The Weekly Briefing
| Welcome to The Weekly Briefing, featuring news from Children's Futures, updates about our community partners' activities and links to recent news articles about early childhood health and development. | |
| Volume 1, Number 20 | Week of July 16-July 20, 2007 |
In This Issue
- News from Children's Futures
- Mercer County One Stop Program Offer Opportunities for Parents
- CF Centers Link Trenton Families to Value-Added Resources
- IBM Computers to Enrich Learning at CF Centers
- Community Partners' Activities
- ACT Workshops Against Violence
- Parents Empowering Parents Program
- Fathers and Families Fun Day
- News Articles
- Senate Weighs Health Funding
- Teaching Brief: Low Birth Weight and Obesity Rates Both on Rise in U.S. Kids
- Editorial: Covering More Children
News from Children's Futures
Mercer County One-Stop Program Offers Opportunities for Parents
Helping TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients acquire skills needed to obtain meaningful employment is the cornerstone of a new Mercer County One-Stop System internship program with Mercer Street Friends. As part of Mercer Street Friends, the West Ward family support/parent child center is providing 12 week internship opportunities for young parents to satisfy their 25 hours-a-week core work activity requirement to qualify for TANF benefits. West Ward center director Karen Hoppock is excited about the possibilities that this new partnership affords for families striving to enhance overall wellness and self-sufficiency. "Since the start of the program this July, we have been urging our parents to take advantage of this unique opportunity which integrates our efforts to enhance parents' literacy skills, parenting education and readiness for employment. Everyone benefits when parents are able to provide for themselves and their families," she said.
CF Centers Link Trenton Families to Value-Added Resources
Trenton families participating in Children's Futures' family support/parent child centers are benefiting from access to additional programs offered through the centers' lead agencies. This summer for example, through their participation in South Ward Center activities, nearly a dozen families learned about and enrolled their older children in South Ward lead agency El Centro/Catholic Charities' free summer camp. "With their older children engaged in the camp program, our parents have been able to spend more one-on-one time bonding with their infants and toddlers. We are proud that our center has been able to provide linkages that directly benefit our youngest children, their older siblings and their parents," said South Ward family support/parent child center director Roberto Hernandez. Mothers and their children at CF's centers have also been linked via the CF father center to "Camp Mac", a summer camp and after school/weekend activities program for adolescent mothers and their children run by father center lead agency Union Industrial Home for Children.
In addition, West Ward center families continue to take advantage of lead agency Mercer Street Friends' Food Pantry and East Ward children and families participate in numerous hospital-based clinical and informational programs like the one pictured below at lead agency St. Francis Medical Center's campus.
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Approximately 70 parents and children from Children's Futures' East Ward family support/parent child center learned important child safety tips and received free personal safety alarms Wednesday evening from Mercer County Sheriff's officers.
IBM Computers to Enrich Learning at CF Centers
New IBM Young Explorer Computer Stations will soon be coming to Children's Futures' West and South Ward family support/parent child centers courtesy of IBM through the auspices of the United Way of Greater Mercer County. According to Merlene Taylor, assistant vice president for resource investment at United Way, "Children's Futures' emphasis on making sure every child is healthy and ready to learn by preschool is a perfect fit for the goals of IBM's Kidsmart Early Learning Program and the United Way's emphasis on helping children succeed." The brightly colored computer work stations include early learning educational software.
A youngster works on colors, shapes and numbers at the Children's Futures' East Ward family support/parent child center using a Young Explorer Station previously donated by IBM.
Newsletter Survey
Children's Futures' Newsletter Survey Surveys should be submitted by Monday, July 23.
Community Partners' Activities
Wednesday, July 25: Free ACT- Adults and Children Together - Against Violence Workshops to Begin July 25 for Parents who Speak English as a Second Language, presented by PEI Kids and The English School at The Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church: Free; 6:30 p.m.; held at 1039 Lawrence Road (Rt. 206) in Lawrenceville. The workshops offer tools and strategies to help parents teach children how they can handle anger, resolve conflicts and deal with frustration in a nonviolent way. The dates for the other workshops in the series are August 13, November 26, December 19 and January 28, 2008. Each workshop lasts 90 minutes and includes dinner. Childcare will be provided. Call 882-7909 to register.
Tuesday, August 7: Parenting Class Series (8 weeks) from Millhill Behavioral Health Program in Partnership with Isles, Inc. Parents Empowering Parents program: 6 to 7:30 p.m..; Mill Hill Community Room. Free. Call 989-7333 (ext. 17).
Saturday, August 11: The 5th Annual Fathers and Families Fun Day, presented by the Trenton Men's Collaborative and Children's Futures: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Mill Hill Park (South Broad and Front Streets). Free. Focused on Trenton fathers and their families with children three years of age and younger. Includes health screens, face painting, a magic show, party jumps and refreshments. Call 695-3663.
Links to News Articles About Early Childhood Health and Development
Senate Weighs Health Funding
Newhouse News describes efforts by U.S. Senator Bob Menendez
and others to expand federal spending for the State Children's
Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Covering More Children
In an editorial, the Washington Post discusses reauthorization
of the Children's Health Insurance program and the risk of leaving
children uninsured.
Toddler Looking for Attention
Star Ledger columnist and Children's Futures' Board Member Kendall
Sprott, MD provides pediatric advice in his weekly column.
For a complete calendar of events, please refer to our calendar page.
About Children's Futures
Established in 2001 with major support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Children's Futures is a nonprofit organization that works city-wide in Trenton, N.J. to improve child health and development outcomes. Through an unprecedented collaboration among public agencies and nonprofit organizations, Children's Futures seeks to strengthen parenting, increase access to primary quality health care and child care systems, and increase social supports for families, so that every child in Trenton enters preschool healthy and ready to learn.