Inside this Issue

• Nurturing Developing Minds Conference Call for Proposals
• Addressing School Safety in SC
• Resources: 5 Takeaways from CPFEC, and SCNCAC's Releases New Report
• Noteworthy: MIECHV Reauthorization, Infant Product Recalled, COVID Vaccines for Babies, Preparing for Kindergarten, Backpack Safety Tips, and Thanking the Founders Luncheon Sponsors
• Bulletin Board: Jayme Lee Brewer Joins Organization
• Upcoming Events: Adolescent Suicide Prevention, ZERO TO THREE LEARN Conference, National Black Child Development Institute 2022 Conference, and Together for Families Conference 
• What We've Been Up To: Gathering on the Vineyard, EC PRISM's Measuring What Matters webinar, SC AAP Conference, and SCAN Summit

NDM Call for Proposals

The call for proposals for the Desmond P. Kelly, MD Nurturing Developing Minds Conference & Research and Implementation Symposium is open until September 15, 2022. We are in search of sessions and/or posters to present at our early childhood conference next year, in Greenville, South Carolina at the Greenville ONE Center (we intend to provide both in-person and hybrid virtual learning opportunities).

We encourage broad consideration of our theme, "Restoration, Resilience & Rebuilding." Following are the concepts to guide you in developing your submittal:

• Early childhood programs
• Promoting healthy child development
• Autism and developmental disabilities
• Special healthcare needs/chronic illness management

#2023NDM

ICS Joins Coalition to

Address School Safety in SC

At an August 26 press conference, a coalition of advocacy associations who are focused on the well-being of children announced that they developed a 2023 SC School Safety Policy

Agenda devoted to five in-school and five out-of-school areas to increase the ability of all children to grow and learn free of fear in their schools and communities. The five coalition members are the Palmetto State Teachers Association, the SC American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute for Child Success, the SC Association of School Psychologists, and the American Counseling Association of SC.

We realize that far too many children currently experience fear as a result of increased incidents of violence and mass shootings in schools and communities across our state and nation. Given the multi-faceted nature of the problem, there is no single policy or community action that will completely eliminate or even mitigate the threats to the safety of our children. However, instead of providing a justification for inaction, the scope of the challenges faced by our children should compel all South Carolinians to collectively act. Below are the areas of focus we are addressing:

Five In-School Areas of Focus

1. Student Mental Health Services

2. School Facilities

3. School Climate: Staffing and School Resource Officers (SROs)

4. Mandatory Responses

5. Research-Based Training and Bullying Prevention

Five Out-of-School Areas of Focus

1. Statewide School Safety Center

2. Child Access Prevention (CAP) Laws

3. Addressing Firearm Theft

4. Social Media Regulation

5. Creation of Community Programming

Learn more about our policy agenda and what you can do to help ensure the children of SC have access to high-quality education free from the fear of increased incidents of violence and mass shootings in schools and communities across.

Resources

EC PRISM blog: 5 Takeaways from NRCEC2022

by Camille Sullivan, EC PRISM Project Support Specialist

When staff members attended the Administration for Children and Families' National Research Conference on Early Childhood 2022, they were invigorated by the innovative and timely early childhood research, so much so that it warranted reflection.

As Sullivan says, "There are not many issues that do not impact the first years of life!" Topics included cultural responsivity of teaching practice, educator compensation, child literacy development and learning, infant and early childhood family mental health, child and family nutrition, resilience in children and families, measurement in early childhood classrooms, homes, and clinics, COVID-19, multilingualism, and more.

1. The field of early childhood is more vast than ever.
2. Numerous measurement tools transcend assessing hard skills to look at multiple sides of a child’s context, development, and background.
3. States vary widely in their support of young families, but most have not implemented many of the policies that have been shown to work.
4. Early childhood educators are even more underpaid than you might think.
5. We really, really need MIECHV.



Take a closer look the 5 takeaways

Guest blog by the South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers about their New Report

by Thomas Knapp of the SC Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers (SCNCAC) and Megan Carolan, ICS VP of Research

Excerpt: CACs are a resource for children and their families when children are named as victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse, severe neglect, maltreatment, or a witness to a crime. The SCNCAC's report documents the progress of services to children and families in need, and highlights future needs to ensure these essential programs (continued advocacy and referrals for specialized mental health and/or medical services) are always available when needed...

Read more about these essential county- and child-level resources  

Noteworthy

Reauthorization of the National Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program in Desperate Need

Without reauthorization, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program is set to expire on September 30, 2022. The program has been in existence since 2010 and in 2019, MIECHV-supported home visiting programs provided over a million home visits to over 154,000 at-risk children and families in every U.S. state, DC, and five territories.

Home visiting programs serve as a critical link of support for families, helping magnify parental skills, promote optimal child health and development, and connect families to a range of available supportive services. The MIECHV program serves as an equity accelerator by fostering relationships that enable home visitors to provide supports based on the specific needs and goals of individual families.

• Provided screening in maternal depression both prenatally and postpartum and connected mothers in need with appropriate community-based interventions.
• Targeted the social determinants of health affecting families, such as social support, parental stress, access to health care, income and poverty status, and environmental conditions.

Learn more about MIECHV  

Thanks to Our Founders Luncheon Sponsors

We would like to give a huge, heartfelt thank you to the sponsors of our Founders Luncheon! We celebrated the founders and uplifted the history of ICS. We have grown from an organization founded in Greenville, SC to address issues of SC children and families, to having a national presence partnering with numerous, early childhood agencies, and forming an alliance with EC PRISM to bring early childhood measures to our skillset.

Sustaining Sponsor

Kincaid Retirement and Wealth Management, LLC

Event Sponsors

American Services, Inc.

Bank of America Private Bank

The Bradshaw Family

Chief Services

Cliff and Carolyn Ellis Foundation

Hughes Agency

Natalma (Tami) McKnew

Molina Healthcare

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.

The Riley Institute at Furman University

Rosenfeld Realty Group

South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

Truist Bank

In-Kind Sponsor

Uptown Company

Bulletin Board

Jayme Lee Brewer Joins Organization

Jayme Lee Brewer joins the organization as Operations Associate. Jayme Lee has wide-ranging administrative experience related to financial management, customer service, vendor management, and logistics. She previously served as a Regulatory Affairs Coordinator for a medical device company and Human Services Specialist for SC Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) in Barnwell County.

Over the years she has also been involved in volunteer work. Most notably, as an Adult Leader at the youth group that she attended as a teen. As well as having been certified as a Sexual Assault Advocate working as part of a county sexual assault response team (SART). She currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Upcoming Events

Adolescent Suicide Prevention

ZERO TO THREE LEARN Conference in September

ICS COO and General Counsel, Bryan Boroughs and ICS VP of Policy Research, Megan Carolan will be presenting sessions at the ZERO TO THREE virtual conference in September. The conference runs September 12-15, and welcomes early childhood professionals from across disciplines, geographies, and backgrounds. This virtual experience is your opportunity to build relationships, reignite your passion, and strengthen your practice.

Hear Bryan on September 13 at 3 pm ET as he co-delivers, baby talk-C3, "Hello Family: Improving Outcomes By Delivering A Suite Of Services At Scale Through Pay For Success (PFS) Financing." This talk shares the extraordinary story of Hello Family, an initiative that seeks to improve outcomes for young children and their families by providing a continuum of evidence-based services for all children (PN-5) born in Spartanburg, SC. The program links contracting to actual improvements in families’ lives. Presenting alongside Bryan will be Andrea Phillips of Maycomb Capital, and Chris Story of the City Of Spartanburg.

Join Megan on September 14 at 3:45 pm ET in Lecture Session C1, "The Early Childhood Workforce Across Disciplines: Incorporating Experiences From Health, Child Welfare, And Education To Build A Sustainable Workforce."

National Black Child Development Institute 2022 Conference

The National Black Child Development Institute Conference will take place October 7-9, 2022, in Washington DC. The theme is “Creating an Equitable and JUST Future for Black Children and Families.” Learn action-oriented solutions that will move us closer to ensuring that Black children have equitable opportunities for healthy development, nurturing learning experiences, and life success.

You can see Mary C. Garvey, Chief Equity Office of ICS presenting the session, "A Sympathetic Touch: Tackling Exclusionary Discipline and Promoting Flourishing."

Together for Families Conference in October

The biennial Together for Families Conference will take place virtually from October 19-21, 2022. Our colleagues at EC PRISM will be presenting, "Measuring What Matters: Equity Considerations in Assessment."

The conference connects various stakeholders from across the U.S. and Canada in the Family Support and Strengthening field to focus on best and promising practices for supporting families’ advancement. It is designed for practitioners at the program, systems, and funder levels.

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