Monthly Report

January 2009

Early Childhood Mental Health

  • As part of the 2008-2009 Speaker Series, the ECMH committee’s Nutrition and Behavior panel presentation will take place on Saturday March 28, in the morning at Radio Park Elementary School. This will be a 3 hour workshop for parents, caregivers, and early childhood professionals about the impact of children’s behavior surrounding food and eating—how that affects nutrition, the development of social and emotional skills, and family relationships and dynamics. We have confirmed the panel of Dr. Jennifer Savage Williams, Dr. Rachel Love, Dr. Sonia VanHorn, and Wendy Whitesell. Flyers and application forms will be in the mail shortly. The application deadline is March 20.
  • A survey has been developed, as part of "Tuning in to Kids" project, which has been sent by e-mail to all the people who have been trained as instructors, to determine what their needs are for support and coordination as they begin to think about offering parent workshops.

Parenting & Literacy

  • The committee is involved in the solicitation of business sponsors for the 2009-2010 Pre-Kindergarten Calendar; a calendar for families with 4-year-olds, to help prepare them for entry into kindergarten. We have confirmed sponsorship from CIU#10, Nittany Eye Associates, Cen-Clear Child Services, State College Area School District, Centre County Communities That Care, along with individual sponsors; Janice A. Lindsay and Linda Domin. If you would like to become a sponsor of the calendar, please contact Smart Start at (814)-238-0331.
  • Lori Perez, Human Development and Family Studies Penn State Intern has joined the Smart Start team, and has begun facilitating the coordination of the One Book Project. This year’s book is "If You Were a Penguin."
  • The committee is updating the various sections of Babies Rock with Books", to keep it timely and relevant for young families. We are also seeking funding for a large re-printing of the booklet, which is distributed to parents of all newborns at the hospital.
  • Meredith Rogers, one of our committee members, continues to provide a "Preschool Storytime", every Thursday at Barnes and Noble, from 10:30-11:30. This is a new avenue for Smart Start to reach the general public, as children and parents are given direct access to books recommended by our Pre-K Calendar.
  • Meredith is also implementing First Book, and attempting to get it functioning in Centre County again. She will provide leadership for the group. If you would like to be involved in First Book, please contact Meredith at; crm2826@bn.com

Early Care & Education

  • The family-to-school subcommittee has been looking at the completed parent surveys. The information from the surveys has been compiled and used to assess what is working and what is not in the transition to Kindergarten process in Centre County schools.
  • The "Countdown to Kindergarten" event took place on February 7, 2009 at Nittany Mall. The event was a great success and there was a vast turnout of parents. The four school districts (State College, Bellefonte, Penns Valley, and Bald Eagle) provided information about kindergarten registration in their schools, along with private kindergartens and social service agencies. We had very positive feedback from parents, and based on a preliminary assessment, we observed that the mall's traffic during the event was up 39.3% based on the same day last year.

Communications & Public Advocacy

  • We have received several contributions to the newsletter, including an article about why parents over-indulge, and another about teaching dual-language learners. PSU Communications intern Katie Matz is working on getting the Newsletter out this week.
  • Early Childhood programs are hard at work with the "Tell Your Story" childhood advocacy project. At present we have received very few responses and need to receive the rest no later than the end of February. All recipients of the packets, please complete and return them to us as soon as possible.
  • The Communications and Advocacy committee has lots of ideas for outreach, and welcomes anyone interested in writing, communications, marketing, and public awareness and advocacy. Please feel free to join this exciting committee at our next meeting, or contact the co-chairs at your convenience.

What Else

  • The "Focus on Strong Families" conference will be taking place on February 28 at the Mount Nittany Middle School (656 Brandywine Drive, State College, PA), 8:15am-4:15pm. While pre-registration has now lapsed, you are able to submit final registration on the morning of the event. This should be a very informative event and includes several “hands-on” sessions, along with those working with other media, such as film.