The Children's Coalition hosted the Family Childcare Resource Fair in Bastrop at the Morehouse Country Club for anyone who keeps children in their homes. Participants learned about various resources and programs available for this area from our community partners. Some of the resources and programs discussed were from LSUAg Center, Grambling, Early Steps, Ascent, the Children's Coalition, and Vroom. Everyone who participated not only received a bag full of books and information, but also several various block sets so the children in their care have more to play and read with. 

West Monroe Mayor Staci Albritton Mitchell visited our West Monroe Early Head Start Center and enjoyed meeting our amazing staff and students.
Mayor Mitchell visited our Beverly Center for Early Ed Week and learned about the importance of investing in Early Childhood. The Mayor and her staff are eager to support our work and we are grateful for this partnership!

​UNION PARISH, La. (KNOE) - Officials in Union and Lincoln Parishes and Louisiana Tech are looking to bring a new youth program to northeast Louisiana. Police Athletics Community Engagement (PACE) started as a free athletic league to teach kids in inner-city neighborhoods in Omaha, Neb. core values and build relationships with them.

(Source: KNOE)Louisiana Tech kinesiology dept. chair David Szymanski and other organizers are meeting with local law enforcement officers, pastors and other community leaders to introduce them to PACE.

"Everybody wants to help their children or the youth in the communities, and this program, I believe, is a way in which we can accomplish that," Szymanski says.

PACE founder Antonio Espejo with the Omaha Police Department says it's helped build relationships with his department and the community. "A lot of officers coach the teams. We also have a lot of community partners that help coach with these teams, and it's just instilling values a lot of these kids don't have," Espejo says.
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Mary Barrios says that program will be beneficial to kids here in northeast Louisiana. "It's important to not only tell kids not to do drugs, but to do other things in its place,” says Barrios, healthy living coordinator for the Children’s Coalition. “Positive, prosocial activities they can do that will keep them out of trouble and keep them from thinking about drugs."

The Children's Coalition applied for and received the OMG Books Grant through First Book. The Coalition has used this money to purchase books for schools, head starts, childcare centers, and health units as well as establishing Little Libraries in various parishes. Little Libraries are free and allow anyone the chance to read a book for free and return it back to the library so others can enjoy! The Coalition has spent around $50,000 of the OMG Books Grant in the following parishes: Ouachita, Morehouse, Franklin, Richland, West Carroll, Caldwell, Lincoln, East Carroll, and Union. To learn more about the OMG Books Grant, click the button below. 

​Officer Antonio Espejo, the founder and Executive Director of the PACE Program from Omaha, NE,  met with law enforcement, school officials, local government and community leaders to provide information about starting a similar program in Union, Lincoln and Claiborne parishes.  PACE stands for Police Athletics for Community Engagement and focuses on giving children at-risk the opportunity to play organized sports. 

​PACE's baseball program has had a minimum of 90 participants each year since 2009. The baseball program is coached and mentored by police officers. These officers volunteer their time, on and off-duty, to coach individual teams. Officers spend the entire eight week baseball program with their team instilling the ideas of sportsmanship, responsibility, and teamwork. Often times, these officers are the same police officers that patrol the participants’ neighborhoods. This allows kids to see police officers from a different perspective, and affords officers the opportunity to build a strong relationship with the families they serve. In 2019 PACE had over 700 participants in our Baseball Programming, and over 5,800 in total program participation.

U-ACT, a program of the Children's Coalition, is working with countless community partners including Dr. David Szymanski, Dept. Chair of Kinesiology at LA Tech and the District Attorney on this project.

Directors of Type III Centers that are proficient and above are eligible to participate in the Louisiana Early Leaders Academy launching in the fall of 2020. Recruitment and applications open April 1st. This video provides information about the program as well as hearing from directors in the pilot about its impact on them. 

Come learn more about this incredible opportunity from Emmy O'Dwyer, Director of Early Childhood Leadership Development at our meeting on April 8th at 10 AM to 12 PM at the Children's Coalition (117 Hall St., Monroe, LA 71201).

The Louisiana Early Leaders Academy is a competitive program designed to build the instructional leadership skills of directors of Type III centers. Fellows collaborate and learn from and with their peers through in-person sessions, job-embedded coaching, and online communities of practice meetings. By the end of the fellowship, leaders have developed new skills, networks, and energy for the important work ahead. Additionally, they have implemented new practices into their centers that will transform adult relationships and the quality of instruction that children experience every day. 

The Children's Coalition hosted the Louisiana Partnership Regional Meeting this afternoon. Susan Nelson, the Executive Director for the Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families, and Jan Moller, the Executive Director for the Louisiana Budget Project presented information regarding the 2020 census, early childhood, and the Louisiana budget. 

Many people from various backgrounds attended this regional meeting to learn and discuss issues pertaining to early childhood as well as the current budget. Child hunger, funding for DCFS and early childhood, infant and childhood mental health, paid family leave, maternal mortality, pregnancy workplace protection, improved wages and state minimum wage, and literacy and reading education changes were all discussed and current policy priorities for Governor Edward's administration. 

​UNION PARISH OUTREACH
MARY BARRIOS & ASHLEY GILBERT
UNION PARISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LUNCHEON
FEBRUARY 18 AT 11:45 AM
 
The Union Parish Chamber is proud to announce that Mary Barrios and Ashley Gilbert will be speakers at our next Chamber Luncheon on February 18 2020, starting at 11:45 am.
 
Mary & Ashley will be speaking about "Union Parish Outreach" a coalition of community, parish, state and federal support services available to our local citizens across the parish.
 
Mary & Ashley have been organizing the various groups so they can provide more coordinated services and better serve our community.
 
Click on LUNCHEON REGISTRATION or call Mona at chamber offices, (318) 368-3947. Please mark your calendar and make plans to attend our luncheon on February 18th. 

Our Early Head Start Beverly Center was buzzing this morning - we welcomed countless elected officials, community partners and state leaders to learn more about the importance of quality child care for Louisiana Early Ed Week. 

This statewide event is an initiative of the Louisiana Association of United Ways in partnership with the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children. We were happy to host the Monroe stop and welcomed our partners, the United Way of Northeast Louisiana. This statewide event is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield and Entergy and we are proud to partner with each of them for the upcoming Children's Coalition Dragon Boat Festival. 

Our elected officials included Representative Michael Echols, State Representative Chris Turner, Sterlington, Louisiana Mayor Ceasar Velasquez, Mayor Jamie Mayo, West Monroe Mayor Staci Albritton Mitchell. Hannah Livingston attended on behalf of Senator John Kennedyand Erika Guerrero attended on behalf of Senator Stewart Cathey Jr.. 

In the business sector, we welcomed Lila Strode with the West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce, Glen Gibson with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Debbie Horstmann and Katy Temple from St. Francis Medical Center, Monroe, La., Adam O'Neal with Origin Bank and Matt Smith from BancorpSouth. 

The Early Head Start Beverly Center is located on the Monroe Housing Authority. We are forever grateful for their continued support at our centers and we look forward to continuing our partnership to serve our community. Representing the Housing Authority was William Smart, Temika Cooks and Karen Crowell. 
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Investing in early childhood is crucial for the long term success of our region. To learn more about all of our early childhood programs and see how you can support us, visit childrenscoalition.org

Amanda Jett is an advocate for literacy - she recently hosted a book drive to stock our Free Little Library locations in three parishes. 

The Children’s Coalition of Northeast Louisiana supports the literacy mission by funding Little Free Libraries in Northeast Louisiana. Little Free Libraries are “take a book, return a book” free book exchanges. Anyone can take a book or bring a book to share. The Children’s Coalition currently has fourteen libraries, nine in Morehouse Parish, one in downtown Monroe, and four in Franklin Parish, giving readers in our community unlimited access to books. 

We are so grateful to Amanda and all of the amazing supporters of the book drive. If you would like to learn more or donate, click the link below.