SHORTcuts, July 29, 2020 No images? Click here July 29, 2020Congratulations!MRTQ PDN would like to congratulate the following practitioner:
For more information about how MRTQ PDN can support you to earn any of the Maine Credentials, visit our website! FREE Webinar: Engaging in Conversations about Racial and Ethnic Equity
Join the Office of Head Start (OHS) and the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (NCPFCE) for a dialogue about the opportunity to stand in challenging conversations about race, racism, and equity while embracing our individual experiences in service of moving forward together. Presenters will share information about creating respectful, inclusive environments that invite and honor the diverse perspectives of staff and families. They will also offer key terms, resources, and strategies for addressing race and racism in early childhood settings.” The registration link can be used for both the live event and on-demand viewing. The recording will be available to watch on-demand starting 30 minutes after the live event ends, until October 15, 2020. Because access to the live event is limited and the session may be full, we recommend watching the webinar on-demand. A version with English closed captions will also be posted on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) as part of the Head Start Heals Campaign, 20-25 days after the event. Participants will receive an email with a link to download the certificate of attendance, at the end of either the live event or on-demand viewing. FREE Presentation: Developing Empathy in Kids
From the Scarborough Public Library: What is empathy? And why, in the midst of a pandemic, is it more important than ever to help our children develop it? Join Amanda Morin, Scarborough resident and author of the new children's book, What Is Empathy: A Bullying Storybook for Kids for a conversation about why empathy is such an important skill to teach, what you can do to begin cultivating empathy in your children, and the importance and power of parenting and teaching from a place of empathy. Amanda will provide some ways to get started and will answer your questions. Developing Empathy in Kids: How Parents and Caregivers Can Help, a virtual presentation with time for questions throughout, is free to attend. To register and receive the Zoom link, please email ljnorvell@scarboroughlibrary.org with the names of those who wish to attend. If you’d like, include your question(s) about this important topic to be submitted to Amanda ahead of time. A Conversation with Maine Pediatricians on Safely Reopening Schools in the Fall
As the MEA continues to work toward ensuring safety measures are in place for our educators and students, the MEA will host this important webinar with two leading Maine pediatricians who will discuss their hopes and concerns for reopening schools in the Fall. Maine Afterschool Network Summer Meeting and Professional Development
This meeting will be an opportunity to have your questions about Fall 2020 answered to engage in a chatback. As part of registration, please submit questions you have about the Fall re-opening during the COVID-19 pandemic. Coming Soon: Quality Improvement Awards and MinigrantsMRTQ PDN is excited to announce that additional funding through the Child Care Development Block Grant has been designated for Quality Improvement Awards and Minigrants! Coming in August, programs that have moved up from Step 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 with Quality for ME, are pursuing national accreditation and Step 4, or have maintained a Step 4 will be eligible to apply for a one-time funding award. The grant period will extend back to July 1, 2019. More information will be available soon - stay tuned! MRTQ PDN Is Hiring!MRTQ PDN currently has three open positions. Learn more and apply at the links below if you're interested in joining our team: FREE COVID-19 Workshop Series: "It Takes a Village: Learning Together through Challenging Times"The COVID-19 Pandemic has challenged child care professionals and the field as a whole in ways that most of us never imagined possible. Issues such as personal fear, new guidelines for practice, navigating huge financial losses, and supporting families have come up all at once as we move through the COVID-19 Pandemic. Bowdoin College Children’s Center Administration and Staff have spent the last four months studying and researching how COVID-19 has effected childcare and implementing a strategic plan. Consultation with physicians, organizational change professionals, mental health counselors, state licensors, and more have fed a broader plan for re-opening and staying open through these times. This workshop series is intended to share that information with those it can help and provide a place for further discussion and consultation with each other with the ultimate goal of a stronger and more sustainable child care system in our region. Workshops will be held throughout August. Registration is open to all early childhood professionals. Participants can choose to enroll in as many of the workshops as they wish. While there are intended audiences listed below, anyone is welcome to join any of the conversations. We plan to limit these workshops to 10 people so that there is ample time for discussion, problem solving and planning together. FREE: Virtual Service Delivery Webinar SeriesFrom the Brazelton Touchpoints Center: The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed how we deliver education, health care, and other critical services to young children and their families. Even as some regions of the country begin to re-open schools, child care centers, pediatric offices, and more, it is clear that many services will continue to be offered virtually. We have been hearing from colleagues around the country about the challenges of these unprecedented times, including working with families online, and also about some fascinating discoveries on how to make virtual work with families successful. To support family-facing providers in their online work with children and families, Brazelton Touchpoints Center is offering a series of free 1-hour webinars and an online learning community that will explore the challenges posed by virtual service delivery and share strategies providers have found for building and sustaining strong relationships with families virtually. In partnership the Rapid Response Virtual Home Visiting (RR-VHV) Collaborative, we will build on lessons learned from virtual home visiting that will benefit providers across all family-facing disciplines and sectors. Webinar 1: Wednesday, July 22, 2:00pm Engaging Families Using a Strengths-Based Approach in the Virtual World Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Forgiveness: ResourcesFrom the Maine Small Business Development Centers: One program, two forgiveness application forms. Which form is right for your business? Where do you find the forms? How do you fill out the applications properly? Maine SBDC has created walk-through videos to help small businesses understand the Paycheck Protection Program Forgiveness Applications. This is a three-part series that first helps business owners identify which application form they should be filling out. The additional two videos walk businesses through each of the applications: 3508EZ Short Form and 3808 Long Form. View the first video by clicking the link to the left. Online Now: Beautiful Blackbird Children's Book Festival with Indigo Arts AllianceFrom Indigo Arts Alliance: Indigo Arts Alliance wants to celebrate Black illustrators and children’s books authors with you and your family. We hope that you and your young children will enjoy listening to and reading these beautiful books featuring Black characters. We are excited to invite you all to join us all Summer as we celebrate (virtually) Black children’s books created by Black writers and illustrators. The Website is Your Festival Home Base. Check out the menu at the top of the page to see and learn about the books we are featuring. Pay attention to our social media (Instagram and Facebook) between now and August 31st to hear about our featured books, illustrators, and writers! Let’s read together! Every Week will be #FestivalFridays On the website, you will find original videos with books read to you by award winning creators, arts & crafts activities, guest speakers, and amazing performances. Coming Soon: Program Portal on Child Care ChoicesThe Program Portal has been developed to allow individual programs to update the information displayed on Child Care Choices, Maine’s online search for child care programs. Beginning in August of 2020, programs will be able to update the following information:
The Program Portal will replace the spreadsheet created by MaineAEYC, MRTQ PDN, and Maine's Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child and Family Services that is currently listed at the top of the Child Care Choices home page Programs will no longer be requested to update their information in the spreadsheet. More information will be coming in SHORTcuts in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!. YWCA Central Maine 21 Day Racial Equity and Social Justice ChallengeFrom the YWCA of Central Maine: Back by popular demand with the support of Coffee by Design, another 21 Day Challenge cohort is starting Friday, July 31st! This is your opportunity to dive deep into topics of racial equity and social justice, receiving curated emails with resources that take just a few minutes per day, for 21 days. The 21 Day Challenge is an opportunity to dive deep into topics of racial equity and social justice. Participants will be provided with curated articles, podcasts, activities, and more delivered straight to their inbox each morning. Emails will begin Friday July 31st and continue (Monday – Friday) through August 28th. You will be given a few options each day, with some materials only requiring a few minutes of your time! FREE Webinar: Lead in Consumer Products
Lead is poisonous and can cause permanent damage to exposed children. There’s no safe level of lead in a child’s body. Certain consumer products—including many intended for children and imported to the U.S. from other countries—contain lead. Children may be exposed when they put these products in their mouths, but this exposure is preventable! In this webinar, you’ll learn the steps you can take to protect the children entrusted to your care. Nature-Based Early Learning Virtual Conference
The largest national gathering of nature-based early education professionals is moving online this year with more content than ever before! Register for the Nature-Based Early Learning Virtual Conference, hosted by the Natural Start Alliance, and access more than 50 interactive live sessions over three days (July 29-31) and 24-hour on-demand access to more than 40 sessions. You also get 365-day access to session recordings so you can revisit your favorite presentations, gain continuing education credits throughout the year, and get the most out of your conference experience. Webinar: Taking Your Preschool Day OUTSIDE!
COVID-19 is turning our preschool days upside down, so why not turn them... outside? Using the foundation of the HighScope Daily Routine, we'll explore how the daily rhythm can be transferred outdoors - from group meetings to small group time to meals and maybe even naps! This webinar, intended for early childhood educators, administrators, and advocates, will explore the logistics and benefits of moving parts of a 4 hour preschool day (and beyond) outdoors. We will explore how to meet developmental standards, including literacy, math, arts, social studies, and more using tools available in nature and indoor tools adapted for the outdoors. As a certified HIghScope trainer, Rachel will guide us through this interactive webinar designed to help us cope with changes coming for early learning programs, including social distancing and health and safety requirements. Childhood Vaccine ClinicsCOVID-19 has impacted connections with primary health care professionals for many families, especially when it's about wellness visits. This impact on wellness visits is known to be having a negative impact on the timely vaccination of children. It is important for families that want to follow the recommended vaccination schedule to be able to maintain their child’s vaccines up to date. The Maine Immunization Program is currently working with local Public Health Nurses to offer clinics across the state to help children get their recommended immunizations. Complete the 2020 Census!You can complete the census online, by phone (844-330-2020), or by mail. Encourage others to complete it, too! The 2020 Census will be used to determine our congressional representation and funding for the next decade for education, transportation, and hospitals, as well as critical programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP. A higher response rate will produce more accurate results, particularly for smaller populations. Building Resilience With HOPE: Healthy Outcomes of Positive Experience
Join MRBN for a one-day conference on HOPE (Healthy Outcomes of Positive Experiences); a framework co-authored by Dr. Robert Sege from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. For too long, our work with young children and their families has focused on adversity and risk. While these are important, we now know that positive childhood experiences also have dramatic effects on brain growth and development and on adult health. Building on the key insights from toxic stress, our brains develop in response to experience. HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) outlines approaches that we can take to incorporate a more holistic understanding of human development. The keynote address will describe the science of HOPE, and lay out the four pillars of HOPE. These pillars describe the common elements of programs that have been successful in promoting child and adolescent development. Looking for Online Training?We have heard from you that the need for training is continuing during this time. Our staff have compiled the following list of potential options for you and your program. We are continually adding additional COVID-19-related resources on our website, so check back often at mrtq.org. |