I had the opportunity last week to join my colleagues from other Bay Area First 5s on a pre-recorded edition of Childhood Matters, the parenting radio program we collectively co-sponsor. It was a great opportunity for us to talk about the importance of the first five years, and describe how we're helping Bay Area children to grow up healthy, nurtured, and ready for school.

Part of the show included comments and concerns from parents about the challenges of raising a young child in the Bay Area. These parents talked about their desire to find quality child care, about their children's emotional and social development, about the importance of play. It was especially gratifying to hear that our funded programs are in tune with parents' concerns. I even noted that one parent could have been speaking directly from our strategic plan.

I hope you get a chance to listen to the program, which airs this Sunday, December 9th at 9:00 a.m. on 98.1 KISS-FM. You can also listen to it on www.childhoodmatters.org.

- 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.
  

• Click here to view First 5 Contra Costa's annual fiscal audit, which is conducted by an independent auditor.

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

First 5 Contra Costa is launching a new hospital outreach program at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in order to enroll more mothers in Contra Costa home visiting programs. Alta Bates is the primary hospital where most West County mothers deliver, but because it is located in Alameda County many new mothers are not referred to Contra Costa home visiting programs.

Now, through a partnership with First 5 Alameda County and Contra Costa County's Family and Children's Trust Committee (FACT), a hospital-based outreach worker will be hired to identify and link eligible parents – an anticipated 80 mothers each month – with Contra Costa home visiting programs.

The new hospital outreach worker will target at-risk mothers who have Contra Costa Health Plan, Medi-Cal or those with no insurance or other risk factors. Of the 1,250 Contra Costa babies born at Alta Bates during the first half of 2007, 64% lived in Richmond or San Pablo and half of the births were covered by Medi-Cal.  

The hospital outreach program, which is expected to begin in early 2008, is part of First 5 Contra Costa's comprehensive strategy to increase the number of at-risk and hard-to-reach families receiving home visiting services in West County.

For more information, contact Lisa Morrell, (925) 335-9991.

Low-income workers do not need to pay to get their taxes done! Please help us get the word out that free tax preparation sites will be open countywide at the end of January to help low-income working families get their whole tax refunds and valuable tax credits.

Many low-income workers rush to get their taxes done right away, paying tax preparation fees unnecessarily. Even worse, some filers go on to lose of a percentage of their refund when they apply for rapid refund loans.  

Bilingual flyers publicizing the free tax preparation sites will be available in January. Please e-mail tirwin@firstfivecc.org if you would like to distribute flyers to the families you work with. In the meantime, click here to download a postcard that encourages workers not to pay to get their taxes prepared.
  
Since 2004, the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Campaign has returned a total of $8.2 million in refunds to low-income workers. The Campaign is a project of the Family Economic Security Partnership, a public, private, and nonprofit collaboration dedicated to increasing the income and building the assets of low-income families and individuals in Contra Costa County.

New research by the RAND Corporation reveals that the achievement gap evident among California's K-12 students is mirrored by a "readiness gap" among the state's kindergarteners. The research shows that improving the effectiveness of California's pre-k offerings could better prepare students to enter kindergarten, laying the foundation for later academic success and narrowing the K-12 achievement gap.

Researchers noted that participation in effective preschool programs has the potential to narrow these gaps, but the state's current system of publicly funded early childhood education is not designed to maximize the school readiness benefits.

Click here to view the full studies. For additional information, visit www.preschoolcalifornia.org.

A local gallery recently debuted the artwork of sixteen very talented preschoolers who, along
with their parents, completed a free eight-week arts program implemented by the City of Walnut Creek's Fine Arts Preschool and hosted by Providers Partnering for Children at the West Rivertown Kids-Eden Center.

The young artists' inaugural show included displayed framed art as well as dance and musical performances. The program, which is funded by First 5 Contra Costa, provides free arts classes for children and workshops for parents on fostering creative development in their children.

The next session of free arts classes will begin in Concord, January 18th through March 14th. For more information, contact 925-943-5899 ext. 471.

The holiday season is upon us and with it brings the joy of family, food and fun. First 5 Contra Costa, along with the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, offers the following tips on how to keep the holidays as healthy as they are happy.

Stay active

• Spend quality time with family and friends by exercising together. Go with your family on a walk in the park or around the neighborhood. Make your walk festive by looking at holiday lights. If weather is a factor, try walking indoors at a shopping center or simply around your home.
• Make exercise fun with your kids by playing active games like freeze tag, leap frog and hide-and-seek.
• Limit time spent in front of the television to only two hours per day or less.

Eat healthier

• Serve fruits, vegetables and nuts instead of chips and sweets.
• Help control the urge to overeat by offering small portions. Put food on small plates and limit the number of helpings served.
• Try substituting healthier ingredients for recipe ingredients high in fat or sugar. For example, mix in applesauce instead of oil for baking with less fat.

Encourage holiday safety
While the holidays are most known for the fun they share, the season can also bring with it added dangers. Help protect loved ones for a healthy holiday season.

• Remove and dispose of all wrapping paper, bows, ribbons and bags immediately after unwrapping gifts. These materials can be a fire danger and a choking hazard for young children.
• Place all holiday decorations away from fireplaces, portable heaters and radiators. Also, make sure decorations do not block doorways.
• If buying toys for young children, be sure to check all tags and labels to make sure the toys are appropriate for the children's ages. Young children can be injured by toys with small parts, toys that plug into electrical outlets or toys with long pull strings.

Congratulations to the following Contra Costa child care programs who recently earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children – the nation's highest mark of program quality: 

• Benu Chhabra, family child care provider
• Sherilyn's Home Preschool
• Golden Bear Child Care
• Willow Street School House
• Ameneh's Family Child Care
• Dawna's Little Darlings
• Oakhurst Child Care

These programs have been participating in the Contra Costa Child Care Council's Early Learning Demonstration Project, which provides grants and technical assistance to help licensed child care programs move toward or achieve national accreditation standards. Click here to learn more.

	Javier Mendoza is the chair of the Monument Community First 5 Center Community Advisory Council

Javier Mendoza and his wife began taking classes at the Monument Community First 5 Center last year. Not long after, he joined the Center's Community Advisory Council (CAC).

"The First 5 Center has been such an incredible blessing for our family that I wanted to get involved and help the community," said Mendoza, who is the Chair of the Council. "After all, this is the community I'm raising my family in – I only live one block away from the Center. I want it to be the best place it can be."

Located in Antioch, Bay Point, Brentwood, Concord, and San Pablo, the five First 5 Centers provide quality classes and programs at no cost for families with young children. To ensure that programs offered meet the unique needs of the community, each Center relies on an active Community Advisory Council (CAC) comprised of parents, caregivers, community members, and representatives from local agencies.
Twenty-seven community members currently serve on one of the five CACs. Their charge is to work in areas of strategic planning, program results and community engagement, essentially become the "community voice" of the Center they represent. CAC members receive training from First 5 and do not need experience to participate.      
"First 5 Contra Costa is committed to engaging parents and other concerned community members in exploring what works best in their communities," said Lisa Morrell, First 5 Contra Costa Program Officer. "Council members have become ambassadors for the First 5 Centers. Their outreach efforts have been instrumental in getting new and underserved children and families to participate."

Last year alone, the Centers reached 1,326 families with 55% participating in multiple programs. Nearly 90% of parents surveyed agreed that First 5 Center classes helped them improve their parenting skills, better understand their child, and connect with other parents.

"As a Council member, I can see first-hand that we are not just randomly suggesting classes for the community," said Mendoza. "We are talking with parents and then offering programs that we know meet their needs."

To learn more about First 5 Centers or Community Advisory Councils, contact Lisa Morrell (925) 335-9991.