Upcoming Professional Development
 

Saturday, April 22, 2017
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
New River Community College
Dublin, VA
" For the Love of Children Conference"

Tuesday, May 9th
6:15-8:15 p.m.
Abingdon Small Business Incubator
Abingdon, VA
" Growing Up Wild"

Tuesday, May 16th
6:15-8:15 p.m.
Wytheville Community
College
Wytheville, VA
" Growing Up Wild"



**To register or see information about additional upcoming events, click on the calendar icon below.
Upcoming 
Events Calendar
Click on the calendar to see registration information for events.
TIPS CALENDAR:
Training Information for Provider Success

Check TIPS to learn about  early childhood professional development opportunities throughout Virginia. 

Click HERE 

Smart Beginnings Southwest Virginia e- Newsletter
April 2017
 PROVIDER APPRECIATION | WOYC | VOLUNTEER AWARD | UNITING COMMUNICATIONS

 

Nominate A Provider!

Provider Appreciation Day is a special day to recognize child care providers, teachers, and other educators of young children. This year's Provider Appreciation Day is Friday, May 12, 2017. 
 
United Way of Southwest Virginia is looking for early education providers in the Southwest Virginia region that have demonstrated exceptional teaching, caring, or giving with children, parents, the center, or the community.
 
If you would like to nominate a provider that deserves some recognition, please click here
 
The deadline to receive nominations is Thursday, May 11, 2017.  Entries received will be recognized on social media and the United Way of Southwest Virginia website. Entries will also be placed in a random drawing for a Provider Appreciation basket. 


Celebrating Our Youngest Learners

Southwest Virginia Celebrates

Week of the Young Child™
 

United Way of Southwest Virginia asks everyone to come together for children during the Week of the Young Child™ (April 24-28, 2017).  As part of the national Week of the Young Child™ celebrated across the country, Southwest Virginia is honoring young children and highlighting those who make a difference in children's lives.
Week of the Young Child™ is a time to recognize the importance of early learning and early literacy, and to celebrate the teachers and policies that bring early childhood education to young children.
UWSWVA will be highlighting stories on social media from several Quality Rated programs around the region, one for each day of the week, and providing links to resources for activities in the classroom, focusing on each theme for the day.
For more information and inspiration on how you can celebrate Week of the Young Child™, please click here to visit the NAEYC website.


 
 
Volunteer Appreciation

This year, at the United Way of Southwest Virginia Impact Awards on March 16, 2017, The Volunteer of the Year in Education award went to Kent Berryman . Kent, an employee of Anthem Healthkeepers Plus has been a strong supporter of Smart Beginnings and Virginia Quality for four years, serving on both the Virginia Highlands and Appalachian Region coalitions of Smart Beginnings. Kent also served on the planning committees of both early childhood conferences: the Tender Loving Caregiving Conference in Abingdon and the Early Childhood Summit in Big Stone Gap. Additionally, he volunteers his time as a Tai Chi instructor for these events. Kent continues to strengthen our relationship with new partners and resources, promoting United Way's early education department as a valued resource for professional development and early childhood support. Thank you, Kent, for your dedication and service to the youngest citizens of Southwest Virginia!

If you would like to learn about volunteer opportunities through United Way of Southwest Virginia, please visit our website at www.unitedwayswva.org/volunteer.


Uniting communications of Smart Beginnings and Virginia Quality with other United Way initiatives

Soon, you'll be able to keep up with all of our programs and initiatives here at United Way of Southwest Virginia without getting multiple e-newsletters, visiting different websites, and liking different Facebook pages! We're "Uniting" our communications!

If you are subscribed to any of our programs' or initiatives' e-newsletters, you'll keep seeing that information; it will be included in the United Way of Southwest Virginia e-newsletter starting in May! Since you are subscribed to the Smart Beginnings and Virginia Quality e-newsletter, you'll be able to keep up with Smart Beginnings and Virginia Quality at the same time as you keep up with United Way of Southwest Virginia's other Education programs and initiatives you love, all in one email - starting in May. If you are subscribed to more than one of our e-newsletters, we hope you will like getting fewer emails, yet more content to keep you in the loop - starting in May.

On top of Uniting our e-newsletters, we're also Uniting our Facebook pages into one Facebook page and our websites into one website. Regardless of which Facebook page you "like" or "follow", you'll still be connected. If you "like" our Smart Beginnings SWVA page on Facebook, your "like" will automatically transfer to the United Way of Southwest Virginia page on Facebook - starting in April. And regardless of which web address you have saved to your Favorites, you'll still get where you need to go. If you type in smartbeginningsswva.org , you'll be directed to the appropriate page on our unitedwayswva.org website - starting in May.

We're doing all of this so we can make the most of our time and yours. We love keeping you up-to-date on our programs, events, and initiatives, and we hope our United communications will help to streamline that process for all of us!commun

Virginia Cross-Sector Professional Development Team Summit

Are you an early childhood trainer, mentor, or coach? Then this is one Summit you won't want to miss. 
 
The VCPD Summit will be held at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon, Virginia on Thursday, April 27, 2017 from 9:00 AM-3:00 PM.  For more information, please visit the VCPD Western Region website.VCPD

SAVE THE DATE: July 20-21, 2017
Pre-conference: July 19, 2017
The Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, VA

 
Child Care Aware of Virginia and Virginia Cross-Sector Professional Development (VCPD) are partnering to offer two $500 scholarships for childcare providers from the Western Region of Virginia to attend the Creating Connections to Shining Stars Conference, July 19-21, 2017 in Roanoke, VA.
Click here for more information.

SAVE THE DATE!
 April 22, 2017  Wytheville
 May 6, 2017     Herndon

For more information and to register, please visit the Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network website.