Foundation Announces Strategy and Leadership Expansion |
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The Board will be recruiting a new President & CEO to spearhead the next evolution of the Foundation’s journey. The new CEO will be responsible for nurturing local, state and national partnerships, mobilizing resources to create transformational improvements in family and community wellbeing.
This fall Tina Crave, founding President & CEO, will pivot to a new role providing program leadership to drive expanded investments in youth mental health.
“This transition, being made at Tina’s request, will leverage Tina’s population health expertise and allow her to spend more time doing what she does best - facilitating community collaboration,” said Foundation Board Chair Mike Sullivan.
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With input from community partners, the Foundation has set bold goals, seeking more transformational outcomes. After reflecting on “what it will take” to to meet these goals, the Foundation has committed to three priorities:
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Mobilize Additional Funding: Over the next 10 years the Foundation seeks to bring more than $50 million in public and private co-investments into our community, matching its own commitment of investing $50+ million in building strong families and thriving communities.
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Lead Innovation in Youth Mental Health: We will significantly expand investments in social emotional wellbeing, equipping our community to lead innovation that builds resilience and shapes environments that nurture wellbeing.
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Policy Advocacy: We will build our community’s collective capacity to work with state and national partners to advance public policies that support wellbeing.
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Community Input Drives Foundation Strategy |
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Another question asked agency leaders about their priorities for the community; asking about specific issues identified by our Community Health Assessment. Youth mental health was identified as a clear priority for those surveyed. |
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TalkReadPlay Spaces Create
Fun, Positive Interactions
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TalkReadPlay is a community movement designed to strengthen families by promoting quality, positive interactions between parents/caregivers and their young children. It was created by the Every Child Thrives partnership as part of their vision to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive in health, learning and life.
Why invest?
During the first few years of life, a child’s brain builds a foundation for learning that will affect how the child learns to communicate, read, and understand new ideas. But the brain doesn’t do this all on its own. It depends on input from parents and others in the form of focused, loving interactions and conversations.
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Parent/Caregiver Survey
Please Help Spread the Word
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Please help us collect information from community members through a short online survey. This survey will help us understand community awareness of the importance of early learning, how much families are currently engaging with their young children, and knowledge of TalkReadPlay.
The TalkReadPlay Community Survey will take about five minutes to complete. All participants have the opportunity to be entered into a gift card drawing for participating. Answers will be used to help our network of partners plan for the future.
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Leadership and Learning: Kudos to Foundation-Supported Partners and Staff |
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Over the past two years, the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA) has partnered with the Foundation to provide start-up coaching to those interested in creating childcare businesses. The person providing that coaching is Amy Fewel, and her expertise, experience and passion for helping organizations succeed has made a true difference in the early care and education landscape in Dodge and Jefferson Counties. We'd like to recognize Amy for her dedication in helping others grow and learn, and for setting the highest standards of excellence in supporting our community's youngest children.
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We want to recognize the Dodgeland School District Early Childhood Team for making free developmental screening easily accessible to families in their school district, and connecting families to further resources as needed. Screening is a wonderful tool for families to check in on milestones and learn more about their child's development.
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Our community of innovators was part of a Wisconsin team invited to present at the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida on April 17th. Our region, represented by Jill Van Sickle, was part of the Wisconsin delegation that presented a session on community-wide implementation. The Wisconsin group was led by Jenny Durand of the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health, and also included Amy Alt and Culleen Witthuhn from Madison and Jennifer Larson from Verona. We were very proud that our community was highlighted as a leader when it comes to implementing Pyramid Model practices, and invited to share knowledge and experience at the national level.
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What We're Reading (click on the links to access)
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Sharing a variety of news articles that address issues prioritized by our Every Child Thrives partners and Foundation leaders.
More Housing Wisconsin, a collaboration between the Wisconsin Realtors Association, the Wisconsin Builders Association, and the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, seeks to educate and inform Wisconsin city and village leaders and staff about zoning changes and other strategies communities can use to help address this state’s housing shortage.
The state is launching new low interest loans to promote workforce housing development, with more than $400 million available across three programs.
“While understanding the harmful effects of ACEs is critical, I worry that the message reaching people, including both doctors and patients, is that trauma is insurmountable. But as I have learned, that is absolutely not the case.”
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920.390.4000
672 Johnson Street, Suite 300, Watertown WI 53094
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