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Number of families with children aged 5 years “There is nothing
and younger in Oak Park and River Forest.
3,448 Online visits to the March Early Learning in a caterpillar that

Newsletter providing COVID-19
964 resources, business practices, and tells you it’s going to
grant opportunities for early childhood
providers.
Oak Park and River Forest: be a butterfly.”

300 300 children were Letter from our Executive Director
enrolled in publicly
For those who have raised, educated or dedicated their careers to working with children, autumn is a
funded preschool time of reflection. We reflect on the end of the warm, balmy days of summer and the return to childhood
LY C H I L D H O O D E C O SYS during the 2019-20 school day routines. We see this as a time for taking stock in all that we love about our children, while
T
R E school year. looking forward to what this new year will bring for them. It is a season of hope.
A M
E This year, that hope has been tempered with the unique and unforeseen challenges that came with
a global pandemic. The return to routine has been disrupted indefinitely, bringing with it an even
R 43 greater sense of insecurity for parents who now struggle to provide even the basics for their family.
U 43 Childcare We, like everyone else, have been navigating the impact of this unprecedented event on the children
Centers and
O Preschools in our neighborhoods, and have seized on the opportunity to reinforce our value in the community as
coordinator, collaborator, and connecter.
33 33 Family We never closed. We became a trusted, central space for information exchange [talking points from

Childcare Donor Acknowledgement letter?] Although we were unable to host in-person events since early last
Providers spring, we shifted our programming so that more parents and community members could access them
from their homes. In doing so, we increased our attendance at virtual events by ___% and raised overall
awareness of the value early childhood education plays.
Through it all, we’ve remained committed to our broader goals which include increased outreach
10 years or more: to fathers and pregnant mothers, expanded support for early childhood mental health and social-
10+ the average years emotional services, and greater engagement with senior citizens in early childhood work.
that our local
early childhood One of the darkest moments of the year prompted a response that has shone a hopeful light on our
educators have conviction that each child deserves the opportunity to live a life full of love, support, belonging and
worked in the field. promise. Equity is at the backbone of what we do every day in the service of our children. Generations
of inequities culminated in the senseless death of George Floyd and it is our deepest resolve to rewrite
82% of preschoolers in publicly 37 37 programs were represented at a future chapters of this tragic narrative.
funded schools scored proficient in working group on reopening under new We are listening to parents who feel their child may have been deprived of opportunity because of
the Kindergarten Readiness Test 82% COVID regulations. These programs later race. We are engaging teachers and program staff in training to identify biases and gain strategies on
received reopening kits with sanitizer, how to adopt a perspective in anti-racism. And we are reaching out to provide clinical assistance to
cleaning supplies, and masks. classrooms struggling to equitably navigate the impact of stress or adversity in the life of a child.
Together, we all hope that our children will prosper and thrive. Like you, The Collaboration for Early
72% Up from Childhood has big hopes for our community’s children in the coming year. We are eager to help build
our community’s capacity to love, nurture and see that all potential is recognized in every child.
72%,
68%,
68% and John Borrero
Executive Director
63%
in the
63% past
3 years