Cathy Wright, Candidate for the House, Addresses Children's Issues
From What’s New for Chatham Kids, a blog by the Chatham County Partnership for Children:
Questionnaire response from Cathy Wright, Candidate for the House, District 54
The future of North Carolina – our children
I commend The North Carolina Partnership for Children and the Smart Investing Initiative for their work on behalf of our children and appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts. I look forward to learning more about your initiatives. It will be a pleasure to work with this organization to ensure a healthy future for our children. It will be important to evaluate the funding of current state programs, however briefly here are a few thoughts about your priorities and things to consider:
Food, Shelter & Health Care
- Develop public education/advocacy programs for saving, manage money, how to purchase homes, etc. (partner with the mortgage and banking industry)
- Develop public education/advocacy programs for healthy diets and healthy living (partner with nutrition and diet associations, associations for physical education, YMCA, School Nurse Association, pediatricians, etc.)
Quality Child Care & Education
- Develop public education/advocacy programs for parents – “Stay in School” (be an educated parent)
- Have an independent evaluation done to determine if current education programs and child services are producing lasting benefits and outcomes
- In cooperation with education professionals, develop standards of excellence for child care providers and pre-school teachers
- Develop private/public partnerships with businesses and corporations to fund professional development for child care providers and pre-school teachers (private business partnering with “schools of excellence”)
Support Families
- Develop private/public partnerships to provide support and education for new parents (partner with churches, professional educational & medical associations, child development professionals, and other advocacy groups)
- Prepare a public education/advocacy program about availability of parent resources and how to access them