Friday, April 13, 2018

Let's Go! for Child Care Providers: Tri-county Collaboration Offer Professional Development Opportunities


Healthy Acadia’s Let's Go! Downeast initiative, serving Washington and Hancock counties, is partnering with Let's Go! Wabanaki, serving the Native American population, and Let's Go! Aroostook County to offer a robust, tri-county 2018 workshop series for child care providers. 

Child care professionals, who are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours of training each year to maintain certification, have found training opportunities east of Bangor to be few and far between, and often only accessible online. This Let’s Go collaboration will support child care providers throughout eastern Maine by offering a host of in-person and highly interactive learning opportunities with an emphasis on healthy eating, nutrition and physical activity. We are working closely with Aroostook County Action ProgramWabanaki Public Health and Maine Roads to Quality to offer a number of workshops and trainings throughout the year. 
  
Workshops are open to all child care providers and will include: “Active Play!” facilitated by program founder Dr. Diane Craft, returning to Downeast Maine for a second year; a 10-hour “Cooking Matters” class series designed specifically for child care facilities through Maine SNAP-Ed and the Good Shephard Food Bank; Gardening with Kids; “WinterKids;” and IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) Toolkit training; as well as informational trainings around opioids and tobacco. Additional classes focused on mindfulness, essential oils and more are still in the works. The 2018 schedule here will be updated as new opportunities are added.

Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0, a program of The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, is a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program implemented in partnership with MaineHealth. Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0 incorporates evidence-based strategies for preventing obesity with a focus on the importance of establishing healthy habits beginning in childhood. Let’s Go! offers targeted curriculum and guidance for schools, childcare and out-of-school programs, healthcare practices and community organizations to change environments where children and families live, learn and play.  For more information, visit www.letsgo.org

For more information about Let’s Go Downeast in Washington County, contact Georgie Kendall at 255-3741 or Georgie@healthyacadia.orgIn Hancock County, contact Katie Freedman (for childcare centers) at Katie@healthyacadia.org or Julie Daigle (for school settings) at Julie@healthyacadia.org, or call 667-7171.

Let's Go! 5-2-1-0 programming is funded in part by Maine Prevention Services, Maine Center of Disease Control & Prevention Department of Health and Human Services. 

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