System will streamline and unify the Kindergarten, school registration process statewide

WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor Carney, First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney, and the Delaware Department of Education on Monday and Tuesday launched the new school registration system, authorized by Senate Bill 82.

The new registration system makes critical updates suggested by families and school districts. This includes providing 24/7 access to forms, ensuring that all families have access to register their child or children for school, providing forms in English and Spanish, and sets-up a common data system that enables sharing across districts when families move.

“There is nothing more important than ensuring all Delawareans can read at grade level by third grade,” said Governor Carney. “This registration system will help families across the state enroll in Delaware schools. Thanks to my wife Tracey for her advocacy around Kindergarten Registration with critical leadership from the Delaware Readiness Teams, and thanks to our Department of Education for creating this resource.”

First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney traveled to the Seaford District Library, the Harrington Public Library, and the Wilmington Public Library to demonstrate the new registration process. Guests at the events were invited to participate in a Kindergarten Academy activity. The opportunity to participate in Kindergarten Academy school-readiness programs is one of several benefits of registering children for school in November, during Kindergarten Registration Month.

“I’ve been the honorary chair of the Kindergarten Registration Campaign for the past six years for two reasons,” said First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney. “One, it makes sense for everyone — the families, the schools, and, most important, the students. And two, 25 years ago, I flunked kindergarten registration — I couldn’t figure out our system here in Delaware. The new universal, online system is so much more family-friendly; it’s more equitable; and it’s more likely to get kids signed up early, which helps the students, families, and schools prepare more effectively for the coming year.”

“Registering your child in school for the first time can be an overwhelming process for families,” said Secretary of Education Dr. Mark Holodick. “We’re excited this site will make it easier by providing a consistent statewide process. We also hope it will remove barriers some may have, such as transportation and/or getting to a school office during a week day.”

“The Delaware Readiness Teams are committed to supporting families through the registration process,” said Delaware Readiness Teams Program Manager Diane Frentzel. “We have created Kindergarten Registration Information Packets to support families as they register for school. Packets are available at all libraries throughout the state. Transitioning into Kindergarten is a big milestone for children and their families. This universal registration system will make the registration process easier so we can focus on connecting families to resources that will prepare children for the transition.”

To view the Registration Event at the Wilmington Public Library, visit the Governor’s website.

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Program Supports Neighborhood-Based Legal Services

WILMINGTON, Del. – Delaware First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney, together with the Dual Generation Center at the Stubbs Early Education Center and the Nemours Children’s Health System Jessup Street Clinic, are announcing an expansion of the First Chance Delaware initiative to build on progress toward strengthening children and families and promoting community resilience in Wilmington.

First Lady Carney launched the First Chance Delaware initiative in 2018 to recognize and facilitate effective partnerships, to share and research best practices, and to promote opportunities to collaborate in support of Delaware’s children.

This expansion establishes the Wilmington Community of Hope, a neighborhood-based initiative, funded through a private grant that promotes family and community resilience through effective partnerships between government, health care, community, and philanthropy. The Wilmington Community of Hope is based in a neighborhood near the Stubbs Dual Generation Center and Jessup St. Clinic on the east side of Wilmington.

“So many Delaware families have experienced loss and upheaval during the pandemic, and as always, the most vulnerable have been hit the hardest,” said First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney. “In our efforts to influence the social determinants of health and opportunity, the Wilmington Community of Hope will help to give families a new kind of voice when it comes to issues like health care, employment, and housing. We are deeply grateful for the partnership of Casey Family Programs, the Dual Generation Center at Stubbs, CLASI, Nemours, Children & Families First, and — in a real innovation for pro bono work — Potter Anderson. This collaboration represents exactly the kind of initiative we had hoped to facilitate through First Chance Delaware.”

“When it comes to the health and safety of our children and families, we must support communities in designing and building inclusive, equitable and more effective networks and partnerships that will ensure that all children and families have access to the opportunities and supports they need to thrive,” said David Sanders, Executive Vice President of Systems Improvement at Casey Family Programs. “The Wilmington Community of Hope is an example of how we can help community members develop truly effective and sustainable solutions to ensure that every child is safe and every family thrives.”

The partnership combines existing resources and supports currently offered to families at the Stubbs Dual Generation Center such as parenting supports, financial education, and job training, together with access to neighborhood based, multidisciplinary legal aid. Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., (CLASI) is an experienced legal aid organization in Delaware, and currently offers legal aid services across the state, including a medical-legal partnership with the public health department. This newly embedded support will generally follow a medical-legal partnership model, accepting referrals from Nemours’ Jessup Street Clinic & the Stubbs Dual Generation Center to provide legal advocacy that address the social determinants of health. CLASI will partner with Children & Families First to offer multidisciplinary legal aid, incorporating a peer-support advocate with lived expertise to effectively engage with families and build community resilience.

“CLASI is excited to work with our partners to support vulnerable people living in the Community of Hope catchment area,” said Daniel Atkins, Executive Director of the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. “Coming out of the pandemic, it is times like these, where we need to be creative and proactive in delivering crucial services that will assist families in avoiding homelessness, hunger, domestic violence, and other preventable tragedies.

On behalf of the Stubbs Early Education Center and Dual Generation Center at Stubbs, we are grateful for the heart of First Lady Carney and First Chance Delaware,” said Dr. Whitney Williams, Principal, Stubbs Early Education Center. “Recognizing, supporting, and providing essential resources to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children and families is key to positively transforming their quality of life. A family’s wellness promotes a child’s wellness – physically, academically, socially and emotionally. We are privileged to partner for the expansion of services to strengthen children and families and promote community resilience in Wilmington.”

“The First Chance Delaware Partnership is vital to the work that we do at the Dual Generation Center,” said Helen Anderson, Director of Dual Generation Services, Stubbs Early Education Center. “Many of the families that we work with have legal concerns and find it difficult to get assistance. During the Pandemic many of the families had issues with Landlords, Custody Concerns, and legal barriers blocking employment. This partnership will add another opportunity to the residents of Eastside and families of Wilmington. We are excited about this meaningful work and look forward to working with all our partners. I want to thank First Lady Carney for allowing us to be a part of this journey.

“Nemours is pleased to engage in this novel community partnership to help address the complex health and social needs of our most vulnerable patients, said Abby Nerlinger, MD, MPH, Pediatric Hospitalist, Nemours Children’s Health System. “Many of these social determinants of health have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, making this initiative particularly timely.  The pediatric medical-legal partnership model aligns with efforts across Nemours Children’s Health System to improve health equity and create healthier futures for all children and families.”

“Years of research have shown that vital social and community supports form the foundation needed for children to thrive,” said Kirsten Olson, CEO of Children & Families First. “The Wilmington Community of Hope initiative is a bold model that fulfills our shared obligation to foster every child’s potential. For 137 years, Children & Families First has lived our mission to help children and families thrive. This powerful next step, ensuring that every child, family, and individual receives coordinated support to achieve lifelong physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being,  will forever change the trajectory of all our lives as we build vibrant, healthy communities together.”

“Lawyers have a professional obligation to advocate for justice for those who face marginalization,” said William L. Chapman, Jr., Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Pro Bono Services at Potter Anderson & Corroon. “Our work with First Chance Delaware is part of Potter Anderson’s longstanding commitment to provide public interest legal services with a focus on changing the social determinants of health and hope for our clients. We are committed to working with our partners to address our clients’ unmet legal needs, and as First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney stated in a speech at our firm, make sure their voices and strengths along with those in their communities are recognized and respected in a way that individuals in other zip codes can take for granted.”

The Wilmington Community of Hope partners are focused on providing direct supportive services to families with a focus on prevention, healing, and wellness. This partnership provides an upstream neighborhood-based approach to address risk factors related to child maltreatment and improve population and community health for children and families.

Visit de.gov/firstchance to learn more about First Chance Delaware.

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Awards recognize leaders, organizations that provided meals for children during spring and summer

WILMINGTON, Del. – First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney and members of the End Childhood Hunger Task Force (ECHO) on Friday announced recipients of “First Chance” awards. The award recipients consist of leaders and teams that stepped up to keep feeding Delaware children when school buildings had to close from mid-March through June due to COVID-19.

“School-based food services represent our front line of defense against childhood hunger and in support of the nutrition essential to healthy development and learning,” said First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney. “When school buildings had to close, it took a wide range of teams – comprised of dedicated, creative, determined individuals – to devise and implement plans to continue to feed our kids. We are so very grateful for their extraordinary work, which they are still doing, on behalf of the children of Delaware. We are proud to recognize these leaders and teams with First Chance awards for extraordinary service to Delaware’s children during the pandemic.”

First Chance Award Recipients:

• Appoquinimink School District – Janice Vander Decker

• Boys & Girls Club of Delaware – Tony Windsor

• Brandywine School District, School Nutrition – Colleen Carter

• Caesar Rodney School District – Paul Rodgers

• Cape Henlopen School District – Cheryle Lord-Gordon

• Capital School District – James Trower

• Christina School District – Andrea Solge

• City of Wilmington, Department of Youth and Families, Food Service Program – Victoria Fuentes-Cox

• Colonial School District – A. Paula Angelucci

• Community Education Building PS #5 LLC – Havena Hollins

• Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Delaware Division of Social Services – Mondel Powell

• Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Delaware Division of Social Services (Pandemic-EBT Customer Service Team) – Maggie Smith, Carolyn Kincaid, and Marcella Spady

• Delaware Department of Transportation – Mike Rivera, Dan Sturgeon, Warren Ziegler, Butch Kelley, and Laura Brown 

• Delaware National Guard – Captain Kevin Caneco, Army 1st Lt. James Willey, and Sgt. 1st Class Brian Turner

• Ezion Fair Community Academy – Reverend Dr. Christopher Curry

• Family Outreach Multipurpose Community Center Inc. – Stephanie Dukes

• Food Bank of Delaware – Sanjay Malik

• Harry K Foundation – Harry Keswani

• Indian River School District – Clifton Toomey

• Lake Forest School District – Jennifer Montano

• Laurel School District – Julie Gibbons

• Milford School District – Sharon Forrest

• Polytech School District – Carol Arrington

• Red Clay Consolidated School District – Jessica Terranova RD, LDN

• Seaford School District – William Mengel

• Smyrna School District – Roger Holt

• Tarbiyah School – Dr. Amna Latif

• The Little People Child Development Center – Janice Palmer

• Woodbridge School District – Joann Joseph

• YMCA of Delaware – Courtney Hoy

The award recipients, many of whom are Delaware’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) sponsors, were able to coordinate sites early this spring so that families could pick up meals for children to eat at home. Additional organizations and community partners worked with the SFSP sponsors to ensure students had nutritious meals outside of school. 

Members of the statewide ECHO Task Force selected the award recipients. With a central team convened by the First Lady, the Task Force includes representatives from the Food Bank of Delaware, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Social Services. The task force’s specific goals include increasing participation and building partnerships in support of the Summer Food Service Program and alternative model school breakfasts. The task force also seeks to promote awareness of all programs, public and private, available to Delawareans experiencing food insecurity.

“The Delaware Department of Education is grateful for all of the hard work and dedication of the Summer Food Service Program Sponsors who quickly jumped into action when schools closed,” said Aimee Beam, an Education Associate for Nutrition Programs at the Delaware Department of Education. “Without their creativity and hard work, many children would have gone without the nutritious meals that the need to grow and learn.”

“Nothing is more important to all of us at the Department of Health and Social Services than making sure that Delaware children in need receive meals regularly,” said Ray Fitzgerald, Director of DHSS’ Division of Social Services. “We are grateful to all of the First Chance award recipients who helped us meet that priority during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The demand for food assistance as a result of the pandemic has been unprecedented,” said Charlotte McGarry, Chief Programs Officer for the Food Bank of Delaware. “It has truly taken our entire community to ensure that the nutritional needs of Delawareans – especially our children – are met. We are so thankful for all of the hunger heroes who have stepped up during this crisis to make sure children’s most basic needs are met.”

First Lady Carney launched the First Chance Delaware initiative in 2018 to recognize and facilitate effective partnerships, to share research and best practices, and to promote opportunities to collaborate in support of Delaware’s children. First Chance Delaware focuses its work on ending childhood hunger and expanding access to nutritious food for low-income children; promoting learning readiness through literacy, health and parent-child engagement programs; and advancing the recognition of – and effective responses to – adverse childhood experiences.

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Delaware’s First Lady leads effort to ensure kids have access to healthy meals over summer

WILMINGTON, Del. – First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney and the Delaware Department of Education ask all Delawareans to spread the word about the availability of free meals this summer for children in need.

The Summer Food Service Program targets children in low-income areas to ensure they have nutritious meals during the summer. Children and teens 18 years old or younger are eligible to receive a meal at the open sites. It is a federally funded program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and managed locally by the Delaware Department of Education.

“We’re asking all Delawareans to join in the fight against childhood hunger by spreading the word about the Summer Food Service Program,” said First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney. “Ensuring that every child has access to nutritious meals is a moral obligation that also supports the most urgent, practical goals we have for our state – for student engagement and achievement, for public health, and for a vibrant economy driven by a strong workforce.”

Delawareans can call “2-1-1” or text “food” or “comida” to 877-877 to find meal sites in Delaware.

“Children who depend on school food during the academic year still have needs when the school year ends,” said Susan Bunting, Secretary of the Delaware Department of Education. “The Summer Food Service Program provides nutritious meals to children in their own communities to meet their nutritional needs year-round.”

Last year, First Lady Carney led a task force in identifying new and innovative ways to increase access to child nutrition programs, specifically for families in rural areas when school is not in session. As a result, additional mobile meals programs, especially within participating school districts, were launched this summer, and aim to reach more rural children.

School District efforts to reach more children in 2018:

• Woodbridge School District launched a mobile meals program, reaching children in their community who might not otherwise be able to get to their schools for meals.
• Seaford School District launched an additional food truck.
• Lake Forest School District joined the Summer Food Service Program for the first time this summer.
• Smyrna School District launched Summer Food Service Program community sites for the first time.
• Brandywine School District has a bus for mobile meals.
• Colonial School District expanded its summer mobile meals program.
• Red Clay, Capital and Caesar Rodney School Districts have expanded their Summer Food Service Programs.

Governor John Carney and First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney in April announced First Chance Delaware – an initiative led by the First Lady to recognize and facilitate effective partnerships, to share research and best practices, and to promote opportunities to collaborate in support of Delaware’s children. The Task Force to End Childhood Hunger is the first partnership to be recognized as a First Chance initiative. This task force’s specific goals include increasing participation and building partnerships in support of the Summer Food Service Program and alternative model school breakfasts.

Use the hashtag #summermealsDE to spread the word on social media.

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Related news:
Governor Carney, First Lady, Casey Family Programs Announce “First Chance Delaware”
First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney’s remarks as prepared for delivery at the announcement of First Chance Delaware 
First Lady Tracey Quillen Carney Attends Learning Lab on State Strategies to Reduce Childhood Hunger

(Dover, DE) – This week, Delaware joins libraries nationwide in celebrating the many ways libraries enrich their communities through the transformative services and expertise they offer.

April 8-14, 2018 is National Library Week, the annual celebration of the life-changing work of libraries, librarians, and library workers. People of all ages can collaborate, try out new technologies, and develop their skills and passions at Delaware libraries throughout the state.

“We are privileged to partner with our libraries to transform lives through the First Chance Delaware initiative,” said Delaware’s First Lady, Tracey Quillen Carney. “Our goal is to ensure that all of Delaware’s children have a ‘first chance’ to succeed. Certainly, promoting early literacy and school readiness is a critical part of that work; and in addition, libraries are playing an increasingly important role as centers of community life. So the library habit is about literacy, and also about parent-child engagement and access to other services that support strong and healthy families. To support our families and a first chance for all our children, I encourage every Delawarean to get and use a Delaware library card.”

“Delaware has made a great investment in upgrading the services offered to residents in our 33 public libraries across the state,” said Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock. “What’s great about Delaware librarians is their enthusiasm and willingness to adapt to the changing needs of the community,”

Through partnerships, libraries can extend the reach and effectiveness of partner capabilities and resources and foster collaboration. “Libraries level the playing field for people of any age who seek information and access to technologies to improve their quality of life.” said Deputy Secretary of State Courtney Stewart.

Although studies show that in the public’s mind the library brand is “books,” this week showcases libraries’ role to support all topics as a place to “get things done.” As technology evolves, libraries continuously keep pace to ensure individuals and communities excel. Resources like eBooks and technology classes, materials for English-language learners, and programs for job seekers are just a few ways libraries recently — and continuously — transform and lead in their communities.

“Libraries are making experiences come alive, off the page, for our communities,” said Dr. Annie Norman, State Librarian. “Libraries are a linchpin for discovery in all subject areas, and we are working with partners and experts to make available a greater array of experiences for our communities. So Delawareans have the opportunity they might not have otherwise to discover a passion, to develop an expertise, and to make connections to support invention and innovation.”

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.

Find more information about your local libraries at https://delawarelibraries.org.

About the Delaware Library Association

The Delaware Library Association is a chapter of the American Library Association, and its mission is to promote the profession of librarianship, to advocate for library services, and to provide information and services for Delawareans. DLA is the only statewide association that represents all types of libraries including academic, public, school, and special libraries.

About the Delaware Division of Libraries

The Delaware Division of Libraries, a state agency dedicated to unleashing the potential in all Delawareans in partnership with Delaware Libraries, offers free access to the online catalog (delawarelibraries.org); Wi-Fi; computers/internet; eBooks, programs/workshops, community partnerships, and more.

#FirstChanceDE, #GetaLibraryCardDE