Amy Ornelas, a child care provider and grandparent and one of our Vroom Week winners, was thrilled to celebrate with us. She has been an avid user of the Vroom App, and wanted to share her experience for parents, grandparents and providers and how it has helped her.

Vroom Week, which was held October 16-20, celebrated the partnership between Child Care Aware® of America and Vroom by sharing interesting resources and tips, encouraging families and child care providers to participate by sharing their own tips on how to engage with children ages 0-5.

On November 15, employees from Child Care Aware® of America, Good360, and Charles River Associates worked together to assemble disaster relief kits for Niño’s de Nueva Esperanza child care center in Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico. Volunteers assembled 150 kits that will be sent alongside thousands of other donations garnered by Good360 to families struggling to recover after Hurricane Maria. These kits included goods such as bug spray, coloring books, markers, crayons, socks, and facial wipes that were donated from Nike, Mattel, CVS Pharmacy and others. In addition to assembling kits, volunteers wrote letters to families receiving these kits wishing them a happy holiday season, and reminding them that we are thinking of them during their recovery efforts.

Health services across the world are preparing for the worst flu season in history amid fears that the vaccines used to stop the influenza virus will not be as effective this year. Fortunately, there is a simple way to prevent the spread of disease and infection to keep you and the people around you safe from catching a virus by washing your hands properly.

On October 18, I had the privilege and honor of sharing my personal experience in searching for the “perfect” child care setting for my two beautiful, smart, amazing, super energized daughters. Alongside four other incredible and inspiring Kansas City mothers, we had the opportunity to participate in a family voices panel to express our successes and challenges in finding our current child care provider. This was the first time I had an opportunity to share my story with a large group of leaders and advocates for early childhood education.

As the end of the year nears, CCAoA’s Emergency Preparedness Team has been reflecting on the disasters that struck in 2017. Top-of-mind, of course, are the hurricanes—Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Our team worked directly with CCR&Rs affected by the storms and the providers they serve. This is the first of three blogs on lessons learned and our team’s advice for CCR&Rs about the critical things they need to do before, during, and after a disaster.

For your CCR&R to be prepared for an emergency, you need to take the following steps long before a disaster:

Every child deserves the chance to eat healthy food and play every day. Because 60 percent of children under age six spend much of their time in care outside of their homes, early care and education settings are important places for children to build healthy habits.