March 28, 2011

On Wednesday, March 23, nearly 60 business and community leaders descended upon our Cianci Center in the Chad Brown Community to embark on Leadership Rhode Island’s Education Day – the theme for the day was Cradle to Career.  The group started their day with remarks by our President and Chief Executive Officer, David Caprio followed by a leadership chat with Elizabeth Burke Bryant, Executive Director, Rhode Island Kids Count. 

Both David and Elizabeth addressed the need for early childhood education and the need to close the preparation gap for the most advantaged children in our state vs. the least advantaged children in our state.  School readiness for Rhode Island’s youngest and most vulnerable children remained the focus of the morning.  They also discussed the possible federal budget cuts and what it would mean to the children in our Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

Then, these business and community leaders were assigned to our Head Start classrooms where they were able to engage with some of our children.  They read, they played in the playground, they painted, they worked on the alphabet and numbers.  Then they were confronted with the community violence that these children face on a day-to-day basis.  There was a “Q&A” session with Aimee Mitchell, our Administrator, Programs/Head Start Director who helped to frame the everyday happenings for these young children at risk.

Thanks to the Leadership Rhode Island team for allowing us to showcase the work Children’s Friend is doing to support young children at risk.  Thanks for bringing nearly 60 business and community leaders into our site to see first hand the importance of early childhood education.  And, thanks to David, Elizabeth and Aimee for drawing the complete picture of Rhode Island’s youngest and most vulnerable children and the challenges they face to be adequately prepared for school.  I challenge this year’s Leadership Rhode Island ETA II class, and all of us, to advocate on behalf of all children in the state to have access to an effective early childhood education program.