Ready Region Blue Ridge

Earlier this month our Senior Ready Region Blue Ridge Director, Meredith, had a chance to moderate a panel Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce's Leaders Lab and take part in a discussion around access to childcare in our community. We appreciate our friends at the Chamber for highlighting this topic and we look forward to continuing the conversation!

We held our first annual Leadership Summit this week! 65 educators, community partners, family council members, and RRBR staff came together to learn, collaborate, and brainstorm solutions for the challenges families and early childhood educators face across our region! We'd like to give a big shoutout to all those who hosted sessions on VKRP data, CLASS, Coordinated Enrollment, Conscious Discipline, and more! Thank you to Blue Ridge Community College for hosting us and to North Ridge Café & Coffee for a fantastic lunch!

We wish all education professionals a well-deserved and restful winter break! We hope you are able to relax and make memories with friends and family. Thanks for all you do helping to empower and inspire young learners! ????

Have you enrolled in STREAMin3 yet? It's a free early education curriculum model developed by UVA that offers monthly FREE professional development opportunities! ???? Follow STREAMin3 and visit (and bookmark) their events page to see all of their upcoming offerings: https://lnkd.in/ehnzzYnV

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VQB5 (Virginia Quality Birth to Five) profiles are live through Virginia Department of Education! This means that families with children from birth to 5 years old can search for local early childhood education and care providers with quality ratings online. VQB5 features information about the quality and safety of more than 3,000 publicly-funded early childhood sites, which helps parents and guardians choose the best option for their needs. Start using the VQB5 portal at https://lnkd.in/eYMTz3QH

We've had a busy October! We recently hosted a Data Deep Dive in collaboration with Virginia Department of Education, where early education partners from across our region met to look at trends and analyze data from our first year of VQB5. Our Chief Strategy Officer Barbara Hutchinson also joined Chris Quinn to present at the Shenandoah Valley Collaborative Economic Summit. Thank you to all who were able to join us at both of these events!

Happy birthday to Patrick, our team's Data Analyst! ?? As our Data Analyst, Patrick helps our team make informed strategic decisions based on our own program and internal data as well as other data we have available to us. Not only does data help us determine how our programs and services are helping those in our community, but it can also identify new needs, challenges, and potential solutions. All that to say, we are so thankful to have Patrick on our team! Please join us in wishing him a very happy birthday! ??

Happy birthday to Megan, our Coordinated Enrollment Manager! ?? Megan is one of the key players working tirelessly behind the scenes of the Coordinated Enrollment program we help manage, Go2Grow. Megan is always willing to help out the team where needed. She is lovely to work with and always brings passion, energy, care, and empathy to everything she does! We are very lucky to have her on our team! Please join us in wishing Megan a very happy birthday! ??

We recently attended ACPS's event providing activities and resources targeting math, literacy, and social-emotional development for families. ???? We enjoyed providing more information to families about what services and supports are available to foster their children’s development and wellness. And of course we are always thrilled any time we get to make connections with our fellow community members! ?? Thanks to all who stopped by our table at the event!