July Bulletin

First 5 Riverside Bulletin July 2019

A MESSAGE FROM TAMMI Dear Friends, Summer is here and children need to learn to swim!

This is my favorite time of year to spend outdoors with family and friends near the water, whether it be by a swimming pool, lakeside or at the beach. Can your child or grandchild swim?

While spending time outdoors with young children, it is critically important to safeguard against drowning. Drowning can happen to anyone. It’s quick, and it’s silent. Every year, we learn of heartbreaking stories about a child – most often under the age of 5 – who drowns in a tragic scenario that is 100% preventable.

According to Safekids.org swimming pools are the most common site for a drowning to occur for children ages 1 to 4. Riverside County’s Public Health Officer and First 5 Commissioner Dr. Cameron Kaiser reports that since 2015, 23 children age 0-5 have drowned in our county. Even more alarming is that the number of children who have died from drowning in 2019 has already surpassed previous years. Six children in Riverside County have died from drowning since January 1.

Since First 5 Riverside began investing in drowning prevention programs in 2015, 1,895 children have received rescue or traditional swim lessons. This summer, First 5 Riverside is expanding access to swim classes through strategic partnerships with cities and public entities by offering additional scholarships. Be sure and read below to learn more.

One of our county’s biggest champions of drowning prevention, Riverside County Supervisor and First 5 Commissioner Chuck Washington, said, “So far in 2019, six children have died from drowning in Riverside County—and that is six too many! My grandchildren both learned self-rescue techniques before the age of five, and I slept better for it. I encourage parents, grandparents and the loved ones of young children to take advantage of this fantastic program.”

I welcome you to take a look at one of our recent scholarship recipients, 17-month-old Emery, showing what she learned at So Cal Water Babies here.

Happy summer everyone. Be SAFE! Sincerely, Tammi Graham, Executive Director First 5 Riverside (F5R) 1

GOAL AREAS UPDATE 1. QUALITY EARLY LEARNING New State Budget Brings New Funding for Families and Children The California State Budget, signed by the Governor on June 13, presents many new opportunities for First 5 to further advance an integrated and coordinated system in early education and other supports for families with children age 0-5. Below is a message from Camille Maben, Executive Director of First 5 California:

Quality Start Riverside County Capacity Building Quality Start Riverside County (QSRC) provides various types of quality supports that are conducted or facilitated through individuals from various agencies in Riverside County. Through collaboration and intentional planning of sustainability in quality, the QSRC system has built capacity of certified trainers and coaches.

Quality Counts California (QCC) created and currently funds 10 Regional Hubs. Riverside County is a partner in the Region 9 Hub, which includes Imperial County, Orange County, and San Bernardino County. Each hub is required to: QSRC Coaches participated in a training on higher order thinking vs rote learning. They explored how this way of thinking can benefit children age 0-5.

 Reduce regional duplication of efforts,  Build local and regional expertise, and

incorporate state and federal evidencebased practices/models,  Help counties identify local and regional strengths and assets, and determine local and regional gaps and needs,  Coordinate regional activities to implement QRIS elements and systems functions, and  Maintain a strong connection to QCC. The support from the Region 9 Hub and local Prop 10 funding will allow QSRC to intentionally build the capacity of the Quality Start Coaches, staff at Riverside County Office of Education and Consortium for Early Learning Services, and the embedded coaches at the agency level.

You saw firsthand the impact of this work in May when 13 Quality Start sites were recognized by the Commission for achieving Tier 5 – the highest award given. These Quality Start providers have strengthened their capacity and improved their programs with the support of our QS coaches.

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Continuous quality improvement is important for our coaches too. They attend trainings and Community of Practices (CoP's) to enhance their skills as a coach, trainer, and facilitator. They leave an imprint for peer learning and support that can blossom and take hold among the QSRC providers.

At a recent Community of Practice (CoP) in Palm Desert, our IMPACT Providers shared ideas on best business practices. At the end of the night, provider Sue Andrews stated, "I want to thank Quality Start support on such an important topic.

This was one of the best topics discussed!" Sue sat with new and seasoned providers and they exchanged contact numbers to continue to keep each other encouraged. Provider Jessica Valencia was applauded for supporting the Spanishspeaking community of providers in applying for teacher permits. This is the type of organically grown support that Quality Start Coaches help foster among providers. It is an excellent example of success and sustainability!

Quality Start Riverside County Coach Judith Carroll at the CoP in Palm Desert

BUILD QRIS National 2019 Conference The annual conference on quality improvement in early learning and Quality Rating and Improvement Systems was held June 25 through June 27 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Early childhood experts, educators, and administrators from all across the country came together to hear about the latest research, best practices, and innovations in the development, implementation and revisions of QRIS. Heather Hernandez, (First 5 Riverside Program Coordinator) alongside Chris Becerra and Krista Murphy (Orange County Department of Education), Chrystina Smith- Rasshan (San Bernardino Office of Education), Dalenna Ruelas Hughes (First 5 Santa Clara), and Rebecca Jarquin (WestEd E3 Institute implementation with Santa Clara) participated in a presentation on using Community of Practice (CoP) protocols to advance peer learning across multiple sectors.

Community of Practice panel members at the 2019 BUILD QRIS Conference.

The session explored the use of Communities of Practice as a powerful, cost-effective quality improvement tool. The panel shared examples of CoP implementation with various sectors such as family child care homes, private centers, and embedded coaches. Participants took a deeper dive into CoP implementation through a guided Cop experience.

Jennifer Briseño (F5R Advisory Member), Charity Webb (F5R Program Specialist), Mary Alvarez-Gomez (F5R Contracts & Grant Analyst), and Heather Hernandez (F5R Program Coordinator) at the 2019 BUILD QRIS Conference.

2. COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT May 20th Symposium with Dr. Perry nd

More than 1,600 people signed up to attend the 2 Annual Symposium on Infant and Toddler Mental Health and Adverse Childhood Experiences featuring Dr. Bruce Perry, renowned neuroscientist and expert on how trauma interrupts human development. He is Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

The May 20 symposium was sponsored by First 5 Riverside, First 5 San Bernardino, Riverside University Health System, Help Me Grow Inland Empire (HMG IE), Help Me Grow National Center and Cal Baptist University. The event had 1,635 registered attendees however, 1,114 actually attended.

Left to Right: Karen Scott, Kathryn Short, Dr. Bruce Perry, and Tammi Graham

Both First 5 agencies, in partnership with Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, also announced the launch of Help Me Grow Inland Empire (HMG IE) this summer. Dr. Marti Baum of Loma Linda Children’s Hospital and Dr. Nicole Tanner of VIVA Strategy + Communications spoke of HMG IE’s mission in serving and connecting all children and families in the Inland Empire with prevention and early intervention services.

Executive Director of HMG National Center, Kimberly Martini-Carvell, also presented the HMG System Model that is used in 28 states.

Dianne Leibrandt of Riverside University Health System – Public Health gave an update of the Riverside Resilience Roadmap, a cross-sectoral Continued on the next page...

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collaborative initiative to reduce adverse childhood and community experiences and improve health and education outcomes for Riverside County children over the next 10 years.

Dr. Perry spoke about the Neurosequential Model in Education (NME) that draws upon the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) which helps educators understand childhood behavior and performance. He uses humor and stories to make a very serious and complex subject both interesting and entertaining. As a gift from First 5 Riverside, all attendees received a copy of Dr. Perry’s recent book, “The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing.”

Symposium attendees who completed a survey rated the event overall a 9 out of 10 points. One attendee said of the symposium: “I appreciated being able to participate and soak up all the great knowledge Bruce Perry offered on supporting children and families impacted by trauma. I also appreciated hearing about Help Me Grow and First 5 local initiatives and programs in So Cal.”

Keynote Speaker Dr. Bruce Perry

A total of 1,114 people attended the 2nd Annual Symposium on Infant and Toddler Mental Health

Drowning Prevention Update First 5 Riverside is expanding scholarship opportunities for children under the age of 5 to participate in swim lessons through new partnerships with cities, school districts and community colleges. These scholarships fund the cost of tuition for evidenced-based life-saving swim lessons for children ages 6 months through 5 years.

Scholarships are currently given in the cities of Temecula and Jurupa Valley, however, additional funding is available to cities and other public entities on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, click here.

These efforts are in addition to our current contract with So Cal Water Babies, LLC for Infant Survival Float and Swim lessons.

First 5 Riverside strives to:

 Prevent Drowning  Increase access to swim lessons for children

 Increase water safety skills.

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3. RESILIENT FAMILIES

Home Visitation Home Visitation in Riverside County continues to the support of the expand with Commission’s investment. First 5 funded agencies have increased efforts to promote home visitation services available to children 0 through 5 and their families. Key partnerships include HOPE Collaborative, Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, Consortium for Early Learning, and other local agencies throughout Riverside County.

To increase direct service provider capacity, funded agencies have been participating in trainings offered by Quality Start Riverside County (QSRC) and Strategies 2.0. Training topics include Protective Factors, Facilitating Change Talk, Culturally Proficient Professional, and Trauma-Informed Care.

Home Visit with Parentz@Work at the Rubidoux Community Resource Center

These partnerships, coupled with trainings, attendance at community events, and ongoing participation in WIC Wellness Fairs and Riverside University Health System (RUHS) outreach events, has elevated the awareness of home visiting services available to families.

4. COUNTYWIDE IMPACT

Ready4K Is your child ready for kindergarten? Ready4K is a family engagement text message curriculum for parents and caregivers of children age 0 to 5 that gives them the information they need to help build their children’s language and literacy skills.

Each week, parents receive three texts with fun facts and easy tips on how to promote their child’s development by building on existing routines – like pointing out the letters on shampoo bottles during bath time and naming their sounds, counting the number of steps as you walk to the car or bus, or making feeling faces in the mirror after you brush your teeth. In a series of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), Stanford University researchers found that the Ready4K approach increased parental involvement at home and school, driving two to three months of child learning gains over a school year.

Ready4K is being promoted through First 5 Riverside programs like Quality Start, Healthy Steps, Dental Transformation Initiative and others.

Messages that match your child's age are delivered in English and/ or Spanish.

To sign up for Ready4K, text F5R to 70138

While there is absolutely no cost for enrolling in Ready4K, data & messages rates may apply.

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California’s First Surgeon General Concludes Statewide Listening Tour in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties

California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris concluded her first statewide listening tour in the Inland Empire on June 3 with a visit organized by First 5 Riverside to Riverside University Health System’s community health center in Jurupa Valley.

Dr. Burke Harris began her statewide tour shortly after being appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in January to serve as California’s first surgeon general. Dr. Burke Harris has travelled the state listening to the unique challenges that communities in each region face when addressing the root causes of serious health conditions and health disparities.

Bringing together community members, healthcare providers, and leaders to roundtables across the state, Dr. Burke Harris has heard how the Office of the Surgeon General can support communities with prevention and treatment.

“I’m here to listen, and I’m here to serve,” said Dr. Burke Harris who was joined by First 5 Riverside and San Bernardino leadership during her nearly 90-minute roundtable with health and mental health clinicians, social services providers and experts in early childhood development. “We want to address root causes of serious health conditions and disparities.”

About one in five Riverside County households is suffering from adverse experiences that are associated with long-term health and mental health conditions. Dr. Burke Harris said she was encouraged to see stakeholders from the state’s fourth most populous county pulling together to counter a public health crisis. th In relation to overall health factors, Riverside County ranks 39 among California’s 58 counties while approximately one of every three households in Riverside County has a child under age 7.

“We know the physical and emotional well-being of children is largely dependent on the strength, health and resilience of the family, said Tammi Graham, director of First Five Riverside.

Kim Saruwatari, director of RUHS Public Health, said her department is collaborating with stakeholders across Riverside County to address adverse childhood experiences through the Riverside Resilience Initiative. The project is aimed at improving health and educational outcomes for children through age 17 during the next decade.

“This is a conversation that we definitely plan to continue as we work with our stakeholders locally and statewide to set a new course for the future of children and families,” Saruwatari said. “We are helping children and families build resiliency while working on solutions that lead to prevention.”

First 5 Leadership Network Cohort 2 Equity: The quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality; something that is fair and just.

At the second First 5 Leadership Network Cohort, we delved into the core aspects of “deep equity” and what it means and how we as an organization can commit to recognizing and practicing deep equity in our work. The core aspects of deep equity, as described in an article published in nonprofitquarterly.org are:

 Honoring difference and working at multiple levels: Deep equity honors the unique differences

and gifts of culture and recognizes how they influence what we see, how we listen, how we communicate, what’s important to us, and how we strategize and assess…in goals for our collective thriving.

 Focus on Relationships, Intersectionality, and Addressing Trauma: Deep equity means

working toward outcomes in ways that model dignity, justice and love without re-creating harm in our structures, strategies and working relationships. Deep equity seeks kindness, which is rooted in empathy and feeling one another’s joys and sorrows.

 Eliminating Disparities: Deep equity must include eliminating and reducing systematic discrimination, disparities and structural inequity in the outcomes of our work.

There are multiple levels of transformation necessary in advancing deep equity that include looking inward as individuals but also collectively as an organization to truly impact cross-institutional and system changes. The levels of transformation include:

 Internal change: Excavating and surfacing our own apprehensions, misgivings, fears, anxieties, assumptions, unconscious beliefs, and concerns, as well as our strengths.

 Interpersonal relations: How we view and treat other people, where that may cause us pain, joy, anxiety, release, confusion, or discomfort; and where and when we feel courageous.

 Institutional changes: Policies, practices, structures, and organizational culture, which can seem most intractable. This level requires the first two levels in order to be sustainable.

 Cross-institutional and systemic changes: This level speaks to historic and current patterns that

are pervasively recognizable across social systems, including housing, media, education, community membership, economic well-being, health outcomes, and pervasive beliefs across society about “certain groups” of people and their/our characteristic traits, habits, practices, capacities and value.

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The pursuit of deep equity is not easy and is often uncomfortable. In the next few months, you will hear more about my commitment to bring trainers and speakers to our First 5 team to explore how to embed deep equity in our culture and operations.

Click here to view our Agency Data Highlights July 1, 2018 - April 30, 2019

Retirement Announcement After 22 years of service to Riverside County schools, Commissioner Dr. Diana Walsh-Reuss retired from the Riverside County Office of Education on June 27, where she was Associate Superintendent of Schools. Lynn Stephens and I attended a surprise retirement celebration in her honor on June 27,2019.

I am happy to clarify that while Dr. Diana is retiring from her “day job�, she will remain on the Riverside County Children and Families Commission. There is always a lot to do here at First 5 Riverside, so we will commit to keeping her busy in her welldeserved retirement!

Congratulations Dr. Walsh-Reuss!

New and Returning Staff

Rocio Robles, Accounting Technician II

Michele Jordan Principal Accountant

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Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) CE O Dr. Bradley Gilbert to Retire A retirement celebration for Dr. Bradley Gilbert will be on th July 11, 4-6 p.m. at the IEHP Atrium, 10861 6 Street, Rancho Cucamonga. Dr. Gilbert announced his retirement on November 26, 2018, after 23 years with IEHP and a distinguished career in health care that spans four decades.

The Governing Board of Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) has announced that IEHP Chief Operating Officer Jarrod B. McNaughton will succeed Dr. Bradley P. Gilbert as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 20, 2019.

Under Dr. Gilbert’s leadership, IEHP’s membership increased from 365,000 to more than 1.2 million members. IEHP’s provider network has expanded to include more than 6,400 providers and its workforce has grown to more than 2,000 employees. During this unprecedented growth, Dr. Gilbert and IEHP’s executive leadership created a stable environment that inspired innovation and elevated the quality of services for members and providers.

About First 5 Riverside First 5 Riverside, the Riverside County Children & Families Commission, is a division of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services. The Commission is funded by tobacco taxes generated by Proposition 10, which passed in November 1998. The act created a system of programs that promote, support, and improve the early development of children from the prenatal stage to five years of age.

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