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Dates
to Watch
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Sept. 1-4, 2009
National Independent Living Conference
Nashville
Sept. 10, 2009
FAN Board Meeting
Children's Board of
Hillsborough
Sept. 16, 2009
Children and Youth Cabinet
Meeting
Kissimmee
Sept. 24-27, 2009
Early Childhood
Conference
Orlando
Oct. 6-7, 2009
FCSC Board of Directors Meeting
CSC of Palm Beach
Oct.
12-14, 2009
Florida Coalition
for Children Annual Conference
Orlando
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Send Me More
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CSCs
strategically invest in primary prevention and early intervention
programs and services.
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TOP STORIES
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 More than 300 high school and college students from across
the state had a rare opportunity to see President Clinton in person as
part of the inaugural Lawton Chiles Leadership Corps held in Orlando
Aug. 8-9. During an inspiring keynote address, Clinton issued a
challenge to the students. "Intelligence and effort are evenly
distributed. Just because 41 other states have higher high school
graduation rates than you do, you don't think that there are 41 other
states where God made the children smarter, do you?" he
asked. "Leadership today is
deciding how to solve these problems and then going out and doing it.
... You can make a better tomorrow for Florida."
The Leadership Corps event was organized by The Lawton
Chiles Foundation and co-chaired by Sen. Mel Martinez, Sen. Bill
Nelson, and former Sen. Bob Graham. As participants in the first
leadership class, the high school and college students will spend the
next year working in their communities to improve the way Florida
educates and cares for its children. One project that the students will
work on is to gather the signatures of one million Floridians on the "Pledge for Florida's
Children." Among the participants were members of youth
advisory groups from The Children's Board of Hillsborough County and
The Children's Trust of Miami Dade, as well as students from the
Broward CSC Future Prep Program.
Clinton's Aug. 9
keynote address marked the grand finale to a weekend-long
brain-storming and training session hosted at the University of Central
Florida campus. Students talked about creative ways to use the media to
get their message out, and participated in training sessions with
experts including UCF's Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government;
John Kelly, strategic advisor for the Corporation for National and
Community Service; and David Lawrence Jr., former Miami Herald
publisher and founding chair of The Children's Trust of Miami-Dade.
"I am so
proud of the energy and dedication these students are bringing to help
kids in the state of Florida improve education and health," said
Bud Chiles, president of The Lawton Chiles Foundation. "Government doesn't make things
work, people do. These are the people who are going to go out and make
this state a better place for our children."
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See a blog post from a participant in Broward County
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See the video highlight from the weekend event
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Take the Pledge -
pledge your support today
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Get more information at www.lawtonchiles.org/LCLC.html or www.WorstToFirst.org.
ECEC Launches Site-Visit Campaign During Congress August
Recess
With Congress adjourned for the August recess and members back in their
districts, the Early Care and Education Consortium August Site-Visit
Campaign is officially underway. The goal of the campaign is to help
members of Congress learn more about high-quality child care programs
around the country by having them visit local programs. To see photos
and stories from visits that have already taken place, or to find more
information about how to host a legislator at a program center, click here.
~ Source: Early Care and Education Consortium E-News
Massive Campaign for Obama Health Plan Hits Air
A new coalition launched a $12-million television ad campaign last week
to support President Obama's health reform plan. The new group, funded
largely by the pharmaceutical industry, is called Americans for Stable
Quality Care. It includes some odd bedfellows: the American Medical
Association, FamiliesUSA, the Federation of American Hospitals, PhRMA
and SEIU, the service employees' union. Read the article.
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FEDERAL WATCH
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Chief
Architect of Early Learning Challenge Fund Discusses Proposal
Recently,
Dr. Ruth Friedman, Senior Education Policy Advisor with the House
Committee on Education and Labor, and a chief architect of the Early
Learning Challenge Fund, participated in a radio interview to talk
about the proposal. She talked about what it means for child care
providers and others. The Challenge Fund would make a significant
investment in early learning -- $1 billion per year for eight years.
The proposal places an all-new focus on the development of state early
learning systems, and makes a commitment to increasing the number of
low-income children in high-quality programs. Listen to the radio
interview.
~ Source: Early Care and Education
Consortium E-News
Congressional Committee Prepares District-Level Analysis
of Health Care Reform Bill
The U.S. Committee
on Energy and Commerce has prepared a district-level analysis of the
impact of
H.R. 3200, America's Affordable
Health Choices Act of 2009. The analysis includes
information on the impact of the legislation on small businesses,
seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured. It also
includes an estimate of the impacts of the surtax that is used to pay
for the legislation. Get the analysis for Florida
districts.
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CSC NEWS
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National Report Focuses on Pinellas County,
Three Other Communities
The Kaiser Commission on
Medicaid and the Uninsured recently released a study titled,
"Rising Health Pressures in an Economic Recession," which
offers a comprehensive overview of four American communities, including
Clearwater/St. Petersburg. The JWB Children's Services Council was
instrumental in facilitating the focus group and interviews for the
Pinellas County area. As the nation debates comprehensive health care
and health insurance reform, this report focuses on communities at a
grassroots level, and the struggles of those who have "suffered
economic reversals and lost health coverage, forcing many to juggle
bills and postpone visits to the doctor while they scramble to find a
new job." Other communities surveyed in the report include Beloit,
Wisconsin; Long Island, N.Y.; and Sonoma, California. Read the
study. View the
webcast.
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IN OTHER NEWS
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FAN Launches Quality Self-Assessment Tool for
Afterschool Programs
The Florida
Afterschool Network's (FAN) Quality Self-Assessment and Improvement
Guide is now available online and can be downloaded from the FAN web
site at www.myfan.org.
Developed at the request of afterschool providers, the guide
enables afterschool programs that are implementing the FAN Florida
Standards for Quality Afterschool Programs to complete a program
self-assessment. The self-assessment tool provides the roadmap to
support and facilitate efforts toward program improvement. The Quality
Self-Assessment and Improvement Guide has been field-tested to
ensure appropriateness and useability. The testing results have been
overwhelmingly positive. The FAN Board of Directors would like to thank
the many providers throughout the state who helped to develop the guide
and who field tested it in their programs. Special thanks also go to
members of the Quality Standards Task Force
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Meg Wallace - CSC of
Broward County
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Bobbi Davis - Children's
Board of Hillsborough County
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David McGerald -
President, Association of Early Learning Coalitions
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Sharon Carie - President,
Florida After School Alliance
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Jennifer Faber -
The Children's Forum
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Debra Zenk - Director of
Afterschool Programs, Hillsborough County School System
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Stacy Howard - Agency for
Workforce Innovation
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Jennifer Ohlsen - Agency
for Workforce Innovation
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Debra Bazemore - Florida
Department of Children and Families
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Lani Lingo - Florida
Department of Education
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Keri Corey - Jacksonville
Children's Commission
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Rhonda Flowers - Boys and
Girls Clubs of Tampa
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Robert Curcio - Palm
Beach Community College
Lights on Afterschool Date Set, Mini Grants Now
Available
The date has been
set for this year's Lights on Afterschool (LOA) event. Afterschool
programs and supporters in Florida and across the nation will celebrate
the event on Thurs., Oct. 22, 2009. LOA serves to recognize the
critical importance of quality afterschool in the lives of children,
their families and communities. In Florida, the Florida Afterschool
Network (FAN) has allocated $10,000 in mini-grants that will be awarded
to local programs seeking financial assistance to plan a local event
celebrating the national LOA day. Grant applications are available on
the FAN web site. Go to www.myfan.org
for details, or download the application here.
Guardian ad Litem Foundation Launches Membership Program
The Florida Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Foundation has
initiated a membership program that will help provide funding for
thousands more abused and neglected children who would otherwise go
without a Guardian ad Litem. Individual, nonprofit and corporate memberships
are available. Memberships will also help the foundation to
continue to support the efforts of local GAL organizations across the
state. To
learn more about the new membership program and its benefits, go to www.flgal.org/membership.php.
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NCSL Examines
State Budget Actions Toward Early Childhood Education Programs in FY09
The National Conference of State Legislatures issued a new report, "Early Care and Education State
Budget Actions FY 2009," that summarizes budget actions states
took last year for early childhood programs. The report finds that,
overall, states increased spending for early care and education
programs in FY 2009 by $651 million. As the data was gathered in the
spring of 2008, it does not, however, reflect budget realities faced by
states since the economic downturn.
Kaiser Health Reform Comparison Tool Reflects Latest
Congressional Action
The Kaiser Family Foundation has updated its interactive side-by-side
health reform comparison tool to incorporate the major amendments to
the House Tri-Committee legislation adopted by the three committees of
jurisdiction during their mark-ups of the bill. The update also adds a
summary of the Republican Study Committee bill, the Empowering Patients
First Act, recently introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). The online
tool allows users to compare any of 12 different major health reform
plans, including the House Tri-Committee legislation and the Senate
HELP Committee legislation. Go to the comparison tool.
National
Foundation Launches HealthReform.org
In an effort to provide
timely, nonpartisan information and tools to inform policymakers about
the need to reform the health care system, the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation has launched HealthReform.org.
The health reform web site also offers a HealthReform.org widget that can be added to social networking pages or individual web
sites. The widget feeds the day's top health reform news clips and The
Users' Guide to the Health Reform Galaxy blog entries.
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EVENTS
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Free Webinar Addresses
Keeping Kids Safe from Sexual Abuse
Child Care Aware Parent
Network is holding a free webinar titled, "My Body
Belongs to Me!" Keeping Your Child Safe From Sexual Abuse - An
Expert's Advice, on Aug. 25 at 8:30 p.m. (EST).
The webinar was created to help alleviate parents' fears and concerns about
how to discuss sexual abuse with their children. Jill Starishevsky, an
Assistant District Attorney in New York City who has prosecuted
hundreds of sex offenders, will present the webinar and share advice
about why it is important to start the conversation with your child and
how to prevent potential abuse. Click here to register
now.
Early
Childhood Association Conference Coming to Orlando
The Early
Childhood Association of Florida will hold its 54th Annual
Conference Sept. 24-27, 2009, in Orlando at the Rosen Centre Hotel.
Anyone interested in early care and education should attend this
conference, which features more than 100 sessions. Early registration
is available until Aug. 12. To register, or for more information, go
to: www.ecaoffl.org.
Florida Coalition for Children to Hold Annual Conference
in October
The Florida
Coalition for Children is holding its 2009 conference with a focus on
"Protecting & Preserving Florida's Most Valuable Resource -
Our Children and Families." The event will take place October
12-14, 2009, in Orlando at Rosen Shingle Creek. Register by Sept. 15
and save. For more information, visit the Florida Coalition for Children web site.
Conference Focuses on "Meeting the Needs of Young
Children and Families"
The Early
Childhood Council (ECC) and the Florida Association for Infant Mental
Health (FAIMH) will be co-hosting a conference, "Meeting the Needs
of Young Children and Families," November 18-20, 2009, at the
Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. Early registration is $125 for ECC or FAIMH
members (deadline is September 15), which includes the pre-conference
event on Nov. 18 and the full conference program Nov. 19-20 with a
reception Thursday night. For more information, call (813)
837-7753 or visit www.ecctampabay.org.
NAEYC to Hold Annual Conference
& Expo in Washington
The National Association for the Education of Young
Children will hold its annual conference Nov. 18-21, 2009, in
Washington, DC. This year's conference features more than 900 sessions
on diverse topics and themes reflecting both traditional strategies and
cutting-edge practice. Look for presentations on topics ranging from
how to plan an effective elected official's visit to your center, to
the role of quality rating systems in professional development, as well
as what's on the early childhood federal horizon. Housing and
registration are now open.
National Afterschool Association Convention Set for
April 2010, Seeking Workshop RFPs
Join thousands of
afterschool professionals for outstanding learning and networking
experiences at the National Afterschool Association Convention in
Washington, DC, April 19-21, 2010. The event will feature hundreds of
workshops from across the afterschool field. Early registration is
available through Aug. 31, 2009. For details, or to submit your
workshop proposals through an online RFP process, visit www.naaconvention.org/workshop.html. Proposals will
be accepted until Sept. 25, 2009.
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