Early On/Great Start December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Those in attendance: Devanie Argetsinger, Corey Berden, Diane Boyer, Norm Byers, Marcia Campbell,

Susan Chowen, Patty Clark, Nicole Dixon, Ron Fowler, Jill Haan, Sheri Hadfield, Candice Hamel, Maureen

Hollocker, Kolleen Homuth, Tanya Janes, Mickey Kilpatrick, Jo-Anna Kologziej, Maggie Kromm, Monica

Kroondyk, Nicole Lindwall, Bill Lovett, Lorraine Manary, Mary Martinchek, Melissa Mundy, Kristin

Omsberg, Mandy Peterson, Karen Plasencia, Tara Riley, Carly Rowe, Valerie Schrieber, Shannon Smith,

David Spiller, Janey Thorpe, Megan Cole, and Heather VanHaitsma.

1. Approval of the meeting minutes, a motion was made by Mickey Kilpatrick and

seconded by Jo-Anna Kolodziej. All in favor, none opposed.

2. Introductions and Sharing:

Bill Lovett, Kiwanis – I am here on behalf of Kiwanis representing the early childhood focus of Kiwanis.

Marcia Campbell, Char-Em ISD- It is time to start planning for Project Connect which will be taking place on March 19th from 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Petoskey Fairgrounds. Mandy Peterson and I are the chairs for the children/family area again this year. We will be in contact with those agencies that participate in Project Connect.

Meagan Cole, Char-Em ISD- I am a School Social Worker in the Early Childhood Special Education Department.

Jo-Anna Kolodziej, NCMC- I work at North Central Michigan College in Early Childhood.

Kolleen Homuth, Ottawa Elementary Petoskey- We recently had a Family Night at our school and shared free cycle books. It was very successful and I was able to share information about the program to families. In partnership with Susan Chowen from the Great Start Resource Center we hosted a Preschool Teacher Night. We had a great turnout and it was exciting to share information with those in attendance. We will continue to build the relationship between preschool and kindergarten. Our school is planning to have a Freecycle book drive in March. After the break I and the principal will be creating an early childhood bulletin board.

Mary Martinchek, Health Department-There are Flu vaccines available. We also have trained counselors to help with the health care site. For any of our services call our 800 number, 1-800- 432-4121.

Melissa Mundy, Health Department- We are still working on building our parent support partnership program. This program supports children 0-5 who have behavioral issues. Send referrals to myself.

Kristin Omsberg, Boyne USA- I am here representing our childcare/preschool programming at Boyne. Tara Riley, NMCAA Head Start- I am with Early Head Start as well as on the Great Start Parent Leadership Council.

Early On/Great Start December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Corey Berden, NMCAA Head Start- I am the Program Service Coordinator. We are looking to expand Early Head Start services so if you have families please make referrals by calling 548-1240. Dianne Boyer, NMCAA Head Start- I am the Recruitment Specialist. Recruitment is gearing up and we will have a big push in the spring. Call 1- 800-443-5518 to make an appointment.

Mickey Kilpatrick, LTBB Head Start- We serve tribal and non-tribal Head Start and Early Head Start and are currently full.

Patty Clark, CMH-I work with our prevention program but are not able to work with families that have CSP involvement. We are also not able to work with foster children at this time. Our focus is on 0-47 months plus pregnant moms and the parent or child has to qualify for Medicaid. We do have a couple of openings.

Carly Rowe, Char-Em ISD- I am the Early Childhood Specialist for the Great Start Readiness Programs.

Nicole Dixon, Women’s Resource Center-We have both the Children’s Learning Center and Project Free. CLC is very full at this time. Project Free will possibly have some openings in both our am and pm sessions.

Shannon Smith, Char-Em ISD-I work with Early On and Great Parents Great Start. Early On is for children birth age 3 who have at least a 20% delay and GPGS is for children birth to age 5 on waitlists for Early Head Start, Head Start and GSRP as well as community referrals.

Jill Haan, Char-Em ISD- I am the Early Childhood Education General Education and Special Education birth to age 6.

Sheri Hadfield, Early On- I work with families in Charlevoix, Ellsworth, Central Lake and sometimes Petoskey.

Susan Chowen, Great Start to Quality Resource Center- I am here with our new Director Candice Hamel. Candice Hamel, Great Start to Quality Resource Center- I am the new Great Start to Quality Director. I am new to the region and this program.

Devanie Argetsinger, Valerie Schrieber, and Janey Thorpe- Great Start Parent Leadership Council participant.

Norm Byer, Genesis Church Petoskey- I am the Lead Pastor for the Genesis Church. I am here to learn about things happening to the community for children and families.

Early On/Great Start December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Ron Fowler, Petoskey District Library-The library will be taking a break for the holidays and start back with early childhood programming on January 13, 2014. There will no longer be Saturday preschool story hour. We will have a language based series instead that focuses on early literacy components. Our Parent/Child lapsits are going well. The library will be participating in the New Year’s Eve event from 5-9p.m. with art activities, a Teen Dance, etc. There is a cost for this and tickets do sell out quickly. Also, we now have a Paws program where children read to dogs. We have the dogs but have not have many children.

Mandy Peterson, Char-Em ISD- I provide Great Parents Great Start as well as provide services to the Parent Support Program.

Maggie Kromm, Child Abuse Council- We recently had our community celebration and recognized 3 individuals –the only way we can celebrate people going above and beyond is through nominations from all of you. Our annual Spring Conference is being held April 25th at NCMC from 8:30-3:30 p.m. We are also working on Safe Sleep Awareness Education. If your agency is also working on this please let us know to avoid duplication of services.

Lorraine Manary, United Way –We are working on our Volunteer Connections web based site for volunteers – it should be live by the end of January or early February. Also we have been focusing on literacy through our Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Over 9,000 books have come into the community in our first year of this program. We will be having a DPIL Fundraiser on Feb. 7th, 2014 with wine tasting, beer tasting, and food sampling at the Castle in Charlevoix. April has World Book Day. You can sign up to be a distributor and if you are chosen you will get books to give away. All of the local libraries are participating as give away sites. The books are for people who can read but don’t. You can find a link on the Petoskey District Library website to sign up for this.

Karen Plasencia, Early On- I work with families in the Petoskey, Alanson and Pellston area.

Tanya Janes, McLaren Northern Michigan- We have the Fit Kids 360 program and the first session will take place on January 23, 2014. We have 11 families enrolled and can serve up to 15 families. This is a family based childhood obesity prevention program for children ages 5-15 at 85% or above for their BMI. To participate, referrals need to come from a Health Care provider. The whole family participates and leans how to be healthier and connect to resources in the community.

Monica Kroondyk, Boyne District Library – Jim Gill is doing a free concert at High School Auditorium in Boyne City on January 9th, 2014 at 6:30 p.m.

David Spiller, Boyne City School – I am the schools homeless liaison and family resource liaison.

Early On/Great Start December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Heather Van Haitsma, Genesis Church- I am here to represent the church and to learn about community resources.

3. Early On- We recently had our Creative Kids Day in Petoskey. It was free to the public

and young children were able to do crafts, music movement etc. It was held at the Carnegie building, and thank you Ron Fowler for partnering with us. We had 24 children participate. One of the outcomes of this event is the fact that it allows opportunities for socialization for Early Head Start and Early On families as well. Thank you to all who assisted. Our next one will be in the spring at the Charlevoix Library.

Presentation of “A Disorganized Toddler in Foster Care: Healing and Change from an

Attachment Theory Perspective” was provided by Shannon Smith. Attachment Theory is

a fundamental approach – children grow and learn in regard to relationships they create

at an early age. There are 2 types of attachment – disorganized and organized. We are

talking about a small population, about 20% that have attachment disorders or

behaviors. Disorganized attachment often occurs when a parent lives in fear or is

frightening. A disruption in attachment is often a layer of other issues. It is very

important to always look at attachment when working with families. There is a screener

that can be used by practioners' to look at attachment.

The article discussed 6 principles to consider regarding attachment. Many times

children with attachment issues give off miscues of not wanting attention, are

aggressive, etc. so you need to look past these behaviors. You need to look past the

behavior and see the unmet need. Please read the article and look at the power point

copy to learn more about this.

4. Great Start Report: We will be concentrating on the following committees: Executive

Committee, Preschool scholarship fund, school and family readiness for Kindergarten,

Strengthening Families, Great Start Parent Coalition & Parent Leadership Council, and

Strategic Planning.

A. Communications: Petoskey News Review provided great coverage on the Saturday

free paper cover story regarding Freecycle. They are also putting us on the 16 days,

16 ways to help this holiday season and we have received some funds as result of

this article. Great Start will taking over Northern moms.com and will be

collaborating with the News Review to keep it going. I will be revamping the website

and it should be released sometime in January. We were also recognized by

National Strengthening Families. There is a new Strengthening Families website,

Early On/Great Start December 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Whatmakesyourfamilystrong.org. It has all the Protective factors and different ways

to meet these factors.

B. GS Scholarships: 36 children ages 3-5 have been sent to preschool through this

fund. Recently we received funding from an Emmet county group, Women Who

Care and they provided $2,900 for us to send Emmet county children to preschool,

so we have 6 children starting in January – taking our total for this year up to 42

children. We are also partnering with new sites – Petoskey Children’s Nursery,

Blackbird Child Care Center, and Alanson Stretch program.

C. Parent Leadership Council: We have a graduation celebration breakfast taking place

in January for our Parent Leadership Council. They all have worked very hard this

year. We are accepting applications for the 2014 Parent Leadership Council. Please

share the applications with families. For Freecycle we have given over 15,178 books

to children in the community. Book drives will be taking place in local schools and

are being spearheaded by parent leadership council members.

5 Protective Factor Posters: A new poster was created through suggestions from

Janey Thorpe about using the fingers to help remember the protective factors. A

graphic designer was used to make the posters.

D. New collaborative binders: New binders have been created and in the front of each

is the new membership commitment agreement. Please complete the form and

turn it in.

5. Collaborative Activity: There are 89 government funded programs, services, and efforts

to serve young children and families. These were distributed and as a collaborative we

will look at these programs and answer some basic questions.

Our next meeting is February 18, 2014.

Early On Report

December 2013

Early On Conference

“A Disorganized Toddler in Foster Care:

Healing and Change From an Attachment Theory Perspective”

-Janet Mann, The Children’s Ark

-Molly D Kretchmar, Gonzaga University

Great Start Collaborative December 2013

Great Start COLLABORATIVE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Strengthening Families

READY, SET, GO @ 5 Advisory Committee on School & Family Readiness for Kindergarten

COMMUNICATIONS update December 2013

Press & Public Will Building

S

O

C

I

A

L

M

E

D

I

A

Parent Coalition 325

FreeCycle 281

Collaborative 72

Great Start North Charlevoix, Emmet, & Northern Antrim

Counties

GREAT START SCHOLARSHIP FUND

80 Total

Scholarships

$2900.00 from Women Who Care

$300 + from Alternative Gift

Letters & Website

>>>> 2013-14

Updated 12.17.2013

PARENT LEADERSHIP COUNCIL NEWS

Parent Leadership Council 2013 Celebration Breakfast in January

Parent Leadership Council 2014 Applications are out now –

we will extend the deadline as necessary

Book Bin Locations: 39 Locations

New Locations: East Jordan Library Central Lake Library

Over 500 Christmas books to local

churches

75 books to Beaver Island Students

200 books to Pellston Library

50 books to Ottawa Elementary

Literacy Night

35 books to Creative Kids Day

SCHOOL BOOK DRIVES! East Jordan Elementary

(Over 1,700 books collected)

Blackbird Elementary (Appx 500 books collected)

Harbor Springs Key Club

(Promoting FreeCycle thru March 2014)

Over 15,178 FreeCycle Books

given to children in

our community!

UPCOMING MEETINGS updated December 2013

3RD TUESDAY EVERY OTHER MONTH 9 – 11AM

February 18, 2014 April 15, 2014 June 17, 2014

August 19, 2014 October 21, 2014

GSC / Early On MEETINGS

• Does this Program exist in our local area? • Are the services this programs provides utilized in our

area and how? • What are the benefits / challenges of this program? • What is the local department / person responsible for

this program?

• What other local resources (non-governmental) meet the same needs as this program?

• Questions or comments about this program…