotional Health and Development, as this aligns well with other national, state, and local efforts. Let’s Grow Kids and Help Me Grow are a big part of the planning as well, and we are one of the many interdisciplinary partners that are helping lift this off the ground. More details will be shared very soon!
Area of Focus:
Our Regional Council will be digging deeper into the regional data from the new How Are Vermont’s Young Children & Families Report with a focus on improving PreK – Kindergarten transitions in Chittenden County. Elementary school partners are a missing link at our regional tables, so we will be doing more intentional outreach and information gathering in the coming months to help us better understand what’s working well, where the challenges are, how can we learn from recent suspensions/expulsions, and how can mental health early ed services help inform school services. We are hoping to develop clear action steps for the council to support working across settings to improve transitions in our region.
