College of Health Sciences staff, faculty members and students across all departments are dedicating themselves to helping during the COVID-19 health crisis we are all facing. Here, we highlight their work in their own words. Know someone helping out who should be recognized? Email their information to patrickluce@uri.edu.

We are offering our monthly Early Childhood Leadership Community of Practice meetings in an online format due to the coronavirus pandemic, and we are offering more frequent meeting opportunities due to the tremendous hardship faced by early learning programs as a result of the pandemic.

The group is eager to continue meeting to discuss issues such as how we are supporting children and families remotely, using technology to host virtual group times and staff meetings, fiscal management, supporting the kindergarten transition for children who are moving on, supporting teachers, and staying connected with staff and families while programs are closed.

We have recently welcomed new participants who are looking to connect with other leaders in our field at this time. Our meeting held on the evening of Monday, April 13, had a dozen participants who lead early learning programs throughout RI ranging from small cooperative preschools to state-funded pre-k classrooms to large community service agencies.

The group originally began in the fall with funding through the Preschool Development Grant, and we have sustained the group beyond the term of the grant funding due to the need for this type of support expressed by early childhood program leaders in RI.