Parents have many tools at their disposal when it comes to raising and developing their children, and there’s a new one coming soon. This week, we speak with Genevieve Megginson, the executive director of the Chatham County Partnership for Children, and Lara Kehle, the director of KidSCope and the chairperson of the Chatham Health Alliance, about a new tool being developed: Chatham County’s Early Childhood Action Plan.
The two are helping take the lead in the plan’s creation and spoke last week as guests on “The Chatcast,” the podcast of the News + Record and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Carolina. The interview, with CN+R Publisher Bill Horner III, has been edited for clarity and length. To listen to audio of the entire conversation, search for “The Chatcast” on your favorite podcast app.
Genevieve Megginson: The key components we look at in early childhood are about the child’s health, the child’s growth and their developmental milestones that are the building blocks of their ability to succeed in academics later — and the systems that serve them.
We’re very aware of all distresses that the pandemic has brought; children are in the middle of all of that. If we’re going to be focusing on children, we’ve got to look at what’s going on with our families and what’s going on with our teachers. Early childhood in our country has always been an under-resourced system, a patchwork system. It is made up of primarily small business operators of childcare providers. Small business doesn’t get the kind of resources that big institutional systems do.
We see the vocabulary differences in children, depending on what home or what neighborhood they live in, and that impacts their learning later. We see the differences in their behavior, the way that they are taught and disciplined by their parents. Lara knows more about that than I do, but all of those things we want to take in the context of this moment now, this day and this time, and look ahead to what are the most effective things that we can do. Where are our biggest resource gaps now?
Lara Kehle: Just highlighting something you’ve said ... we’re hopefully coming out of this pandemic, in this time that has had such higher stress. It’s had such an impact on the mental health and the well-being of everybody — whether we’re talking about the parents, the families, the childcare providers, and all of that impacts the children. So looking from that side, this is such an opportunity to say, “What are we going to do from here? Where are we going from here?”
We have this early childhood education system, we have this mental health system that really needs support ... it needs an overhaul. This is our opportunity here in Chatham to say, “We want to do this right.” Let’s get the data, let’s hear from everybody that we possibly can. There’s a lot of data out there. Let’s pull it together, let’s get our community voice together. Let’s look at what’s been happening in our childcare centers, in these classrooms, in these childcare homes ... that’s been happening for so long, and is creating more stress, creating some of these issues as the children move into elementary school, into college, into the workforce.
This is the foundation, this is the opportunity to get it right. And now we have this great opportunity to create a plan to help make it right, to help say, “These are the things that we need. These are the things our community is saying we need. How are we going to do this?” And then do it.
Megginson: We’re hoping the plan development will be an interactive process with our community where we collect voices through surveys and all the usual ways. Then we’ll bring that back to the community and have the community reflect with us on it. And what the plan will look like will be more than just a book or a piece of paper — it’ll be a live plan. And I’m hoping it will be something we can share through our print media, video, multi social media, etc.
Kehle: We are hoping to have it start this month, in July. And we’re hoping to have at least a piece of it done by December. As Genevieve said, we don’t want this to be a book that sits on some shelf. This needs to be a live plan with action happening to help make our community better.
Kehle: We can’t do it without them.
Megginson: It has to be a partnership, right?
Kehle: Children don’t exist in a bubble. If the family and the parents are not involved and not sharing their values, their understandings, their beliefs, their traumas, everything that’s been going on in their lives that impact those children ... it’s like we’re putting a Band Aid on a gaping wound. It has to be that partnership, it has to be a team; we have to do this together. One person cannot do everything. And yet, very often, the mental health provider, that consultant comes in, they’re seen as that expert, you know, with all the answers ... you’re gonna solve all the problems. The mental health professional, the consultant, the therapist, whatever — it is the teacher, the parent; we are all experts in our own area. And it’s all together that we’re able to figure out how to move forward and how to support that child and support each other. It can’t be only one of us — it has to be all of us together.
Megginson: When I talk to young parents, I just try to emphasize that they can’t do it all alone, but to find those moments when they can be their best with their child.
Children are learning and listening all the time. When the parent can find that moment to read the books with their children ... the Dolly Parton books that every family can get ... just every day, find some moments where you can just stop and focus on your child. We are all working together to do our best to create the safest environments we can, and there’s a lot more we can do. So just being as an intentional as you can, and reaching out for supports. And there are lots of supports.
Megginson: Well, you know, that’s a great question, Bill. And I could answer it with all the things that I envision, but what it will be is what our community says we need it to be. So I do envision that there will be broadly offered and utilized programs for families to come together to help each other be stronger. I envision that there will be really high quality beautiful early childhood classrooms available all across the county — for all the families, for young children, infants, for toddlers — and that businesses will value that when they look to come to Chatham County. They will come because they see that their workers’ families will be supported in the community.
Kehle: And there will be a variety of childcare options based on what those families need. So not only classrooms like you would see in the public schools or even in a private center, but family childcare homes as well.
Megginson: A very important point — and good diversity, because every family needs something different. And every child needs something different.
Kehle: Yes, and that’s definitely been highlighted the past few years. Absolutely.
Megginson: Well, volunteer opportunities abound. We’re nonprofits, and so volunteers are our lifeblood. We’ll have a community collaborative where people can come on and share their voice. Everybody in this community sees or knows families with young children, and they can help us connect with them, and help us be sure that those voices are elevated that need to be elevated.
Kehle: Once we start really advertising these opportunities and share it, take advantage. What is it on Facebook, like it and share it, because that’s how it shows up. We definitely need to be doing that, to make sure that we’re reaching all of the corners of Chatham County. And when people do come to share their voice, be honest, and share really what it is what’s important to them, what have been their experiences ... because as Genevieve said, we can absolutely say what we want this to look like. But it needs to be what our community wants it to look like.