Communities Grow Together on Elevate Springfield featuring Ashley Earles

Summary

In this episode, Robert and Ashley Earls discuss the initiatives and progress of Birth to Five Illinois, focusing on early childhood programs, community engagement, and mental health services. They explore the importance of partnerships, recent developments in their new report, and the ongoing challenges in workforce development and maternal health resources. The conversation highlights the collaborative efforts to address community needs and the exciting future initiatives planned to support families and children in Illinois.

Takeaways

• Birth to Five Illinois aims to assess early childhood programs and mental health services.
• Community engagement is crucial for understanding family needs and bridging gaps.
• Partnerships with local organizations enhance the effectiveness of community initiatives.
• Recent reports highlight significant progress and ongoing challenges in early childhood care.
• Workforce development is a pressing issue, with a crisis looming in family childcare.
• Maternal health resources are being improved through collaboration among organizations.
• Continuous improvement is key to adapting to changing community needs.
• Engaging junior high students in early childhood careers is a priority.
• Upcoming events aim to provide holistic support for families and children.
• The importance of awareness and accessibility of resources for families is emphasized.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your day, y'all. Time to level up, time to crush it. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10x coach, speaker, and mentor. Here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through it together. We're gonna Elevate Springfield. But you are listening to another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield podcast. As you know, we drop these segments each week. The Communities Grow Together segment will touch on all things nonprofit associations and how we as a community are working together so we can all grow together. This segment is brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency over on West Wabash. Whatever you need insurance-wise, whether that's business, life, home, auto, or anything in between. Hey, David and his team can take care of you. Give them a shout, or hey, stop by and visit them over on West Wabash. These segments are quick hits of actionable strategies and what's going on in our hair area to help you level up and grow together. Be right back after the break. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent's here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217-726-6343. All right, and we are back for another edition of Communities Grow Together, brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency. Hey, anything you need insurance-wise, give David and his team a shout. Or just stop by their office on West Wabash. They'll take great care of you. Hey, you might recognize the individual in the studio with me. It's been a little bit now, but you've been on before. We've got Ashley Earls from Birth to Five, Illinois. How are we doing, Ashley?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Uh, fantastic. So excited to be here again. Good to have you back. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

So I know we got some updates from last time we talked, but maybe somebody didn't hear the original episode with you. Remind everybody what birth to five is.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. So thank you again for having us. We're so excited to be here. And this is just an amazing space to be, and we love that you support community. So thank you for that. So, Birth of Five, Illinois. So we're actually across every community in the state of Illinois. The main thing that we really want to do is assess what early childhood programs are within our region. But then for us, we're still also wanting to have an understanding to what mental and behavioral health services are here because we still have some recommendations that are still alive, which we'll dive into here in a little bit. And then from there, we need to also understand what the families say directly their children need when it comes to the services. And then we have to connect the community partners, the community members, and our civic leaders, because we have to bridge those gaps then, right? Versus what the families are saying and then what actually truly exists. Now, your next question might be like, How do we do this?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

But I was exactly going to ask. You called it.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

I, you know, sometimes I do know what I'm doing sometimes. So we actually do this with kind of three different meetings. And the first two is with our family council, our action council, and then community meetings. So that family council for us is just anyone who has a child under the age of eight, right? Doesn't matter what that family unit looks like. You have a child under the age of eight. We want to hear those stories. What's working, what's not, and how can we bridge those gaps, right? Like we talked about. The next is Action Council. It literally is just anyone who's ready now to make community change. So it could be our civic leaders, the community members who serve and make those changes with our communities, right? And then it also could be those that are doing the direct service. It could be business owners, really again, just anyone who wants to make those immediate changes in our community. And then those community meetings. So it's where the organizations are already having meetings and it's where we can have those conversations to feed into them what our council members are saying. And then how can we make better alignments with what our action plan is saying? So that a way, if they have their own needs assessments, again, let's align. Let's work better together for our community to make those changes right now.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

So when you're saying community partners, some of those organizations that you work with, what are some of those organizations that people might know of out there that you're working with?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Absolutely. So this is the part that I sometimes don't like to do because there's so many lists could go on and on and on. And there's just so many that make so many deep changes for us. But some of the biggest ones have truly been our hospitals. Um, so HSHS, Memorial, Springfield Memorial, Memorial Behavioral Health, SIU. Um, some of our more local ones is Compass for Kids, right? Singaman County Ross, so recovery-oriented systems of care, has truly been one of our biggest partners that just when I mean when we are aligning our efforts with them, we are looking at our needs assessments, we have done surveys together with them so that way when we're going into our needs assessments, we're just truly aligning there. They've updated their resource directory based off of what we have found with our findings. They have just been a true community partner and understand what it takes to truly work together and it takes a village there. We have also been working with our chambers. That has been um a game changer there as well, tapping into those business owners and then just working directly with the chambers as well, especially when it comes to the workforce recommendation that we have. So that's been great. There is just truly so many. Our school districts that has been um a game changer too with the workforce, and just so many other local nonprofits. I mean, the list goes on and on because each of the recommendations we have, each of them have 19 to over, you know, 30 sometimes partners that it takes to make each of those recommendations be completed for us. So, yes, there's a lot of folks you're working with. Yes, yes. And we have eight recommendations that we either had live or you know, that we've closed. So, I mean, that's a lot of effort that has been taking place with our council members and those partners. So when Region 51 has been busy, it has truly been busy.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yes. So when you say recommendations, yes, for those that might not have heard the first episode, that those were based on a report that you guys did a few years ago, which now there's a fresh report out that we're gonna talk about today. Yes. But when you say recommendation, what is that based off of?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Absolutely. So we've actually done like two needs assessments. One was just on everything early childhood, again, what what is working, what is not, and then identifying those needs and then the recommendations, and then another one on mental and behavioral health. And then the council members and community partners have decided together what are the gonna be the recommendations that we focus on. So, again, with no resources, no funding that we need to tap into, how can we make community change right now? And what does that look like? And so they have identified smart goals within there, things that are tangible, right? Time-bound and assessing that ongoing. And so, with that being said, they there are a few out there that are now closed that just really focused on the awareness, right, of resources. So those have been closed, and one of those was around the 211 database with United Way call, text, and number, and you can access that. The other one was on a database where you can actually make a referral, and that one has been closed. And then the other biggest one that we have is on workforce, workforce pipeline for anything early childhood, and then anything related to mental and behavioral health. And that is our biggest one. And they were two separate recommendations, but now have come together because there's over 16 community partners that are working together. And just last year they reached over 1,500 students, junior high and high school.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

They reached 16 schools, organizations, and youth programs. And so it's truly been magical. They've logoed themselves, branded themselves as Project First Five, and they have their logistics already planned for next year of where they want to target, what schools, what other youth programs to go into. And they merely just talk about what are the career pathways? What does it look like to get to those pathways? What are those different careers? And then those entities are actually there to talk about that career pathway. And then here are the scholarships available as well. Here is the financial opportunities in addition to. So it's taken three and a half years to get there, and then the partners continue to join as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

So that's awesome. The workforce piece is huge because I know there that is a huge issue right now for companies out there or organizations out there that are needing those folks.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

When did the new report come out?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

So the new report came out about four months ago.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah. All right. And it is merely just talking about the amazing progress that our community has done to get us to where we're at today.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Right. And that's awesome to be able to close some of those based on the any other big changes from the one we talked about last time you were here compared to the new one.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah. Um, it's just again focusing on that workforce, uh, letting the community know the ones that we've closed. The other one that we did close was focusing on our support group for mental and behavioral health. And the success of that again came from Singaman County Rosk. How they helped us develop it was like a toolkit to let families know that these are the supports in place for you. If potentially you're on a wait list for yourself or your youth to be diagnosed with anything. And if you're waiting for that, then here are all the trainings, toolkits, and curricula that you have access to. And so one's for families and one's for community members, and one's for the professional themselves. And then those trainings were embedded within their huge resource paper guide. And now their online guide, it's really cool. It looks like a book online. And so it just, you know, swoosh over, better word for that. And then now we have school districts that actually have embedded those toolkits on their websites. And then we have school districts and community members that are tapping into those social emotional, trauma-informed care trainings as their practice now as well. So that's awesome. That one has been a huge win.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

That's got to feel good, having all those wins come out and being able to present that in the new report, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Absolutely. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So with the new with the new report, any new recommendations that weren't on the old one?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah. So thanks for asking that. So a new recommendation that actually just formed a month ago. And we're not gonna lie, by our team going to your 10x.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Oh, come on, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Because we 10X this recommendation with our council members and with the nonprofit that we worked with to make this happen. And we personally also had our own little set of goals because it aligned with another goal that we had just to kind of reach the same population that had to do with this recommendation. So, first, the recommendation is just to bring awareness to what mental and behavioral health consultants are for our childcare providers, which is just a person that can come in and answer any questions that maybe you have about what support can I have on like room arrangement as a childcare provider or family child care provider? Am I stressed? What support can you give me? Or potentially if there's any struggles that you're having with any students, that mental health consultant can also help with that. So, with that being said, our team identified some 10x goals for how can we help support and reach more rural community childcare providers, but then it also then helps support these mental health consultants with their goals too, because we were both reaching the same population. And so even though we knew that potentially those goals were going to be too high for them, we knew as we had the conversation, they were like, oh no, these goals can be tangible. And we were like, Did this happen? It worked. And it was, it was really cool to see. So thank you for that. Absolutely, Liz.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

And what she's talking about there, we did a presentation over at the Chatham Chamber of Commerce. They had a luncheon, it was a little over a month ago now at this point. Yeah. But that's awesome. I love that you're able to utilize that and put that into practice. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Um yeah. And so now every morning we do a quick like 10-minute win check-in.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah. And if we can't get it in the morning, we do it in the afternoon to then start our next day. And so that has been huge for like how are our recommendations going? Is there anything else we need to change? Because we also do continuous quality improvement, assessing where we're at with our goals. Is there anything we need to change? What council members do we maybe need to bring in now because something has changed, or what new community partner? So 10X just literally aligned with our SMART goals and and everything. So it's been really great.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

I love it. It's amazing what just actually articulating those wins can do. How powerful that is of a mindset shift to be able to put everybody in the right frame of mind to keep pushing.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, it's been so cool.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

That's awesome. No, glad you were able to take that from that. Glad it's working out for you guys. Thank you. So, what other recommendations are out of this new report?

SPEAKER_01 15:43

So it's not a recommendation, but it was one that the council members had with the original needs assessment, and it was around understanding what maternal health resources that we had available. So if an individual identifies as being pregnant, what's available to them? And so what we did before having and seeing if we needed to add this recommendation, we brought together 18 different maternal health organizations together and just had the difficult conversation of how do you feel what you're offering? Is it working or do you have any barriers? And is anyone duplicating? And honestly, no one was duplicating services. What was happening is the 18 organizations didn't even know about everyone that was in the room. So that is what ended up being the biggest barrier. So, as being a backbone organization, what we did is we just simply put them all in the same virtual space, because that's where we met, and we just had the simple conversation. And so from there, what they have decided so far, since no one's duplicating services, is instead of doing this big elaborate needs assessment or, you know, deciding if there needs to be smart goals, they have simply said, can we do this one sheeter that I can simply, if someone comes to me and they've identified as being pregnant or they're in the beginning stages, can I give them a sheet that will tell them all the resources available to them? Because if there's just one service that I can provide, there's other services that they still do need once as they're going through their pregnancy. So it's been developed. We're getting ready to pass it around to the other organizations, and it's simply going to tell them what the organization offers, how to access them, and then their QR code. And so we're excited about that. And then Sangamang County Rosk is adding a full section in their resource book that will again just say maternal health and have all of them listed.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Love it. Yeah. Sounds like you guys are doing a phenomenal job of connecting all the dots. Yes. Right? Getting all the people together and connecting that. Cause that's that's sometimes the hardest thing. Yeah. Is to get everybody on the same page and working toward the same goal like that. So sounds like you guys have accomplished that, and that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Thank you. With the recommendations that are closed, yes. What happens to those? Do they they get put into like another category or what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah, absolutely. So as we continue to have conversations, because that's what we're doing right now, they still continue to be there because it is embedded in who we are and what we do. So even though there's some that are closed, like we still share what 211 is. We still encourage four different organizations to be embedded in any of the databases that are there so you can make referrals inside those databases. So one, they kind of yes, they close, but they're embedded as we are community members. But then it's never to say that a problem's not gonna arise again. Right. So as we like right now, we're having conversations and asking community members and childcare programs, what are your biggest needs? So it may arise again that lack of awareness is an issue. So even though we thought maybe we've solved it by identifying that 211 is where you need to go and access your resources, it may be that do we need to do another community campaign on that? Right. Because just because it worked three and a half years ago, okay, but now new families have moved in and those families aren't educated now. So now we need to revamp that. So it's that continuous quality improvement. Okay, it worked then, but now we need to go back in and revamp it and we'll have those conversations with our council members and brainstorm with them. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

So this last report came out about four months ago, the one before that, like three and a half years ago. Is there a cadence that these come out at, or how does that look like? So it's we're we do them when we're told to do them. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yep, yep, absolutely. Yeah. So, like I said, right now we're having these conversations asking what they feel the needs are, and then we will come up with new recommendations with our council members and we'll work on those. But if a report needs to come out, then we potentially will be back.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Then you go. There we go. We'll do the updated report. Absolutely. So with workforce being one of the one of the bigger ones, right? That's really a big need there. Are you have any numbers regarding you know the need for that, like employment-wise? I mean, I are we a certain number of people down? I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

What we know for us is in about two years, we are in a crisis for family child care because they will be at retiring age. So they will either have already left us or they are going to get ready to retire. And then also what we know is that we still have multiple vacant rooms within our child care centers. So, I mean, we've been in this childcare desert of, you know, lack of openings for multiple years. It's been a while, yeah. Yes, yeah. And we still have a two-year wait list for infant and toddler care in Minard and Singaman counties. Wow. And it continues to grow. So, like when we first did, we were having the conversations four years ago to get to the report. It was like a year and a half, and then it just continues to grow. So we just tried to educate everyone that as soon as they know that they're pregnant, they need to get on that wait list. Or if they're even thinking about it, like thinking about potentially growing a family or having a family to go ahead and get on that wait list.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Wow. I had no idea it was that long of a wait list. I mean, I my kids haven't been that age in in quite a while now. So I haven't been in that world. But yeah, that is a crazy long.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah. And then our next crisis is after school care now. Yeah.

unknown 21:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

So the after school care, I mean, same type of facility, I guess, that would have those people or is it different?

SPEAKER_01 21:59

So sometimes Those are embedded within your school districts, or sometimes they also are embedded within the child care programs. So, but now what we're seeing because we have such lack of infant care, they're closing their after-school programs, so then they can try to provide more infant care. So now we're seeing some of that. So, yes, we're creating more spots, but then we are losing more than for after school. Yeah. And then the other thing that we have been seeing is yes, we've seen some new programs open childcare centers, but we've also lost quite a few larger ones. So the numbers are not evening out there. Yeah, because some of those were very large. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

And there was a there's a pretty steep decline around COVID, right? And never really and it never really came back after that, right? But it never really made it back to correct pre-COVID numbers, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Yeah. I had no idea. I remember, I mean, it's been my own I have 16 and a 13, so I haven't needed the infant care in quite a while. But back then there was a maybe a short wait, but it was no nowhere near two years. Yeah. That's crazy. But you guys feel like you guys are making some headway with the younger generation getting them into that career path.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Yeah. We feel like the conversations have been really successful. I I feel like I should not be the one speaking on this. My family community engagement specialist, this is her recommendation that she takes a part of.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

And she facilitates and goes out and speaks with the other organizations. But yes, we feel like going into the junior highs has been the most successful because by the time you're talking to them in high school, you potentially are only becoming their plan C because they have an A and B, right? But the junior highs has been fun, that you start to give them a little bit of passion. But we feel like giving them that excitement, letting them know that it's not just potentially going and being just a teacher, teacher aide within the child care center. You could potentially own a child care center. You could build it, you could own your own business within a family childcare home as well. And then letting them know it goes beyond that, right? It could be a developmental therapist, it could be the mental health consultant. And then going into the careers and mental and behavioral health, I mean, it's so much more than just a social worker and showing them what all those careers look like as well. So opening their their eyes to that, it it's cool to see that because I've been able to go to a few times. They're like, no, that's not early childhood. And it's like, oh no, it really is. It really is. And then those of us that have some of that past career, they're like, oh, tell me about it. And then they love hearing it directly. So that's been fun.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Well, good. Yeah. And that you're right. It's the junior high, or maybe even a little earlier is the time to really get them thinking about it. Because you're right, by the time they're sophomores, juniors, seniors, a lot of times, well, I've already got this kind of picked out. May not be what I end up doing, but that's the route they're the route they're going anyway. So no, doing it early is the better route, more effective route, certainly. So anything else you're excited about that might be coming out soon based on some of the recommendations in the new report? Any initiatives, anything you guys are going to be out doing based on the new report?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

We are doing a a really big event. And so those are the really cool things. You don't like to do like those one-offs, right? Because that's not the most impactful work that you can do. But we are teaming up with Gateway Foundation and St. Gibbon County Rosk, of course, for a really large event that's happening in September. Yeah. So it's on recovery support, but they've reached out to us because they want to make sure that it's very holistic and that there is early childhood support. So we're in charge to make sure that every early childhood program or anything mental behavioral health, zero to age eight, is there. And so it's going to be a very large event. So we're excited about that. And logistics are coming together. And anytime that we can do something that's just very one-stop shop, can have everything there. And the more programs and organizations that come together to make it that impactful, we love being able to do that so that it's not like a duplication or anything like that. So we're really excited.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

And that's going to be an event that's open to the public, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Absolutely everyone. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah. And you guys will be bringing your expertise and bringing people together. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

We love it.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Love it. Love it. Well, so much great stuff today, Ashley. Um, remind everybody where they can go to learn more about Birth to Five Illinois.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Yeah, absolutely. So they can simply find us on Facebook by searching Birth to Five Illinois Region 51. Then anything that they've kind of heard about today, they can always find on our website. That's www.birth2to 5. And that's the number 5 f I L dot com. Then, of course, they can always email me about any questions that they have, or they can also, if they're interested about family counsel or action counsel, email me directly. And that's A E-A-R-L E S at birth to again T-O five F I V E I L dot com.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

There you go. Random question. Region 51. Is are there that many regions, or is that just a random? How do they select the 51? Just give it away.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Yes. So we collaborate and mimic the Regional Office of Education map.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

I was wondering if that was the case because like that's out the odd that it's the same number. Yes. Okay. That makes complete sense then. Yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Well, appreciate it. Appreciate you stopping by and giving us the update. We'll have you in again soon.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

All right. We're going to let Ashley get back to elevating Springfield. But for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roofing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities. From quick, dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial, they are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody, on another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Thank you again to David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency, for partnering with us on this segment. A take what you learn today. You bring the discipline and follow through, and together, that's right, y'all, we're going to Elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity? Look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing. Every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbors trust, Sangamon Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.