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You won’t find a better return than                                              HEALTH  AND

                                              investing in early childhood education.                                                 DEVELOPMENT

                                                                                                                                      Our community ensures that
                                                               Arthur Rolnick, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
                                                                                                                                      children are getting the

            4,062 total professional                                                                                                  resources they need to grow
            development hours     4,062
            acquired by educators                                                                                                     up healthy and to remove
            in 2019-2020 through
            Collaboration programming                                                                                                 obstacles to learning

                                                                                                                                      as early as possible. By
                                                                                                                                      building and maintaining
            400+ students were                                                  Preschool as Preparation: A kinder-
            impacted by teacher   400+                                          garten-ready child has the foundational               strong partnerships with
            equity training                                                     social-emotional, physical, and academic
                                                                                skills  needed  to transition  into  a formal         early childhood, pediatric,
                                                                                school setting. Kids need to be ready for
                                                                                kindergarten, but kindergarten needs to               and community sites, we’re
                                                                                be equally ready for kids. We’re connect-
            The 2020 Symposium                                                                                                        expanding our collective impact.
            held in January was    446                                          ing the complex systems that must work
            attended by a record                                                together to establish that foundation here
            446 attendees                                                       in Oak Park and River Forest.
                                                                                                                                      •   30 early childhood, pediatric, and community sites trained to
                                                                                                                                          administer developmental screenings, facilitate meaningful discussions with
                                                                                                   |
                                                              EARLY  LEARNING    Through                                                  parents and families about screening results, and support families to follow up on   10% increase, to 1969
                                                                                                                                          meeting children’s needs.                                            1,969          in developmental
                                                                    a robust calendar of professional                                                                                                                       or social-emotional
                                                                                                                                      •   Screenings twice a year across our community administered by our Hearing and             screenings
                                                                             development for preschool                                    Vision Screening Technician.

                                                                           teachers and caretakers, we                                •   Community vision and hearing screening events for all children not enrolled in
                                                                                                                                          center-based childhood programming.
                                                                          are strengthening the success                                                                                                         61%    61% of children who were
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        referred due to concerns
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           identified through the
                                                                           and quality of the preschool                               Growing Well: Screenings are just one                                              hearing screening were
                                                                                                                                      piece of the puzzle. The Collaboration
                                                                                  classroom experience.                               also strengthens health practitioners’                                      assessed and received treatment
                                                                                                                                      awareness  of early  childhood develop-
                                                                                                              •                       mental issues and services by meeting
                                                                                                                                      regularly. Making community resources                                            52% of children who were
                                                                                  Annual symposium “Embrace the Mess:                                                                                           52%
                                                                                    The Complexities of Early Childhood”              more readily available for health care                                            referred due to concerns
                                                                                                                                      providers enriches the lives of the children                                         identified through the
                                                                                                              •                       they care for.                                                                       vision screening were
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  assessed and received treatment
                                                                        Monthly educator-facing COVID-19 updates via an
                                                                                          interactive monthly newsletter
                                                                                                              •
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         2,051 Ages and Stages
                                                                                  Bi-monthly meetings for early childhood                                                                                      2,051    Questionnaire screenings
                                                                             directors and family childcare leaders and the                                                                                              completed between July
                                                                                    publicly-funded preschool committee                                                                                                    2019 and June 2020
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