Early On/Great Start December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Early On/Great Start
December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Those in attendance: Devanie Argetsinger, Corey Berden, Diane Boyer, Norm Byers, Marcia Campbell,
Susan Chowen, Patty Clark, Nicole Dixon, Ron Fowler, Jill Haan, Sheri Hadfield, Candice Hamel, Maureen
Hollocker, Kolleen Homuth, Tanya Janes, Mickey Kilpatrick, Jo-Anna Kologziej, Maggie Kromm, Monica
Kroondyk, Nicole Lindwall, Bill Lovett, Lorraine Manary, Mary Martinchek, Melissa Mundy, Kristin
Omsberg, Mandy Peterson, Karen Plasencia, Tara Riley, Carly Rowe, Valerie Schrieber, Shannon Smith,
David Spiller, Janey Thorpe, Megan Cole, and Heather VanHaitsma.
1. Approval of the meeting minutes, a motion was made by Mickey Kilpatrick and
seconded by Jo-Anna Kolodziej. All in favor, none opposed.
2. Introductions and Sharing:
Bill Lovett, Kiwanis – I am here on behalf of Kiwanis representing the early childhood
focus of Kiwanis.
Marcia Campbell, Char-Em ISD- It is time to start planning for Project Connect which will
be taking place on March 19th from 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Petoskey Fairgrounds.
Mandy Peterson and I are the chairs for the children/family area again this year. We will
be in contact with those agencies that participate in Project Connect.
Meagan Cole, Char-Em ISD- I am a School Social Worker in the Early Childhood Special
Education Department.
Jo-Anna Kolodziej, NCMC- I work at North Central Michigan College in Early Childhood.
Kolleen Homuth, Ottawa Elementary Petoskey- We recently had a Family Night at our
school and shared free cycle books. It was very successful and I was able to share
information about the program to families. In partnership with Susan Chowen from the
Great Start Resource Center we hosted a Preschool Teacher Night. We had a great
turnout and it was exciting to share information with those in attendance. We will
continue to build the relationship between preschool and kindergarten. Our school is
planning to have a Freecycle book drive in March. After the break I and the principal will
be creating an early childhood bulletin board.
Mary Martinchek, Health Department-There are Flu vaccines available. We also have
trained counselors to help with the health care site. For any of our services call our 800
number, 1-800- 432-4121.
Melissa Mundy, Health Department- We are still working on building our parent support
partnership program. This program supports children 0-5 who have behavioral issues.
Send referrals to myself.
Kristin Omsberg, Boyne USA- I am here representing our childcare/preschool
programming at Boyne.
Tara Riley, NMCAA Head Start- I am with Early Head Start as well as on the Great Start
Parent Leadership Council.
Early On/Great Start
December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Corey Berden, NMCAA Head Start- I am the Program Service Coordinator. We are
looking to expand Early Head Start services so if you have families please make referrals
by calling 548-1240.
Dianne Boyer, NMCAA Head Start- I am the Recruitment Specialist. Recruitment is
gearing up and we will have a big push in the spring. Call 1- 800-443-5518 to make an
appointment.
Mickey Kilpatrick, LTBB Head Start- We serve tribal and non-tribal Head Start and Early
Head Start and are currently full.
Patty Clark, CMH-I work with our prevention program but are not able to work with
families that have CSP involvement. We are also not able to work with foster children at
this time. Our focus is on 0-47 months plus pregnant moms and the parent or child has
to qualify for Medicaid. We do have a couple of openings.
Carly Rowe, Char-Em ISD- I am the Early Childhood Specialist for the Great Start
Readiness Programs.
Nicole Dixon, Women’s Resource Center-We have both the Children’s Learning Center
and Project Free. CLC is very full at this time. Project Free will possibly have some
openings in both our am and pm sessions.
Shannon Smith, Char-Em ISD-I work with Early On and Great Parents Great Start. Early
On is for children birth age 3 who have at least a 20% delay and GPGS is for children
birth to age 5 on waitlists for Early Head Start, Head Start and GSRP as well as
community referrals.
Jill Haan, Char-Em ISD- I am the Early Childhood Education General Education and
Special Education birth to age 6.
Sheri Hadfield, Early On- I work with families in Charlevoix, Ellsworth, Central Lake and
sometimes Petoskey.
Susan Chowen, Great Start to Quality Resource Center- I am here with our new Director
Candice Hamel.
Candice Hamel, Great Start to Quality Resource Center- I am the new Great Start to
Quality Director. I am new to the region and this program.
Devanie Argetsinger, Valerie Schrieber, and Janey Thorpe- Great Start Parent Leadership
Council participant.
Norm Byer, Genesis Church Petoskey- I am the Lead Pastor for the Genesis Church. I am
here to learn about things happening to the community for children and families.
Early On/Great Start
December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Ron Fowler, Petoskey District Library-The library will be taking a break for the holidays
and start back with early childhood programming on January 13, 2014. There will no
longer be Saturday preschool story hour. We will have a language based series instead
that focuses on early literacy components. Our Parent/Child lapsits are going well. The
library will be participating in the New Year’s Eve event from 5-9p.m. with art activities,
a Teen Dance, etc. There is a cost for this and tickets do sell out quickly. Also, we now
have a Paws program where children read to dogs. We have the dogs but have not have
many children.
Mandy Peterson, Char-Em ISD- I provide Great Parents Great Start as well as provide
services to the Parent Support Program.
Maggie Kromm, Child Abuse Council- We recently had our community celebration and
recognized 3 individuals –the only way we can celebrate people going above and
beyond is through nominations from all of you. Our annual Spring Conference is being
held April 25th at NCMC from 8:30-3:30 p.m. We are also working on Safe Sleep
Awareness Education. If your agency is also working on this please let us know to avoid
duplication of services.
Lorraine Manary, United Way –We are working on our Volunteer Connections web
based site for volunteers – it should be live by the end of January or early February. Also
we have been focusing on literacy through our Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Over
9,000 books have come into the community in our first year of this program. We will be
having a DPIL Fundraiser on Feb. 7th, 2014 with wine tasting, beer tasting, and food
sampling at the Castle in Charlevoix. April has World Book Day. You can sign up to be a
distributor and if you are chosen you will get books to give away. All of the local libraries
are participating as give away sites. The books are for people who can read but don’t.
You can find a link on the Petoskey District Library website to sign up for this.
Karen Plasencia, Early On- I work with families in the Petoskey, Alanson and Pellston
area.
Tanya Janes, McLaren Northern Michigan- We have the Fit Kids 360 program and the
first session will take place on January 23, 2014. We have 11 families enrolled and can
serve up to 15 families. This is a family based childhood obesity prevention program for
children ages 5-15 at 85% or above for their BMI. To participate, referrals need to come
from a Health Care provider. The whole family participates and leans how to be
healthier and connect to resources in the community.
Monica Kroondyk, Boyne District Library – Jim Gill is doing a free concert at High School
Auditorium in Boyne City on January 9th, 2014 at 6:30 p.m.
David Spiller, Boyne City School – I am the schools homeless liaison and family resource
liaison.
Early On/Great Start
December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Heather Van Haitsma, Genesis Church- I am here to represent the church and to learn
about community resources.
3. Early On- We recently had our Creative Kids Day in Petoskey. It was free to the public
and young children were able to do crafts, music movement etc. It was held at the
Carnegie building, and thank you Ron Fowler for partnering with us. We had 24 children
participate. One of the outcomes of this event is the fact that it allows opportunities for
socialization for Early Head Start and Early On families as well. Thank you to all who
assisted. Our next one will be in the spring at the Charlevoix Library.
Presentation of “A Disorganized Toddler in Foster Care: Healing and Change from an
Attachment Theory Perspective” was provided by Shannon Smith. Attachment Theory is
a fundamental approach – children grow and learn in regard to relationships they create
at an early age. There are 2 types of attachment – disorganized and organized. We are
talking about a small population, about 20% that have attachment disorders or
behaviors. Disorganized attachment often occurs when a parent lives in fear or is
frightening. A disruption in attachment is often a layer of other issues. It is very
important to always look at attachment when working with families. There is a screener
that can be used by practioners' to look at attachment.
The article discussed 6 principles to consider regarding attachment. Many times
children with attachment issues give off miscues of not wanting attention, are
aggressive, etc. so you need to look past these behaviors. You need to look past the
behavior and see the unmet need. Please read the article and look at the power point
copy to learn more about this.
4. Great Start Report: We will be concentrating on the following committees: Executive
Committee, Preschool scholarship fund, school and family readiness for Kindergarten,
Strengthening Families, Great Start Parent Coalition & Parent Leadership Council, and
Strategic Planning.
A. Communications: Petoskey News Review provided great coverage on the Saturday
free paper cover story regarding Freecycle. They are also putting us on the 16 days,
16 ways to help this holiday season and we have received some funds as result of
this article. Great Start will taking over Northern moms.com and will be
collaborating with the News Review to keep it going. I will be revamping the website
and it should be released sometime in January. We were also recognized by
National Strengthening Families. There is a new Strengthening Families website,
Early On/Great Start
December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes
Whatmakesyourfamilystrong.org. It has all the Protective factors and different ways
to meet these factors.
B. GS Scholarships: 36 children ages 3-5 have been sent to preschool through this
fund. Recently we received funding from an Emmet county group, Women Who
Care and they provided $2,900 for us to send Emmet county children to preschool,
so we have 6 children starting in January – taking our total for this year up to 42
children. We are also partnering with new sites – Petoskey Children’s Nursery,
Blackbird Child Care Center, and Alanson Stretch program.
C. Parent Leadership Council: We have a graduation celebration breakfast taking place
in January for our Parent Leadership Council. They all have worked very hard this
year. We are accepting applications for the 2014 Parent Leadership Council. Please
share the applications with families. For Freecycle we have given over 15,178 books
to children in the community. Book drives will be taking place in local schools and
are being spearheaded by parent leadership council members.
5 Protective Factor Posters: A new poster was created through suggestions from
Janey Thorpe about using the fingers to help remember the protective factors. A
graphic designer was used to make the posters.
D. New collaborative binders: New binders have been created and in the front of each
is the new membership commitment agreement. Please complete the form and
turn it in.
5. Collaborative Activity: There are 89 government funded programs, services, and efforts
to serve young children and families. These were distributed and as a collaborative we
will look at these programs and answer some basic questions.
Our next meeting is February 18, 2014.
Early On Report
December 2013
Early On Conference
“A Disorganized Toddler in
Foster Care:
Healing and Change From an Attachment Theory
Perspective”
-Janet Mann, The Children’s Ark
-Molly D Kretchmar, Gonzaga University
Great Start Collaborative
December 2013
Great Start COLLABORATIVE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
READY,
SET,
GO @ 5
Advisory Committee on School & Family Readiness for Kindergarten
Strengthening Families
COMMUNICATIONS
update December 2013
Press & Public Will Building
S
O
C
I
A
L
M
E
D
I
A
Parent Coalition
325
FreeCycle
281
Collaborative
72
Great Start North
Charlevoix, Emmet,
& Northern Antrim
Counties
GREAT START SCHOLARSHIP FUND
80
Total
Scholarships
>>>> 2013-14
$2900.00 from
Women Who Care
$300 + from
Alternative Gift
Letters & Website
Updated 12.17.2013
PARENT LEADERSHIP COUNCIL NEWS
Parent Leadership Council 2013
Celebration Breakfast in January
Parent Leadership Council 2014
Applications are out now –
we will extend the deadline as necessary
Over 15,178
FreeCycle Books
given to
children in
our community!
Over 500 Christmas books to local
churches
75 books to Beaver Island
Students
200 books to
Pellston Library
50 books to Ottawa Elementary
Literacy Night
35 books to Creative Kids Day
Book Bin Locations: 39 Locations
New Locations:
East Jordan Library
Central Lake Library
SCHOOL BOOK DRIVES!
East Jordan Elementary
(Over 1,700 books collected)
Blackbird Elementary
(Appx 500 books collected)
Harbor Springs Key Club
(Promoting FreeCycle thru March 2014)
UPCOMING MEETINGS
updated December 2013
GSC / Early On
MEETINGS
3RD TUESDAY EVERY OTHER MONTH 9 – 11AM
February 18, 2014
April 15, 2014
June 17, 2014
August 19, 2014
October 21, 2014
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