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By Susan K. Livio and Brent Johnson
April 7, 2022
New Jersey needs to nurture the child care industry to help the state make a full economic recovery from the pandemic, according to state Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, who on Tuesday proposed a $350 million legislative package she said will get more parents back to work. The child care industry, long beset by low wages and high costs, took a beating during the pandemic, said Ruiz, D-Essex, in her first major legislative...

07 April, 2022 /

By Connie Matthiessen
April 6, 2022
Council for a Strong America: The name conjures images of tanks and bald eagles — not so much playgrounds and childcare centers. Nor is the organization’s membership — cops, military brass, and business executives — usually associated with issues impacting young children. Still, it’s a link that the Council for a Strong America has forged for several decades. And since the pandemic trained a spotlight on the U.S. child care crisis, the organization’s approach seems increasingly...

06 April, 2022 /

By Annette Porter | The Baltimore Sun
March 22, 2022
I was working on a movie not too long ago. We were in post-production, and we needed a voice-over. One of the executives of the film was adamant that the voice needed to be male. A male voice, he said, would add “gravitas” and “grandeur.” There was no discussion, no alternative. The guy wanted a male voice, and that was it. I’m not the first to say it, but Hollywood still has...

22 March, 2022 /

By Adobe Communications Team
March 21, 2022
As the past two years have shown, even throughout a pandemic and polarization, creativity can’t be held back. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we shine our light on women creators who continue to make great strides even amidst our struggles.
Below are stories of hope and resilience, and sources of inspiration from 14 female creators — artists, filmmakers, organizers and entrepreneurs — that motivate us to raise our creative voices, to reflect on women's creative...

21 March, 2022 /

By Nick Rocco Scalia | Film Threat
March 16, 2022
"Rather miraculous . . . genuinely uplifting and inspiring in ways that even 'feel-good' fictional stories can’t often achieve. There’s compelling drama in the well-wrought contrasts between the harshness and of lower-income living in Chicago and the ambitions of Educare. Pulls at the heartstrings . . ."...

16 March, 2022 /

By Jason Whyte | Get Reel Movies
March 16, 2022
In TOMORROW’S HOPE you’ll get to know real people making a real difference on the South Side of Chicago. This is an experience that leads you heart-first into some of our most talked-about issues today, including systemic racism and the importance of providing access to education. It’s a journey with passionate educators and kids and their families who are finding a way to carve out the future, despite a sea of intense...

16 March, 2022 /

By Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
"A passionate and inspiring film . . . there is always hope, though sometimes it doesn't look like what we expect. 'Tomorrow's Hope' definitely tells the kind of feel-good, inspirational story that audiences love."...

16 March, 2022 /

By Stephanie Jones and Nonie K. Lesaux
March 15, 2022
To succeed in the classroom, children must be able to cooperate with other students and their teachers, focus their attention, control impulsive behaviors and manage their emotions so they can concentrate on the tasks at hand. They need to have a sense of belonging and purpose, be able to plan and set goals, and persevere through challenges....

15 March, 2022 /

Hosted by Lauren deLisa Coleman
March 12, 2022
Tomorrow's Hope follows the journeys of three graduates from the Educare School to their graduation and afterward. Told from their perspective, we see how vital good early education is. How big of a difference it can make in a person's life....

12 March, 2022 /

By Luke Y. Thompson | Films Gone Wild
March 11, 2022
Almost everyone says they want a better future and education for their children. But when it comes time to getting it done, other concerns often push the kids to the backburner, perhaps because children can’t lobby for themselves. Thankfully, they have advocates in companies like the Saul Zeantz Charitable Foundation, which funds documentaries focused on early childhood education. For their second feature, Tomorrow’s Hope, the foundation turned to producers Tamra Raven...

11 March, 2022 /

By Steve Kopian
MARCH 11, 2022
This is a hopeful tale of a program that gives kids enough of a leg up that they have a good shot at succeeding. I was so impressed that I found myself investigating the program right after I finished the film. The portrait this film paints such a good picture that you will wonder how the hell the program hasn't spread all across the county.
You need to see this film....

11 March, 2022 /

By Liz Whittemore
MARCH 11, 2022
In the SXSW22 short film Tomorrow’s Hope, filmmaker Thomas Morgan examines the effect of two foundations for early childhood education on its first-ever class. Educare and The Ounce of Prevention Fund are sound arguments for universal Pre-K. I’m a former preschool teacher who can attest to the impact these years have on the lives of children and their families. Working in a school in the River City Building in downtown Chicago, I taught predominantly Head Start...

11 March, 2022 /

By Carey
MARCH 8, 2022
Austin’s South by Southwest starts in just a couple of days on the 11th, but the SXSW Edu has already begun. A film that is part of it is Thomas Morgan’s documentary Tomorrow’s Hope. It is a short film at 44 minutes long but it says a lot. A film which follows the journeys of three graduates from the Educare School to their graduation and afterward....

08 March, 2022 /

This podcast originally aired on Lights Camera Austin on March 6, 2022
Interview by Robert Sims
The documentary Tomorrow's Hope: The Promise of Early Childhood Education celebrates the early childhood education program developed and taught at Start Early’s (formerly Ounce of Prevention Fund’s) Educare Chicago. The school opened in January 2000 to provide high-quality education to children from birth to age 5 from low-income families living on Chicago's South Side. The documentary spotlights three members of Educare Chicago's first-ever class as they...

06 March, 2022 /

By Nora Delaney
February 10, 2022
A new bipartisan report calls for "rewriting the generational contract" to increase investments in America’s children significantly by shifting funds from programs that now go toward supporting older, wealthier adults.
In the report, "Rebalancing: Children First," leading scholars convened by two of the country’s most respected think tanks propose directing more national funds to help children. Currently, more than 40% of the federal budget flows to Americans over the age of 65, compared to only 7.4% spent...

10 February, 2022 /

By Anya Kamenetz
February 10, 2022
Dale Farran has been studying early childhood education for half a century. Yet her most recent scientific publication has made her question everything she thought she knew. "It really has required a lot of soul-searching, a lot of reading of the literature to try to think of what were plausible reasons that might account for this."...

10 February, 2022 /

By Naomi Martin and Jenna Russell
January 17, 2022
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Leighton Harris, 4, sat with her classmates on a rug before a whiteboard. One of her two teachers praised the little girl’s calm, attentive posture: “I love how Leighton is sitting.’’ A year before the start of kindergarten, Leighton is well-prepared, having already practiced not just her letters and numbers, but also subtle skills key for school success, such as breathing through stress and the art of sitting quietly and...

19 January, 2022 /

January 11, 2022
As the Omicron variant surges and U.S. schools deal with a substitute teacher shortage and related pandemic fallout, don't be surprised if a return to remote or hybrid learning leads your kids to act out, a new study warns....

18 January, 2022 /

January 10, 2022
Emily C. Hanno, PhD
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the education of more than 1 billion children worldwide, with many experiencing shifts between remote, hybrid, and in-person learning. As the COVID-19 pandemic and interruptions to learning continue, we need to understand their consequences for children’s behavioral health to inform response efforts. We used longitudinal data to examine how children’s behavioral well-being differed by learning format....

10 January, 2022 /

October 28, 2021
This fall, two apprentices at the Coleman Center for Early Learning will serve as a pilot group. Secretary Barbara Cooper of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (ADECE) joined leaders from Troy University, Wallace Community College, and the Alabama Office of Apprenticeship to officially sign documents establishing Alabama’s first apprenticeship for Early Childhood Educators on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, at the Coleman Center for Early Learning on the Troy University Dothan Campus, 504 University Dr, Dothan, AL....

28 October, 2021 /

October 26, 2021
The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation documentaries Tomorrow's Hope and Kaotic Drumline: Drumming with a Difference screened (in person!) in Los Angeles at Regal LA Live Cinemas, at the 12th Annual Awareness Film Festival. The Panel ("The Next Gen") featured the filmmaking team conversing about the films' inspirational personalities and their remarkable creativity in the face of tremendous challenges, as well as discussing themes including systemic inequality and advancing hope of building a brighter future....

27 October, 2021 /

October 12, 2021
Many Americans pay more for child care than they do for their mortgages, even though the wages for those who provide the care are among the lowest in the United States. Democrats see the issue as a fundamental market failure and are pushing a plan to bridge the gap with federal subsidies. We went to Greensboro, N.C., to try to understand how big the problem is and to ask whether it is the job of the federal government...

12 October, 2021 /

October 12, 2021
Tonight at 10pm EST, PBS airs an hour-long documentary that takes an in-depth look at how the lack of affordable, quality child care is affecting American families, which has plagued families in the U.S. for more than a century....

12 October, 2021 /

Sep. 30, 2021
By Betsy Biemann & Keith Bisson
COVID-19 didn’t just reveal a broken child care system. A confluence of events dramatically worsened the frayed patchwork of child care programs in the US, after significant drops in center enrollment when parents lost jobs, shifts from in-school to at-home learning, and uncertainty about health and safety during a global pandemic. Since a lack of licensed child care options has long correlated with higher rates of unemployment, underemployment, and poverty, these problems only...

30 September, 2021 /

SZCF is pleased to announce that Starting at Zero is now available on Kanopy. Kanopy partners with public libraries and universities, providing ad-free films and series that can be enjoyed on all devices – TV, mobile phone, tablet and online. Kanopy is available to students/faculty/patrons at universities and libraries that offer the platform....

14 September, 2021 /

Start Early
August 10, 2021
Last month, families across the country began receiving the first payments under the Advance Child Tax Credit (ACTA), a part of the American Rescue Plan Act. For many families with young children, like Educare Chicago parent Cheryse Singleton-Nobles, the expanded Child Tax Credit offers integral support that increases their ability to provide a stable environment and experiences for their children to thrive.
“A lot of us are struggling. Even though the pandemic is ending, that doesn’t end the...

10 August, 2021 /

Big news! We're excited to share that tonight and all this week, PBS NewsHour is examining the current state of the American child care system in a special five-part series, titled "Raising The Future." The feature kicks off this evening, Monday, July 12, with a segment that examines how America’s child care landscape has dramatically changed as the country emerges from the pandemic and what’s at stake in this critical moment....

13 July, 2021 /

Beginning July 12 and airing over the course of that week, PBS NewsHour will broadcast “Raising the Future: America’s Child Care Dilemma,” a five-part series that takes an extensive look at America’s child care crisis. The struggle to find affordable, quality child care has always been one of the biggest issues for American families and Covid-19 only exacerbated the problem. ...

12 July, 2021 /

New research from NORC at the University of Chicago, Start Early, and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research finds that Chicago policies intended to increase access and enrollment to full-day, school-based pre-k were also related to higher kindergarten entry skills and ultimately better academic outcomes in second grade, particularly for high-priority students....

03 July, 2021 /

With help from SZCF, Mountainfilm for Students is offered at no cost to K-12 public schools in conjunction with Mountainfilm on Tour shows. These curated playlists are customized by grade level with informative and inspiring content. Classroom materials developed by teachers to align with College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards are available for select films....

08 June, 2021 /

The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Leadership in Early Learning Settings in a Post-Pandemic Era
To be held virtually June 16-17.
Designed for early education leaders, this program will explore the latest science of early learning and what this means for the work ahead in cultivating strong, responsive, and supportive environments in the wake of the pandemic....

18 May, 2021 /

By Cody Uhing
May 10, 2021
This morning, the School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released the findings of a new study on the long-term effects of Boston’s preschool program. Using admissions lotteries, the research found that participation in the preschool program led to significant long-term improvements in academic and behavioral outcomes in children. ...

18 May, 2021 /

Neely Swanson
May 17, 2021
“Tomorrow’s Hope” is a bright spot within the blight that is poverty, not just on the South Side of Chicago, but anywhere opportunities are as lacking as faith in a broken system. Subtitled “The Promise of Early Childhood Education,” director Thomas Morgan gives us an intimate view of Educare, a novel early education intervention program....

17 May, 2021 /
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