Making Caring Count October Newsletter Issue 3#9

Trends and innovations

Book Dash: The South African social impact platform highlighting the importance of reading for a child’s optimal development. “Every child should own a hundred books by the age of five”, this is the vision of Book Dash, a South African social impact publisher of open, African picturebooks for very young children. They tackle the complex systems that make owning a book inaccessible by creating, translating, printing and distributing high-quality African picturebooks to preschool children and their families to increase early years book ownership. Getting relevant, quality books into the homes of very young children and families enriches the home learning environment and is shown to boost child development outcomes. bit.ly/4en9UWx

CarePredict: A beacon of hope in eldercare. One of the most innovative applications of AI in elder care is health monitoring and predictive care. Wearable devices and home sensors can now monitor vital signs, detect falls, and anticipate health issues before they become an emergency. This technology is about empowering seniors with autonomy while ensuring that help is always within reach. For example, CarePredict, a digital health company that is focused on improving the quality of life for seniors through its AI-driven wearable device. The company provides solutions that help caregivers monitor the daily activities and health patterns of seniors. Their core product uses artificial intelligence to learn and track the daily habits of seniors, identifying deviations that could indicate potential health issues. The system then sends proactive alerts to caregivers enabling better care management. CarePredict’s primary clients are families and professional caregivers who seek peace of mind and improved care for their elderly loved ones. bit.ly/3Y2xySn

News that made headlines

US First Lady Jill Biden unveils $500 million plan that focuses on women’s health at Clinton Global Initiative. First lady Jill Biden unveiled the Pentagon’s plan to commit $500 million to women’s health research as part of a broader White House Push to boost funding for the study of women’s health. The money, mostly funded by the US Department of Defense, will be used primarily to support biomedical research into conditions impacting active-duty servicewomen and veterans alike. The research will explore why these particular group of women are more likely to experience immune-related disorders than their male counterparts. The Department of Defense has emphasized the investment was vital to meeting the critical needs of women under its care, including 230,000 on active duty, two million military retirees, and their families. This comes after President Joe Biden signed an executive order in March to close gender gaps in clinical trials and care and allocating $200 million in the fiscal year 2025 to a new fund on women’s health research. bit.ly/3zMpjjW

News from around the world

How the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India is investing in caregivers by transforming urban infrastructure for young children and their families. In March 2023, over 70,000 children and parents attended the inaugural Kids Festival in Sarasbaug, a park in the city of Pune, India. Activities included storytelling and games, while parents participated in sessions on early childhood development techniques. The second Kids Festival in December garnered three times the response, with around 150,000 kids participating. The popularity of the event illustrates the success Pune is having in combining Urban95 public initiatives with parent coaching and support services. Urban95 in Pune is a partnership between the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Van Leer Foundation helping city leaders, planners and urbanists understand how their work can influence child development. So far, the PMC has set up a model crèche that can serve as an example and inspiration for other employers. Additionally, Pune has implemented a model to establish Early Childhood Development (ECD) Corners in primary health clinics, providing regular check-ups and vaccinations for pregnant women and young children. The PMC has also developed guidelines for crèches and daycares, ensuring child-friendly facilities and promoting child-friendly environments within the city’s urban infrastructure, with the aim of establishing sustainable goals to make Pune a child- and family friendly city. bit.ly/3N23P5Q

What we’re reading

Working Caregivers: The Invisible Employees. They are all around us—the working caregivers desperately juggling their jobs and caring for ailing family members. This quiet crisis is flooding workplaces, costing billions in lost talent and productivity. Working Caregivers—The Invisible Employees awakens leaders to the daily struggle millions of invaluable employees through compelling stories and data. It provides managers proven strategies to stem the coming tide of this caregiving crisis and retain workers by creating “care cultures”, training empathetic managers, and implementing flexible, caregiver-friendly policies. Written by Selma Archer and Zack Demopoulos, this book is essential reading for leaders committed to sustaining productivity, reducing costs, and keeping the loyal employees who are the heart of their companies. bit.ly/3ZGw9lP

What we’re listening to

Podcast: Squeezed with Yvette Nicole Brown. Care is universal, regardless of whether we’re young or old, part of the sandwich generation or child-free. In this seven-part series, actress and caregiver Yvette Nicole Brown looks at caregiving over the course of a lifetime, exploring the lives of everyday people, spotlighting the hardships and joys of caregiving across America. In this episode, ‘A Stay-At-Home-Mom Breaks the Cycle’, we meet Jessica, a stay-at-home-mom with three kids and a former daycare worker who didn’t plan to be a full-time mom, but since money is tight and childcare is expensive, she has no other choice. Jessica fell through the cracks of a system that does not support care workers—but she has discovered profound meaning in her life as a stay-at-home-mom and is using this time to break generational cycles. Listen to podcast here

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