Children’s Institute (CI) always enjoys ramping up our work as the summer wanes. It is at that time that our team gets to reconnect with school staff and youth and focus on our mission: Joining together to raise every child’s complete wellbeing and our vision: Supportive communities where every family can raise children who thrive as they live, learn, and play.
QUALITYstarsNY (QSNY) is a large project that has been on hold during COVID. It is New York’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for early childhood programs, providing support and resources to improve and sustain high quality across New York State: New York’s Quality Rating & Improvement System - QUALITYstarsNY.
Last weekend, I gathered with lay faith members of communities across Rochester with whom I have gathered monthly for a year. It was our final class. We were celebrating our accomplishments together as a community that cares about mental health, in this intentional learning community of Renewing of the Mind’s (RoM).
Children’s Institute's former student intern, Victoire Alleluia Shenge, now a graduate student at the University of Maryland, and Executive Director, Ann Marie White, virtually presented their community-based participatory research project at the 2022 International Systems Dynamic Conference (ISDC) held in Frankfurt, Germany: "Interdependencies of Faith and Mental Health among Black Millennials in a US City."
The Primary Project Research Group is having an exciting and busy year. They have conducted several research projects and are planning future research directions to continue to add to the program's evidence base.