A Note from our Executive Director
Dear friend,
I’ll never forget the time my son, then 4 years old, looked at me and proclaimed, “I am thinking all of the time.” I know exactly how he feels. Lately, I have been thinking about how to be as welcoming as possible. Creating a welcoming space is vital to supporting children’s learning and growing. Communicating welcome helps people feel included and valued.
One of the ways we establish a welcoming environment at IVYP is through our language. Most of our staff are bilingual, enabling families to communicate with us in the language they are most comfortable. We’ve also made a commitment to distribute this newsletter in both English and Spanish. When you open up this email, the first thing you see is a link to an entirely Spanish version of the newsletter. It takes a little extra effort for me to write my message early enough for it to be translated. It takes a lot of extra effort to translate my words. But, the message I want to communicate is that IVYP welcomes all of our families, all of the voices in our community.
I am thinking all of the time. Thinking about how I communicate clearly, inclusively and effectively to our students, our families and our staff. I’m also listening all of the time and I’d love to hear what you think about how we as IVYP are communicating. I feel this is vital to nurturing the welcoming world of IVYP.
Lori Goodman
Executive Director
