Tri-Valley Opportunity Council, Inc.

2013

JULY NEWSLETTER

“People Helping People”www.tvoc.org

From My View:

In This Issue:* From My View- Report from CEO Dennis P. DeMers* Northagen Meets Senator Heitkamp* Dentist Visits Elysian Area Learning Center* Local Child Care Programs Seeing Stars

In This Issue:* Tri-Valley Busy at County Fairs in July* Upcoming Events in August* Remodeling at Tri-Valley in Crookston* T.H.E. Bus Visits State Farm Grand Opening

With this summer coming late and back to school ads already upon us I can only ask, “…where did the summer go?” My memory is getting shorter as I grow older but it seems to me that we have about one month of hot summer weather and now I can feel the evening chill of autumn. This doesn’t bother me much since I really like the autumn months the best each year, but this just seems to have been and awfully short summer.

The Congress continues to meet with minor work being completed. The big issues of a farm bill, budget, immigration reform, and national security seem to be given lip service while our Senators and Representatives prepare for the autumn recess and the embarking of their next campaigns. A few weeks ago I was pretty optimistic that a farm bill would get enacted along with some kind of immigration reform. Today, I can’t see either being completed this year and this will mean we will put off until 2014 that which should be worked upon right now. My mother told me that patience was a virtue. Still, patience can go on for only so long.

As we fly into the autumn we need to remember that come October 1, 2013 Minnesota will be operating one of the first Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges in the nation. It doesn’t matter which side of the issue you were/are on related to health care reform, the fact is that over the next few months you and I are going to be bombarded with outreach and advertising to help us chose our health insurer in Minnesota. For those who have insurance with their present employer, probably little will change except for the cost and conditions of your health insurance policy. For 5-10 per cent of our population this is going to be a very important and confusing time since how one gets health care and health insurance is going to be changing and the changes are significant. The best we as good Minnesotans can do is keep abreast of what is going on in this regard and refer our fellow citizens to those who can provide adequate information about this evolving system of health care in our state and nation.

A couple of weeks ago I listened to an economist share his views about why early childhood education was such a good in-vestment. I have heard lots of people tell me why investing early makes sense and why it is good for children, families and our communities. However, I have never had someone forward a purely economic reason for early childhood education. With the Obama administration forwarding a significant plan to increase early childhood education in the years to come, I thought I would share the link to the place where I heard this economic reason for early childhood education. I would be interested in your feedback after you watch it. The link to the presentation is:

http://www.ted.com/talks/timothy_bartik_the_economic_case_for_preschool.html

Northagen Meets North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp

Tami Northagen, Center Manager at Tri-Valley’s Grafton Family Service Center was able to meet and speak with North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp on Tuesday, July 2. The two spoke about the many great things happening with the Head Start Program. Northagen invited her to visit the center and to meet with Head Start, Child & Family Programs Director Laurie Coleman to learn more about the Tri- Valley Head Start Program. Heitkamp was at Granny’s Restaurant in Grafton, ND to speak with city officials about permanent flood control for the city. Elysian Area Learning Center Wows The Dentist!

Dr. Saul Ovalle, DDS, has been coming to the Ely-sian Area Learning Center (EALC) for the past four years to provide the dental screenings for the children. This year, he was “Wowed” by the healthy teeth and cooperative children that hopped on his chair! While visiting with him afterwards he commented on the great improvement he’s seen since his first visit to Elysian. When Dr. Ovalle first started visiting EALC it was not uncommon for him to spend most of a morning doing dental exams – this visit, he was here and ready to go in less than 1 ½ hours! His comment: “What a difference Head Start has made in the dental health of these children. With regular screening, good dental health education in the classroom, and informa-tion shared with parents; children are coming to school with healthy teeth. Keep up the good work!”

Along with Dr. Ovalle, we were able to enlist the help of Renee, from The Rice County Public Health office. She provided cleaning for all the children who did not need follow up treatments. You can see by the accompanying picture that the children were eagerly lining up to have their teeth cleaned!

Dr. Ovalle is amazed at the healthy teeth he examined at the Elysian Area Learning Center!

Renee, Rice Co. Public Health, hard at work!

Tri-Valley took part in six events during the month of July. A booth was set up at the Polk County Fair (Fertile), Red Lake County Fair Senior Day (Oklee), Pennington County Fair (Thief River Falls), Kittson County Fair (Hallock), Marshall County Fair (Warren), and Clear-water County Fair (Bagley). (All programs were rep-resented with information. The banners were just split between the sites). If your center takes part in or puts on any events, please email Mitch some pictures and a description of the event so it can be highlighted in the newsletter.

Upcoming August Calendar Items:* Aug. 1-4- Clearwater County Fair (Bagley)* Aug. 10- RXII HS/EHS Policy Council (Alexandria)* Aug. 6- 10th Annual Night to Unite* Aug. 13- Tri-Valley Board of Directors Meeting* Aug. 14-17- Ox Cart Days (Crookston)* Aug. 26-30- Pre-Service Training for EHS and HS teaching staff* Aug. 29- University of Minnesota, Crookston Business Oppor-tunity Picnic

For more information on these events visit www.tvoc.org/calendar/

Local Child Care Programs Seeing Stars

The Child Care Aware Program at Tri-Valley Opportunity Council, Inc. announced today that local child care pro-grams are seeing stars; Parent Aware Star ratings that is. Kim Feiro, Karen Salentiny, Sunrise Center for Children and Families in Crookston and Susan Weber and June Kas-sa in East Grand Forks recently completed the Star Rating process called Parent Aware.

Parent Aware is a rating tool designed to ensure that child care programs are delivering quality services. It’s also a tool parents can use to find quality child care and early educa-tion programs in Minnesota. The Star Rating is the result of a thorough process that involves learning, coaching, and training. All Star-Rated Programs go above and beyond li-censing requirements to support quality and school read-iness. By voluntarily becoming rated, a program shows it cares enough about early learning to use the best practices and proven approaches. At each level, quality indicators are measured in four key areas: physical health and well-being,

teach and relationships, as-sessment and child prog-ress, and teacher training and education. The rating acts as a Consumer Reports style symbol of quality and is posted to the Par-ent Aware website at www.parentawareratings.org.

Participating programs have volunteered for extra, in-depth training, devoted themselves to strong, caring relationships with each child, adopted the latest approaches to keeping children’s learn-ing on track, committed to daily activities and routines that help children learn and grow, and place a focus on children’s health and safety. During the process, each program partic-ipating in Parent Aware is given access to quality improve-ment grants and a consultant who coaches them through the process.

For more information on Tri-Valley’s Child Care Aware program visit the company’s website at www.tvoc.org or call 1-800-584-7020.

This information is available in alternative formats to individuals with disabilities. Contact us at 1-800-584-7020 or by calling the Telecommunication Relay Service at 711 or 1-800-627-3529. Tri-Valley Oppor-tunity Council, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer/provider. EOE/M/F/D/V

Did You Know?...* You can receive more information on Tri-Valley’s programs and services by calling 218-281-5832 or 800-584-7020.

* You can keep up with Tri-Valley news on the TVOC website at www.tvoc.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TVOCInc and on Twitter at @Tri-Valley_TVOC.

* Everyone can receive the Tri-Valley Newsletter. If you know of anyone who would like a copy please have them contact Mitch Bakken at 218-281-5832 or mitch.bakken@tvoc.org.

The Tri-Valley Administrative Offices in Crookston had some remodeling done in July. The first floor windows on the south side of the building were replaced and the canopy roof in the parking lot was replaced with metal roofing. T.H.E. Bus stopped by the Andy Oman State Farm Insur-

ance Agency to help celebrate the grand opening at their new location in Crookston.

Tri-Valley Opportunity Council, Inc. (TVOC) is a community action agency headquartered in Crookston, MN. It is our Mission to provide opportu-nities to individuals and communities in order to improve the quality of our lives. In existence since 1965, TVOC provides services in 84 counties in Minnesota and Northeast North Dakota. For more information on services offered by TVOC please call 218-281-5832 or 800-584-7020.