The Latest
2016 MIYB: 4th Alexander Award presented to Wallowa County
At our 8th annual Make It Your Business event, we presented the 2016 Alexander Award to Wallowa County, where Building Healthy Families and the Winding Waters Medical Clinic have formed a unique and effective partnership. The award was accepted by Maria...
2016 MIYB: Keynote Address by Dr. Dana Suskind
Dr. Dana Suskind is a national expert on early language development and co-author of Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain. At the Children's Institute's 2016 Make It Your Business event, she inspired the audience with neuroscience showing that...
Collaboration in Wallowa connects health to early learning
Maria Weer with children at the library. At the time, Liz Powers and Maria Weer were both relative newcomers to Wallowa County. Liz was a new family practice physician in Enterprise. Maria worked for a non-profit organization called Building Healthy...
Thirty Million Words: A Conversation with Dr. Dana Suskind
We recently spoke with Dr. Dana Suskind, founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative, about what inspired her to become an expert on early language development. She also shares some advice on how families can support young children to develop...
Oregon Announces Preschool Promise Awardees
Last week, Oregon's Early Learning Division announced their Preschool Promise award recommendations. The announcement marks an important step in the state’s process to increase publicly funded preschool opportunities for low-income children in Oregon. Preschool...
Three rural communities come together to create a vision for health
Dr. Beth Green, the researcher who leads the Portland State University team entrusted with the evaluation of the Early Works initiative, is walking down the street in rural Drain, Oregon when she is greeted by a stranger's voice: "Hey! Are you with that Ford Family...
Family Resource Navigator at Earl Boyles is model for schools
"I brought some pictures," Josette Herrera says, handing her cell phone to Josué Peña-Juárez. He grimaces as he looks at the black mold that just keeps coming back around the windows in Herrera's apartment. The two have talked about it before, but Herrera has had...
Take Action: Keeping the Promise
In 2015, the Oregon Legislature made a promise to Oregon's children. They invested in Preschool Promise, a program that will provide high-quality preschool to more than 1,000 kids from low-income families. This critical investment is now being...
The 2016 legislative session: continuing to work for Oregon’s underserved children
Oregon's 2016 legislative session begins on February 1 and the Children's Institute is already meeting with legislators and attending hearings to discuss issues impacting Oregon’s at-risk young children and families. We have developed an advocacy platform built on...
Rural Education in Oregon
This new study, conducted by the Children's Institute and Chalkboard Project, finds that rural Oregon students face the twin challenges of poverty and distance in meeting their education goals. The study examines how rural students perform compared to their peers...
