Early Childhood Development Press Release
October 5, 2004

The latest installment of Ideas, the new WVIZ/PBS ideastream weekly news and information program, focuses on how to improve the quality of life for the youth of Northeast Ohio. In partnership with The Plain Dealer and presented in cooperation with the Center for Community Solutions, Ideas will focus on the problems and solutions surrounding early childhood development in Northeast Ohio. Presented as part of the “Tomorrow’s Promise - Helping Children Left Behind” project, this episode of Ideas premieres Thursday, October 14 at 9pm on WVIZ/PBS (re-airing Sunday, October 17, 11am).

According to new figures released in August 2004 by the U.S. Census Bureau, our city experienced the highest poverty rate among America's big cities in 2003, with nearly one-half of Cleveland's children among the poor. As the future of Northeastern Ohio will be lived and led by the children of today, Ideas will provide a mix of powerful segments that will sharply illuminate the issues and bring voice and context to solutions unique to our region as they relate to early childhood development. Included, are excerpts from town hall meetings, a panel discussion, and a mini-documentary segment presented through the eyes and lives of several local families.

Three public town hall meetings were conducted in locations across Northeast Ohio –the CEOGC Headstart Center in East Cleveland, the United Way of Lake County in Mentor and at the Shaw Jewish Community Center in Akron. During the town hall meetings, attendees engaged in open-forum, moderated discussions about the challenges of early childhood development and possible solutions.

Excerpts from these town hall meetings serve to guide the panel discussion that is the focus of the October 14 broadcast. Among specific issues addressed, panelists discuss such diverse but connected subjects as day care, literacy and parenting skills and the innovative, local solutions that can be implemented to help create a much brighter future for today’s youth and for future generations.

Panel participants include: Marcia Egbert, Senior Program Officer, The George Gund Foundation; Billie Osborne Fears, Executive Director, Starting Point; Dr. John Duby, President, Ohio Chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics; Colleen Olson, Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education, Cuyahoga Community College; and Peggie Price, Vice President for Children & Families, Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland. Ideas host Rick Jackson and The Plain Dealer associate editor Joe Frolik will help to lead the panel discussion.

In addition to the panel discussion broadcast, 90.3 WCPN will air a special live radio call-in program on Tuesday, October 12 about the issues surrounding early childhood development on 90.3 at 9, beginning at 9am, and The Plain Dealer will publish a column in the Forum section of the Sunday, October 10 edition.

A special Citizen’s Tool Kit “Enhancing Early Childhood Development” has been published and is available free of charge. This resource guide includes specific suggestions for enhancing early childhood development, as well as references to other resources and referral agencies serving Northeast Ohio communities. The guide is available on-line (www.wviz.org, or www.communitysolutions.com), at libraries and daycare centers throughout the region, or can be ordered by telephoning ideastream or the Center for Community Solutions.

The production of Ideas is possible through the support of: Abington Foundation; Community Foundation of Greater Lorain County; The Cleveland Foundation; The George Gund Foundation; The Sherwick Fund; The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation; Leonard Krieger Fund; Saint Luke's Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio; The Thomas. H. White Foundation, a Key Bank Trust; The Treu-Mart Fund; and Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland.

WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream and The Plain Dealer in cooperation with the Center for Community Solutions, have collaborated to create the series “Tomorrow’s Promise – Helping Children Left Behind.” Through newspaper articles, television and radio programming and a series of town hall meetings, ideastream and its partners are taking a proactive approach to increase awareness and evoke conversation on a series of challenges to life (and especially the lives of youths) in northeast Ohio. Former topics addressed in the “Tomorrow’s Promise” series include high school graduation rates, teen pregnancy, and environmental hazards in Northeast Ohio.

For additional information about ideastream, log-on to www.ideastream.com; for The Plain Dealer, log-on to www.plaindealer.com; and for the Center for Community Solutions, log-on to www.communitysolutions.com.