First 5 Contra Costa’s volunteer community Regional Group held yet another successful Super Saturday Family Fest at JFK Park in Richmond last month. Hundreds of parents and small children descended on the park, enjoying pony rides, petting zoos, raffled tricycles, and local children’s dance performances. With the sun shining down after an early fall storm that week, it turned out to be the perfect day for parents and children to enjoy spending quality time together outside, in a safe, nurturing place.

But unfortunately, more and more West County families are feeling less secure in their neighborhoods. Just one week before Super Saturday, JFK Park was temporarily home to more than a dozen Richmond residents camping out to protest escalating violence in the city.

We know that healthy children depend on healthy families and communities. First 5 Contra Costa is committed to helping children in West County feel secure at home and in the community. This year alone, we are allocating approximately $3 million to help West County’s young children grow up healthy and nurtured.

In response to a 2006 report that found West County families were underserved by the home visiting system, First 5 Contra Costa will allocate an additional $1.2 million over the next 2 1/2 years to expand home visiting services and assist some of West County’s most vulnerable families.

We know that this is only part of the solution. The community will need to continue coming together – as they did for Super Saturday and for the tent-city movement – to promote the message that all children in West County deserve to grow up in safe and supportive communities.

- Sean Casey, Executive Director

• Click here to find programs and services happening at the Antioch, Bay Point, Delta, Monument, and West County First 5 Centers.
  

• First 5 Contra Costa is hiring a Deputy Director. Click here to view the job description.

• First 5 Contra Costa’s fall print newsletter is available here.

• A new report from the California Budget Project Report called Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Family in California estimates the costs of housing, utilities, child care, transportation, food, health coverage, taxes, and other necessities for families with two children and for single adults.

First 5 Contra Costa has released a Request for Proposal to expand home visiting services in West County. The purpose of the RFP is to:

• Increase the availability of high-quality home visiting services
• Develop and support the most effective strategies for engaging high-risk and hard-to-engage families
• Convene a research a planning community of providers to improve the delivery of effective services for families in West County 

This RFP will provide up to $1,208,500 over 2.5 years. Up to $208,500 will be available to support up to three agencies for an initial 5-month period beginning February 1, 2008 through June 30, 2008. Additional 12-month renewals totaling up to $500,000 each year will be available for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 fiscal years (fiscal years are July1 to June 30).

A mandatory information conference is scheduled for:
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
West County First 5 Center
2707 Dover Avenue
San Pablo, CA

Click here to review the RFP.

For more information, contact Lisa R. Johnson, First 5 Contra Costa Grants Program Manager: (925) 335-9991.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two new bills last month that will protect children from harmful toxins, including exposure to secondhand smoke.

The first bill, AB 1108 by Assemblymember Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), prohibits the manufacturing, sale and distribution of toys and child care products for babies and children under three years of age that contain phthalates – a group of chemicals used in the manufacturing of plastics.

Scientific research has shown that phthalates, the plasticizer most commonly used to make children’s vinyl toys soft, can cause negative health effects, including links to cancer and reproductive defects. Phthalates have not been used in teethers, soft rattles, or pacifiers in the U.S. since 1999. For more information about protecting children from toxins, you may want to listen to the September 23 Childhood Matters radio show on this subject.

The second bill, by State Senator Jenny Oropeza ( D-Long Beach), prohibits California drivers from smoking in a vehicle carrying anyone under the age of 18. Violators of this new law will be fined $100 when the ban takes effect after the first of the year.

Studies show the concentration of particulates inside a smoker's car can be 10 times higher - and far more damaging to children - than pollutants inside a smoker's home. Every year, up to 300,000 children in the U.S. under age 2 are diagnosed with respiratory infections from secondhand smoke.

Recent studies indicate that the number of Latino children who are overweight is rising at an alarming rate. What’s more, the obesity epidemic is contributing to the growing number of children who later in life develop type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Working against this trend, First 5 California recently partnered with Chef Lala, an internationally-recognized chef who is a trusted and popular voice within the Latino community, to create a 10-recipe bilingual cookbook that will feature nutritious recipes with a definitive Latin flavor for families with young children. The free cookbook will be released statewide early next year.

“As parents, we are often told what not to do, but it’s also good to know what we can do,” said Chef Lala. “My passion is to teach people that Latin cuisine isn’t just delicious, but can also be healthy at the same time.”

The wholesome recipes developed by the certified nutritionist and celebrity chef are meant to inspire parents and their young children to prepare easy-to-make snacks that are both healthy and delicious. The cookbook will include healthy dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as nutrition tips.

You can preview two of the recipes now! Please share them with the families you work with!

Fruit with Granola (English, Spanish)
Confetti Rice (English, Spanish)

With full bags of Halloween candy and the holiday season just around the corner, parents of preschoolers may by interested in knowing that their child may be eating 60 percent more than their body weight in sugar.

According to a January 2005 study in the highly-respected Journal of Pediatrics, the average 4- to 5-year-old consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day, which amounts to approximately 64.6 pounds of added sugar a year. The majority of a child’s added sugar intake comes from fruit drinks, high-fat desserts, soft drinks and candy.

Excessive sugar intake may play a role in escalating childhood obesity rates. Currently, one in three children in California is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, regardless of age, race or gender. If left unchecked, obesity can lead to serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

This holiday season, First 5 Contra Costa provides the following tips to help parents and caregivers make healthier choices for their children:

• Set limits. Only allow children a certain amount of sweets per day.
• Limit juice and soda. Even fruit juices have hidden sugars. Serve your children water and milk.
• Create new holiday traditions. Do activities together that don’t include sweets.

For more information, call 1-800-KIDS-025.

	Family child care provider Mona Sadeghinedad says taking child development courses at Diablo Valley College has helped improve the quality of her program.

Over 650 child care professionals worked to improve the quality of child care in 2006-2007 by participating in education and training opportunities made possible by First 5’s Professional Development Program.

The PDP offers child care providers support, training resources, and financial incentives to increase their education and professional training, both significant indicators of high quality child care. The PDP also provides tutoring, academic advising, and new degrees at California State University East Bay, including a Master’s.

Of the 659 participants in the program last year, half did not have an AA degree and 20% were family child care providers. Participants received a total of 5,000 hours of tutoring at community colleges and 215 college scholarships were awarded. Nearly all surveyed providers stated that the program helped them to provide higher quality care, and 75% percent reported that the program influenced their decision to remain in their current job.

Click here for more information about the PDP.

Carlos and Maria Del Rio were distraught when they found out their one-year-old daughter was developmentally and emotionally delayed and had profound hearing loss. The family spoke limited English, and navigating the complicated disability service system with language and transportation barriers was only adding to their stress.

The final straw came when the Pittsburg-based family was late for a critical hearing evaluation at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. After walking to the bus stop in the pouring rain with a one-year-old and four-year-old, taking a bus to BART, and then taking BART to Oakland, Maria discovered that the hospital’s shuttle did not operate between noon and 2:00 p.m. Late for the appointment, she was told that there was a four-month wait for a new appointment. Distressed, Maria called the CARE Parent Network, an agency providing support and training for parents who have children with special needs.

In 2006-2007, CARE provided group, peer, and professional support to 265 parents of children with special needs. Most parents surveyed stated that the service helped them better adapt to the special needs of their child.

For the Del Rios, CARE contacted the hospital’s social worker, who helped the family connect with a Spanish-speaking social worker. The social worker helped them to reschedule the missed audiology appointment within one month and authorized the use of a taxi. At the appointment, the family was told their daughter needed a cochlear implant immediately.

The surgery was scheduled and was successful. Speech therapy began for the child and her progress was remarkable – she began to speak and quickly began meeting her developmental milestones. CARE connected Maria with another family of a child with a cochlear implant for peer support.

The Del Rios are now confident they know how to handle their daughter’s challenges with hearing impairment, and know where to go for support. Maria is interested in starting a support group for other families who have children with cochlear implants and would like to be trained as a mentor parent.

And because of CARE’s intervention, the Children Hospital shuttle from BART now runs every twenty minutes with no interruptions.

Click here form more information about CARE.