Breaking News: Joyful Together ECE Named ‘Frontier of Innovation’ by Harvard University
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Joyful Together ECE, Our First Frontier of Innovation:
Our Joyful Together ECE (Early Care & Education) pilot study recently was selected as a “Frontier of Innovation” by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
This recognition is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our team and our community in creating an innovative and impactful program for early childhood education.
Because of this honor, the Institute of Family and Community Impact (IFCI) will be able to partner with the Center on the study. With the Center’s help, we’ll be able to improve, implement, and test our Joyful Together ECE program. And we’ll do it right here in Cuyahoga County!
By infusing relationships with joy and play, Joyful Together has helped local families build child resiliency and reduce caregiver stress. Our ECE version also works toward these same goals. But it doesn’t just focus on home life. Instead, it puts Joyful Together into professional ECE contexts, including elementary and preschool classrooms and childcare centers.
Joyful Together is an innovative model that brings out the core connections between play, joy, attachment, and child-caregiver relationships. When we do this, families can be transformed for the better and for the long-term. That’s why, then, we’re introducing Joyful Together training for ECE professionals. Our little ones spend a lot of time in classrooms and childcare centers. Because of this, they play a critical role in early development.
What This Frontier of Innovation Means to Us:
We’re extremely grateful to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child for selecting us and for the support they are continuing to provide. We are thrilled to carry on collaborating with our families, communities, partners, and other peers. We can’t wait to continue expanding Joyful Together ECE through our Research and partnerships with local early care and education centers.
Our Joyful Together ECE program aims to enhance the way we approach early care and education, focusing on creating joyful and engaging learning experiences for young children and their caregivers. Receiving this Frontier of Innovation means a lot to us here at IFCI, because it gives us the opportunity to further spread family and community impact in Ohio, and across the nation. Particularly, we aim to enhance teacher-child relationships, reduce teacher stress and burnout and lower toxic stress in our communities by spreading joy.
