SD ECCS January 2024Update
January 2024 SD Early Childhood Comprehensive System Update
Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems: ECCS
Ensuring a strong start for all children requires collaboration and co-ownership of strategies and solutions. Thank you for your interest in the South Dakota ECCS Collaborative. This monthly newsletter provides updates on our project’s activities, and also shares information about external learning opportunities, resources and news.
Let’s Connect!
If you would like to learn more about the SD ECCS efforts, provide feedback, or share more about your efforts to ensure a strong start for South Dakota’s youngest children, please reach out or schedule a time to meet using this link. We’re especially interested in learning where you see your work falling within the broader goals and strategies developed through the SD ECCS Strategic Planning Process. Are you already working on some of these goals and strategies–or could they be included in your current plans? We’re here to listen, learn, and build a stronger start for SD children together.
SD ECCS Bright Lights Series
Innovative collaborations are happening across South Dakota’s early childhood landscape. Watch this page for monthly videos spotlighting SD ECCS “Bright Lights.” Our first video will be released during the last week of the month and will feature a collaboration in Brookings between the Children’s Museum of South Dakota, Avera Behavioral Health, and TEND. Please also use the above link to share your work.
WIC Community Innovation and Outreach Project
The WIC Community Innovation and Outreach Project is implementing several of the strategies found in the ECCS Strategic Plan, including amplifying the voice of parents, cross-training professionals and pre-professionals who work with families and young children, and reducing barriers to program participation. Learn more at the WIC-CIAO Project page.
Training opportunity:
Jan 16 – Diversity Panel
Jan 18 – Cross-Cultural Communication and Working with Interpreters evening session
Family voices needed:
We are inviting WIC-eligible families in the Sioux Falls area to provide input about SD WIC. Please forward the anonymous online survey to families you work with and who may be WIC eligible. Focus groups are also now underway in the Sioux Falls-area. The goal is to amplify family voice and to get input on how to make the program work better for South Dakota families.
Visit https://sdcpcm.com/wic-voice-matters for more information.
Transportation now available:
Free transportation to WIC appointments and WIC redemption/shopping trips are now available for participants in the Sioux Falls-area. WIC participants needing rides should call 2-1-1 at least 24 hours in advance to arrange.
Join Us at Children’s Day at the Capitol
Make plans to join us for the 2024 Children’s Day at the Capitol! Annually, organizations with an interest in bettering the lives of children and families will gather during the legislative session to inform the public, lawmakers, government staff and other advocates about our work.
January 23-25, 2024 | State Capitol Rotunda
Save the Date: Parent Leadership Retreat
The SD ECCS Team is planning a Parent Leadership Retreat in Sioux Falls on October 19, 2024. The intended audience is parents of young children. We are looking for speaker ideas and sponsors. Please reach out to Darbi Hunt, SD ECCS Family Lead at [email protected] to learn more or get involved.
EXTERNAL LEARNING RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Webinar: Recruiting & Engaging Fathers as Parent Leaders
Dads matter! Their involvement in the lives of their children is valuable and much needed. Too often, early childhood systems leave dads out, excluding them either by overlooking them or undervaluing their abilities, contributions, and interests.
Join the National Center for Family and Parent Leadership for a webinar on Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. ET featuring experts in fatherhood initiatives to learn effective ways to recruit and engage fathers as you work to embed family and parent leadership as your new way of working. Register here!
New Website & Partner Promotion Toolkit
The National Center for Family & Parent Leadership published a new website on December 14! Parentleadership.org is a launching pad for states, organizations, and communities to build capacity to embed family & parent leadership to help shape decisions and become more equitable, culturally relevant, and customer-centric.
Bilingual Mother to Baby Website Launched
The MCHB’s Maternal and Child Environmental Health Network (MCEHN) program recipient, the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS) has recently launched their fully bilingual MotherToBaby (English/Spanish) website. It houses an extensive bilingual library of fact sheets on everything from alcohol to zolpidem during pregnancy and breastfeeding as well as connecting bilingual experts with parents and healthcare providers.
Share your news!
If you are working collaboratively across sectors to ensure a strong start for South Dakota’s children, especially prenatally up to age 3yo, please send your updates to [email protected]. We’d love to learn more and help raise awareness of your efforts and successes.
