The Importance of Affordable, Quality Child Care

Steve Adubato goes on-location to the Turrell Fund Day for Children in Shelburne, Vermont to discuss the importance of affordable, quality childcare on children 0-3 with four early childhood development experts.

Panelists include:

Dr. Arturo Brito, Executive Director, The Nicholson Foundation
Atiya Weiss, Executive Director, The Burke Foundation
Dominique Lee, Founder & CEO, BRICK Education Network
Reeva Sullivan Murphy, Deputy Commissioner, Child Development, Vermont Department for Children & Families

7/27/19 #108

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Hi. I'm Steve Adubato. This is a special edition of Think Tank. No, we're not in a studio in New Jersey or New York. We are in beautiful Shelburne, Vermont. Why? Because we've come here to Vermont, because this is a very special day. This is the Turrell Fund Day for Children, 2019. The theme that comes from the great Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers of PBS, is the importance of love in early childhood. This is part of our initiative called Right From the Start NJ. You'll see our website up throughout this program. We're in Vermont because all the research tells us that Vermont's doing some really important things when it comes to early childhood, when it comes to child care issues, when it comes to early childhood development. So Think Tank is all about important issues that affect you, our neighbors, as Mr. Rogers would say, and so we're joined by a very distinguished panel on Think Tank to talk about all these issues. It is my pleasure to introduce them. First, Atiya Weiss is the Executive Director of the Burke Foundation, Doctor Arturo Brito we know very well, he's been with us many times, Executive Director of the Nicholson Foundation, Dominique Lee is the founder and CEO of BRICK Education Network, also a 2015 grand prize winner of the Russ Berrie Award for Making a Difference, and finally, Reeva Sullivan Murphy is the Deputy Commissioner for Child Development in Vermont at the Department for Children and Families. I want to thank all of you for joining us up here in Vermont. This is Shelburne Farms. A very special place. There's an event that's going on. You can hear the sound around us. They're in a lunch break right now. But all kinds of folks talking about important issues. Right out of the box, let me ask you, Atiya, the issues that are being discussed today as it relates to child care, early childhood, the most salient issue so far in this conference has been? The shortage of infant and toddler child care. The shortage of? Yes. And what Vermont is doing to address that gap. They plan to have high quality spots for a hundred percent of Vermont's children. Yeah. And Arturo, we've talked about this many times. You... Arturo's been with us... and by the way, check out our website. You'll see interviews with Arturo. You talk about toxic stress. But the theme today, doctor, is about love, and the connection between love and early childhood. What is that connection? And by the way, by background, a pediatrician..."