July 2020 eNews
Upcoming Event
On Thursday and Friday, August 6-7, the South Carolina Child Care Inclusion Collaborative brings you a free, virtual conference, The Champions for Young Children Symposium . This year's theme is Relationships, Resilience, and Recovery.

ICS's own Bryan Boroughs, Vice President and General Counsel, and Megan Carolan, Director of Policy Research, will present the session, "COVID's Impact on the Early Childhood Workforce in South Carolina" on August 6.
Description:
Researchers from the Institute for Child Success will present findings on the impacts of COVID-19 on the early childhood sector in South Carolina from surveys with child care providers, pediatricians, educators, and nonprofit leaders. There are clear negative impacts on children and families, including financial instability and mental health; difficulties in conducting “business as usual” in serving families; and considerations for the “new normal” for young children. The session will highlight findings across respondent audiences as well as possible policy responses. Participants will be invited to discuss their own communities in order to collectively “troubleshoot” challenges to reopening and recovery.
ICS Featured in GSA Business Report

by Molly Hulsey, Staff Writer


Excerpt:"The child care sector was always a vulnerable sector in terms of its economic fragility," said Jamie Moon, president and CEO of ICS. "Child care runs on extraordinarily tight margins to begin with and the pandemic only served to highlight the fragility and the importance of trying to bolster the sector."

...Following the closure of about 50% of the state's child care facilities this spring, reopened child care facilities are operating at lower capacities. One-third of the facilities surveyed by ICS in May, reported they would be unable to weather any future closures, she [Megan Carolan, ICS director of policy research] said.

As parents remain in a lurch juggling childcare, education and work life with even fewer childcare opportunities than before, employers also grapple with the best way to extend accommodations for employees while ensuring the work gets finished -- and communicating those policies.

Resources
Early Childhood Advisory Council Parent Survey on Child Care Needs

With support from the Alliance for Early Success in partnership with the United Way Association of South Carolina, the Early Childhood Advisory Council is launching a survey to learn about the child care needs of parents of young children in light of the COVID-19 pandemic - right now and for the future.

If you are the parent of a child age five or younger, please take the survey here . It is open through Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 11:59 PM.

We’ve been bringing you information through our COVID-19 blog series since the beginning of the pandemic in March. Each blog is meant to provide readers with guidance and recommendations for navigating the crisis offered by expert organizations and leading authorities in healthcare, child care, mental health, and child safety.
 
Following is a compilation of recently published blogs:


States And Providers Adapt To Deliver Home Visiting Services - by Alexis Herschkowitsch , Innovation Associate. ICS looks at how the country is pivoting in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as relying on video conferencing and telephone to conduct visits.

Ideas for Infusing Capital into Childcare Centers During COVID-19 - by John Young Shik Concklin, Palmetto Associate. ICS brainstormed market-based solutions for infusing capital into childcare centers. We offer policy solutions that drive funds to childcare centers directly and indirectly through various mechanisms.

by Mary C. Garvey, Director of Innovation and Inclusion

 In the midst of a global pandemic, rising unemployment and economic instability, it is ongoing racial injustice that has propelled the civil unrest we have all witnessed over the past few weeks. The painful and frustrating reality is that all the children are not well. In too many instances, Black children are not well. The next Black child to die due to the color of their skin could easily be one of the children whom we at ICS are committed to serving and advocating on behalf of today.

What now? Do we truly know what life is like on-the-ground for Black children during this very moment in history? How do we maintain integrity to our mission? How can we recommit to ensuring that Black children, too, are safe, nurtured and loved?

Last month I spent a weekend reaching out to my network to hear directly from the parents and guardians of Black children and to begin the process of recording real-time experiences in a way that could inform how ICS goes about achieving our mission, especially in light of a massive civil uprising against systemic racism that has been 400+ years in the making. Here is what we learned...

 
ICS commissioned an informational video to raise awareness of the good things we are doing in the fields of child development, health care and education, as well as in communities (from Capitol Hill to state capitols to city & county councils to homes) to improve outcomes for young children.
 
We asked our partners and supporters to define ICS and have included a brief clip of the video above. We hope that you gain insight on the perspectives of our colleagues across government, academia, non-profit and philanthropy as we highlight a different partner each month. If you would like to see the full-length video, please view it on our Facebook page.  

What We've Been Up To
Webinar

July 7 - Presentation of Webinar: Ideas for Increasing Capital to Childcare Centers During COVID-19 Outbreak . Through a recent childcare center survey, ICS found that centers across South Carolina were experiencing unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19. With the economy reopening, childcare has been realized to be at the foundation of the economy with as many as 200,000 children needing childcare in order for their parents to get back to work. View  YouTube video recording .

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The Institute for Child Success is fueled by the BlueCross® BlueShield® of South Carolina Foundation, the Mary Black Foundation, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the BlueCross and BlueShield Association.