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It is hard to imagine just how much the environment in which we operate has changed over the last years. Over 25 years later, Promise Partners is still focused on mobilizing the caring power of communities and making a difference in people's lives.
This fiscal year brings opportunities for growth and expansion to benefit area families.
Promise Partners has extended regions served through Decategorization (DECAT), Early Childhood Iowa (ECI), and Community Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC). Our efforts now include working alongside and partnering with the following governance boards:
- Harrison-Monona-Shelby County Decat & CPPC Board (HMS Board)
- Harrison-Monona-Shelby County Early Childhood Board (HMS ECI)
- Fremont-Page-Taylor Decat & CPPC Board (FPT Board)
With these additions, Promise Partners is now working under the direction of 4 governance boards and in 8 counties in Iowa. With growth comes new challenges and opportunities to learn.
We're excited to address the unique needs of each community
, guided by our vision to "empower a caring community that promises the well-being of every child."
Patricia Russmann
Executive Director
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Upcoming Pottawattamie County Meetings
Youth & Families Committee
Date: August 13 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Location:
Promise Partners 1st floor Conference Room
Careers Building -
Iowa School for the Deaf Campus
Prevent Child Abuse Committee
Date: August 21 11:30am - 1:00pm
Location:
Promise Partners 1st floor Conference Room
Careers Building -
Iowa School for the Deaf Campus
Promise Partners Governance Board
Date: August 28 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Location: Promise Partners 1st floor Conference Room
Careers Building -
Iowa School for the Deaf Campus
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What is Executive Function?
And How Does it Relate to Child Development?
As essential as they are, we aren't born
with
the skills that
enable us to control impulses, make plans, and stay focused. We are born with the potential to develop these capacities-or not-depending on our experiences during infancy, throughout childhood, and into adolescence. Our genes provide the blueprint, but the early environments in which children live leave a lasting signature on those
genes.
This signature influences how or whether that genetic potential is expressed in the brain circuits that underlie the executive function capacities children will rely on throughout their lives. These skills develop through practice and are strengthened by the experiences through which they are applied and honed. Providing the support that children need to build these skills at home, in child care and preschool programs, and in other settings they experience regularly is one of society's most important responsibilities.
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The Scientific Effort to Protect
Babies
from Trauma Before it Happens
For years, scientists have been
trying
to figure out how to break the remarkable robust connection between adversity early in life and bad outcomes later on-poor health, incarceration, dropping out of school, violence. A major pathway through which adversity can cause harm is
stress. For some children, the wear and tear of stress on their tiny, fast-changing bodies can become toxic, impairing critical cognitive and emotional foundations. Other children who face similarly hard circumstances will show relative resilience. At present, is virtually
impossible to know which children are most affected by stress and adversity, and thus, which ones are in the most danger.
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The 2019 KIDS Count Data Book is Here
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Book annually tracks the well-being of kids nationally and state by state. Since the first Data Book in 1990, the child population in the United States has grown and stood at nearly 74 million kids. This video shows how the child population has changed in terms of its diversity and where kids live. Unfortunately, those states with above-average increases in the child population tend to rank poorly on the KIDS COUNT Data Book's index of child well-being.
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How Has the U.S. Child Population Changed Since 1990?
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Read or download the 2019 KIDS COUNT Data Book
here.
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Results of the 2018 Opportunity Index
Since 2011, the Index has provided a snapshot of conditions that can be used to identify and improve access to opportunity-in comprehensive terms-for residents and their communities.
Many factors influence the kinds of opportunity people have, starting with unchangeable characteristics such as gender, race and ethnicity, genetic factors and family background. The quality of parenting, a family's income and individual health as well as the health and safety of neighborhoods, the quality of schools and the inclusiveness of one's community-all of these can respond to improvement efforts at personal, institutional and societal levels. These conditions vary from place to place, as well as over time, and that is why these conditions are the focus of the Opportunity Index.
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Back to School Extravaganza
The 12th Annual Extravaganza will be held August 16 at the Charles E. Lakin Human Services Campus.
See flyer for registration details.
for details to host an informational table.
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How Can You Inspire Kids to
Stay Healthy this Summer?
Eating healthy food, being physically active and taking time for yourself are all important parts of living a healthy lifestyle. That's why 4-H created the Healthy Living Activity Guide with 30 new hands-on activities to help children live a happy, healthy life.
Download the Activity Guide today and you'll also receive the original 4-H Inspire Kids to Do Activity Guide with 60 more activities.
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Program Spotlight:
Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty
Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty empowers under-resourced families to change their lives by discovering and overcoming barriers.
Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin'-By World is a book and a 16-session curriculum that helps individuals in poverty build their resources for a more prosperous life for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Classes Are Starting Shortly in Council Bluffs
Nonpareil Article on the
First Graduates of the Council Bluffs Bridges Out of Poverty Class
here.
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Connections Matter
Pottawattamie County
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Child and Family Resource Network of Pottawattamie County
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Pottawattamie Youth Council
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Training Opportunities:
Trauma
&
Resilience
in Families
July 16, 2019
Omaha, NE
Learning Support Symposium
August 5-6, 2019
Oakland, IA
Compassion Fatigue & Self-Care
August 15, 2019
Omaha, NE
Darkness to Light
August 20, 2019
Omaha, NE
Training in
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
August 19-23, 2019
Bellevue, NE
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Coming Up:
Westfair County Fair
July 24-29, 2019
Council Bluffs, IA
Shelby Fun Day
July 27, 2019
Shelby, IA
Rural Ramble
Small Farm Tour
August 10, 2019
Southwest Iowa
Back to School Extravaganza
August 16, 2019
Council Bluffs, IA
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