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	About 15,000 three- and four-year olds await access to CT's School Readiness Program.

Champions' Chatter

Check out what Children's Champions are doing to promote the goal of getting all children to kindergarten healthy and ready for school success. Use their ideas to make a difference in your community and please tell us about it! click here to let us know what you're doing as a Children's Champion.

Jennifer A. Donalds (Norwalk) Manager, Project Friendship and Respite Programs, Family & Children's Agency, Inc. Jennifer's action items as a Children Champion include: Inviting "scores" of people to become friends, As head of her agency's advocacy committee, she will organize legislative forums to discuss the needs of their clients, particularly children and families, She will respond to action alerts and distribute them widely when asked.
Christine Fahey (Middletown) Heard of the "Middletown Children's Posse"? Then you probably know the energetic and "out of the box" thinking Christine Fahey. Christine's enthusiasm and action on behalf of Middletown's youngest children demonstrates what it means to be a "Children's Champion. What she's done: Created the Middletown Children's Posse Invited Ready Rabbit to attend the Middletown Chamber of Commerce Expo (great exposure!), Helped to recruit more than 200 Middletown Friends, ranking Middletown second in the state for Friend recruitment, Invited Ready Rabbit to attend Middletown's "Week of the Young Child" legislative breakfast in April.
Catherine Foley (New London) Director Community Development Initiative, New London Development Corporation With partners like the the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut and the local school system, chamber of commerce and Discovery Communities, Catherine Foley has helped plan a regional conference on the importance of early childhood development as a means of economic development that will take place this Fall. What else is she up to? Coordinating and promoting New London's PLTI (Parent Leadership Training Institute) Alumni group's weekly cable access program on issues relating to today's families, and working with WTNH NewsChannel 8 to broadcast the "ABCs of School Readiness" on the program, Convening regional players around the issue of early childhood development, Sending Ready, Set, Grow postcards through her monthly newsletter, Recruiting Friends by sending emails to her contacts and asking that they encourage their contacts to sign-up, too. And Catherine still has more tricks up her sleeve...
Merrill Gay (New Britain) Executive Director, New Britain Discovery Collaborative The New Britain Discovery Collaborative invited Ready Rabbit to attend the New Britain Parks and Recreation Children's Festival and he was a big hit! With the help of three outstanding volunteers, Executive Director Merrill Gay and his team worked the crowd and found many eager supporters of Ready, Set, Grow and the incredible early childhood efforts taking place in New Britain. "Virtually everyone we talked to signed up," Merrill said.
Linda J Kane (Putnam) Parent Involvement Disabilities Manager, TVCCA HEAD START I will contribute ideas to the CT State Staff and Parent Head Start Caucus regarding the work and goals of Read, Set, Grow, CT Kids. I will work to improve positive male involvement with young children, especially in Head Start.
Belinda Laulicin (Bridgeport) Bridgeport Hospital Belinda hosts monthly meetings to talk about the needs of Connecticut's young children. She supports and attends Discovery and Safe Start meetings and she has invited many others to become Friends of Connecticut's Young Children.
Dawn Masonaffinito (North Haven) Early Childhood Specialist, ACES Early Childhood Services Since she became a Children's Champion, Dawn has signed up an more than a dozen new Friends and has distributed Ready, Set, Grow information to all of her staff through their office inboxes-great idea! Additionally, Dawn tells us that she will advocate for Ready, Set, Grow by: Starting with the 2004-2005 academic year, all ACES CDA Students will learn about Ready, Set, Grow and be asked to become friends. I'll spread the word whenever provide training, consultation, or host events within the community. I'll ask my children's teachers to become friends or champions. I'll call, e-mail or write my legislators regarding important issues in early care and education and legislative changes.
David Radcliffe (Meriden) Facilitator, Meriden Children First Ready, Set, RECRUIT! Under the leadership of David Radcliffe, Meriden takes their goal of 757 Friends of Connecticut's Young Children very seriously and they're already more than 100 strong with Meriden's mayor, school superintendent, state representative, and elementary school principal among their many Friends! "We got to 43 friends with almost no effort," David Radcliffe, facilitator at Meriden Children First, modestly recounted in July. Since that time, Meriden has more than doubled their number of Friends. Their "efforts" include: Inviting Ready Rabbit to a "Back to School" event, yielding 107 Friends in just 2 hours! A recruitment message sent to their email list Coverage in the People's Press, a community "viewspaper" distributed to more than 20,000 people in Meriden and Wallingford Placement on the Meriden Chamber of Commerce's website with promised coverage in their newsletter. And, David says that he has "a handful of the RSG cards in my pocket that I give to people I see."
Cameron Staples (New Haven) As one of New Haven's state representatives, Cam Staples pledges to "lead the fight at the State Capitol for Universal Early Childhood Education." A bold statement and Ready, Set, Grow is glad to have Representative Staples as a "Friend" and "Children's Champion".
Jessica Stewart (South Windsor) School Readiness Facilitator, Meriden School Readiness Jessica is the School Readiness Facilitator in Meriden, Connecticut. Utilizing the school readiness network in Meriden, Jessica created a letter about Ready, Set, Grow with an invitation to "Become a Friend" that was distributed to more than 300 families in the area.