This week starts the beginning of Down East Partnership for Children’s new fiscal year. While we are excited to celebrate 30 years of service to this community, it also brings a variety of challenges. The child care crisis continues, as hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid for child care centers and homes across North Carolina come to an end. This is creating a gap in child care funding in the state.
While there may be some funding to provide a stop gap for the first half of the fiscal year, it still increases challenges for child care centers. It will be difficult to pay their workers what they deserve without increasing fees to the parents who are already struggling to afford care. It is our hope, that by working together, we can overcome this crisis.
The current context is scary if you only focus on the negative. The child care cliff, the drought farmers are facing and an election year all make it easy to feel frustrated. Times like these remind us it is more important than ever to focus on what is possible.
Focus on what we can do now and how we can provide support and resources to our community. That’s the secret of success for the partnership for the past 30 years — leaning into the current context, understanding the available resources, creating and connecting component pieces that help every child be launched as a healthy lifelong learner by the end of the third grade.
We have worked hard to identify the current component pieces available to support families right now. Here is an overview of resources for families this summer:
Surround yourself with a team of support: Connect with positive people and positive experiences. It is easy to get isolated during times like this. Start a playgroup in your own neighborhood. Make connections with friends at church or in the community — find a story time at a local library. Invite a friend to join you on a field trip.Connect to the new health plans now available: The partnership is working to connect families to learn more about the health plans now available due to expansion of Medicaid. We are working with local health officials to help families learn about the new health plans and what works best for them. For more information about these plans, please contact your local Department of Social Services as the starting point for understanding the services available or visit online at epass.nc.gov or for a paper application visit Medicaid.nc.gov/print-application.Find a Summer Feeding or Summer Learning site near you: Take the challenge of planning breakfast and lunch out of each day with our Summer Feeding and Summer Learning sites. All throughout Nash and Edgecombe counties, the partnership collaborates with community partners to ensure that children up to 18 years old have not only hot meals available, but also access to learning opportunities to ensure they do not backslide over the summer months from their hard work this school year. We want to ensure every child enters the next school year stronger than ever. Contact the partnership to find out more or visit www.fns.usda.gov/summerfoodrocks to find local sites by zip code.Visit a local farmers market or Mobile Market: Ripe for Revival will visit the partnership on July 16 from 3-4:30 p.m. and the third Tuesday of each month thereafter to offer fresh, pay-what-you-can produce from local farms to visitors. Check our social media channels to stay connected with the specific time and location.Take it outside: Add a walk to your daily activity or a scavenger hunt for things you might find in nature. Look up at the stars, listen for fun sounds, bring crayons and paper to make pictures of what you see. Take binoculars to get a closer look. Keep a journal of the things you see and do on your walk. Start a list of places you want to go. Information on local trails are available at https://rockymountnc.gov/trails/ or https://www.traillink.com.Visit Discovery Park (or any local park): Come check out what’s growing in our Discovery Park Garden! Did you know that seven laps around the paved trail equals one mile? Please plan to bring water to stay hydrated and take breaks from the heat. For other fun places to visit, try out the NC Farms app for more outside fun.Participate in a play group: A great opportunity for you and your child (up to 5 years of age) to play together with other families this summer is “Wiggly Wednesdays” in Spring Hope. This includes inside play time on Wednesdays from 9:30-11am at Spring Hope Play Days, Spaulding Family Resource Center in Spring Hope. Other partnership playgroups will resume in the fall. Contact Debra Boudreau for more information, 252-985-4300, ext. 270 ordboudreau@depc.org.Read every day: Read with your children and listen to them read to you. Encourage reading for 20 minutes a day and ask questions about what they are reading. Summer is a great time to turn off the TV, put away the tablet and grab a book from the library! Check out Braswell Memorial Library, Edgecombe County Memorial Library and Nashville’s Harold D. Cooley Library for reading programs, events and story times.Register for kindergarten: Help make sure all rising kindergartners are registered as soon as possible. Visit the partnership’s website or call the Family First Line to learn how to register for kindergarten and if your child will be 4 by Aug. 31, they may qualify for pre-K. Spots are filling up fast, so call soon!Cook together: Have you seen the summer issue of Chop Chop magazine? It is a great resource filled with recipes that you can make with your child. The partnership distributes this magazine, please let us know if you are interested. You can also visit this site to access their healthy recipes: https://www.chopchopfamily.org.Plan to attend Family Fun Day, Sept. 28, at Wesleyan: The partnership is teaming up with N.C. Wesleyan University to offer a Family Fun Day Carnival on N.C. Wesleyan’s campus from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. There will be food trucks, inflatables, carnival games, free books, free giveaways, story time, science demonstrations and much more! We look forward to seeing you there! Sponsorships are still available, contact Jackie Kearney at jkearney@depc.org if you would like to sponsor this event.
Summer will be over before we know it. Let’s take this opportunity to maximize the resources we have and strengthen our support for our families. We are stronger together.
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