Community Newsletter

Thank you to the Dayton Foundation’s Del Mar Encore Fellows
 
Preschool Promise is committed to equity and inclusion and that also means ensuring racial and generational diversity in our employees! We recently were honored to host Don Ambrose, President of Del Mar Healthcare, and our partners at the Dayton Foundation to celebrate all Del Mar Encore Fellows.

In 2017, The Dayton Foundation started the Del Mar Fellows program and began assigning highly skilled older adults to work on significant community issues while also changing the conversation about aging.
 
We are privileged to work with our Fellow, Dr. Debra Brathwaite, who has shared incredible insight with our team while leading our Preschool Promise Pathways project that is helping early childhood educators earn degrees and credentials. Debra’s passion for education has been a driving force in creating this program from scratch!
 
To hear Debra describe the initiative and to learn more about the work of other Del Mar Encore Fellows, check out this video celebrating the United Nations International Day of Older Persons.
 
The Del Mar Encore Initiative is made possible by generous gifts from the Del Mar Healthcare Fund of The Dayton Foundation.
 

Robyn Lightcap

Executive Director

The Dayton Daily News recently highlighted the child care crisis and the drop in Preschool enrollment driven by the pandemic. Advocates for children and families called out the woefully inadequate financial support for early childhood education. Women are being forced out of the workforce in record numbers, and child care programs have been forced to close because programs can’t find staff and afford to pay them a living wage. Thank you to Montgomery County and the City of Dayton for investing in early learning in our community!

Montgomery County is asking voters to renew the Human Services levy on Nov. 2. Issue 1 will not raise taxes. If the renewal fails, more than half of local funding for human services will be eliminated. Five locally-controlled agencies receive the bulk of the Human Services funding. They protect children, public health and the frail elderly. They also diagnose and treat children and adults with developmental disabilities and persons with drug and alcohol dependencies, and provide physical and behavioral health care for people in need. Citizens all across Montgomery County receive services. To learn more, click here. Early voting starts on October 6.

We have exciting professional development opportunities for early learning professionals to help ensure they’re getting children ready for Kindergarten. Our new trainings and year-long Professional Learning Communities include Bridging the Gap: Becoming the Teacher that Builds Black-Boy-Friendly Classrooms; Wired to Move 2; and Conscious Discipline Introduction. These courses are taught by experienced Preschool Promise coaches. Due to popular demand, we are bringing back our Preschool Promise Conference Day on February 21, 2022.

Early childhood educators in Ohio earn an average of $11 per hour, making it impractical if not impossible for them to afford to continue their education. Our new Preschool Promise Pathway initiative helps teachers and administrators get degrees and credentials debt-free! More than 30 teachers are earning their Child Development Associate credential or a bachelor’s or associate’s degree. Congratulations to Brittnee Hoover who is the first Promise Pathway graduate. She earned a bachelor’s degree with a 3.9 GPA! Brittnee balanced being a full-time employee and mother during her education journey.

 

Our free October Book-of-the Month, “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates,” refers to a lesson learned by Penelope Rex as she embarks on her first day of school. The book teaches children about following the “Golden Rule” and the importance of not attempting to eat their classmates!

Now that Dayton 3-year-olds are eligible to join Preschool Promise, we’re expanding the kinds of age-appropriate activities we’re sharing with families to help their children learn at home. We’re calling our tip sheets Recipes for Play. The recipes explain how to use items easily found at home — like cupcake tins or a metal bowl — to teach children. The kiddos received a felt holder to store their recipes, and new activity cards will be arriving every month.