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Televised News Panel Discussion moderated by Fred Andrle in Gallery 2 at COSI For more information, please contact Michele Bell at 614.227.2766 or michele.bell@uwcentralohio.org
Patrick Losinski Named 2012 Champion of Children and Action for Children Named First Ever 2012 Champion of Children Nonprofit Organization Losinski and Action for Children will be honored at the 19th Annual Champion of Children Signature Event to be held on February 7, 2012 at COSI.
Patrick Losinski, Executive Director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, has been named the 2012 Champion of Children. Losinski joins a distinguished group of local leaders who have been recognized as Champions of Children and have made a deep, far-reaching impact on the lives of children in central Ohio.
“Pat has made developing young minds a top priority at the Columbus Metropolitan Library,” said Elfi Di Bella, president and CEO of YWCA Columbus, and chair of the Champion of Children Selection Committee. “Through his leadership he has inspired innovation in his team and broad support in our community. He truly understands the crucial mission of the library to promote early learning and help children succeed, and proves every day that he is a Champion of Children."
Under Losinski's visionary leadership, the Columbus Metropolitan Library has launched and expanded initiatives focused on helping children learn and succeed, including: • Ready to Read Corps which helps young learners from birth to age 5 build skills that prepare them for kindergarten. Workshops are conducted throughout Columbus and show caregivers how to incorporate literacy activities into a family's everyday life. • Raising Readers which visits the homes of child care providers and engages children in learning activities. • Homework Help Centers, and Story Time at the library, including "Baby Lap Time" for infants. • The largest Summer Reading Club in the United States with more than 97,000 participants.
Losinski's emphasis on developing young minds and the innovative ways his team has pursued this goal has earned the Columbus Metropolitan Library well-deserved praise from within our community and across the country -- winning numerous awards and being named the number one library in the United States.
This year Champion of Children also named the first ever Champion of Children Nonprofit Organization. The award went to Action for Children, central Ohio's resource and referral agency for child care and early learning programs and services, for the leadership role the organization and its long-time CEO Diane Bennett have played over its 40-year history in promoting high-quality early education. Each year, more than 9,000 parents turn to Action for Children when they need child care and early learning programs for their children, and more than 11,000 professional caregivers and educators use its resources for training or technical assistance that supports continuous quality improvement.
"Action for Children embodies every quality we sought in our first Champion of Children Nonprofit Organization," said Linda Kass, Champion of Children founder and chair of the Advisory Committee. "The organization has pioneered innovative ways to help children learn, and caregivers and educators teach effectively. Generations of students in central Ohio have benefited tremendously from the work of Action for Children and we are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of professionals as champions for all of our children."
The Champion of Children Nonprofit Organization recognition includes a $5,000 award generously donated by Chase that will help Action for Children further its mission.
Losinski and Action for Children will be honored at the 19th Annual Champion of Children Signature Event to be held at 5:30 p.m. on February 7, 2012 at COSI. The event will include an award ceremony and a televised panel dialogue moderated by former WOSU “Open Line” host Fred Andrle. This panel will discuss a new report to the community on the state of education in central Ohio.
Support for the Signature Event and Champion of Children's year round activities is provided by Champion Partners: American Electric Power, Battelle, Chase, Nationwide, PNC; Supporting Partners: The Columbus Foundation, Limited Brands Foundation; and Media Partners: Big Red Rooster, Business First, Mills James Productions and WOSU Public Media.
Fred Andrle moderates a panel discussion with community leaders, at last year’s event, on the non-academic barriers that interfere with access to learning and the challenges this presents to the health and success of our children and our community. The 2012 Signature Event is sponsored by American Electric Power, Battelle, Chase, Nationwide and PNC.
Champion Partners: AEP, Battelle, Chase, Nationwide, PNC. Media Partners: Big Red Rooster, Business First, Mills James Productions, WOSU Public Media
Champion of Children embraces six critical actions that serve to generate change: creating synergies for action; acting as a respected voice and educational resource; standing as a platform for new ideas and effective approaches to educational change; driving financial support toward education; inspiring personal action; and recognizing outstanding work and collaboration. Champion of Children’s community conversations support and enhance United Way of Central Ohio’s four key building blocks of a good life: quality education, stable income, good health, and safe and decent housing.
Business First VIEWPOINT Column, January 28, 2011 - Connecting the dots for all children at home and school - The environment for a child matters. The advantages and disadvantages children inherit from their families, neighborhoods, early care and schooling will either support or deny them the opportunity of attaining later success. On almost every measure of wellbeing for which data are collected, poor children in America fare worse than more a uent kids. Often, those with difficulties in childhood see them persist in adolescence and adulthood. Read the rest of Linda Kass’ Business First column here. PDF (Copyright 2011. Business First of Columbus Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)
Business First VIEWPOINT Column, January 7, 2011 - Schools can’t reverse poor kids’ fortunes alone - From A Nation at Risk, the 1983 imperative for educational reform, to the recent documentary Waiting for Superman, our K-12 schools have been placed in the omnipotent position of solving our nation’s achievement gaps and, by inference, its economic woes. Read the rest of Linda Kass’ Business First column here. PDF (Copyright 2011. Business First of Columbus Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)
Business First VIEWPOINT Column, December 3, 2010 - Answers still sought on how to narrow achievement gap - More than half a century ago, Chief Justice Earl Warren observed on behalf of a unanimous Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, “it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.” Read the rest of Linda Kass’ Business First column here. PDF (Copyright 2010. Business First of Columbus Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)
Business First VIEWPOINT column, January 29, 2010 - Connecting the dots to classroom success. Today’s preschoolers, those age 3, will graduate from high school in 2025. They likely will not be ready for college unless they are ready for kindergarten in 2012. (Read the rest of Linda Kass’ Business First column here.)
Business First VIEWPOINT Column, December 4, 2009 – Time has Come to Lift our ‘Educational Mojo’- Those advocating educational reform for the past decade – a coalition of business leaders, philanthropists, mayors and school superintendents – see the low performance of U.S. school children, especially poor minorities, as a crisis that requires an overhaul of how schools are run. (Read the rest of Linda Kass’ Business First column here.)
Business First VIEWPOINT Column, September 18, 2009 - Make Early Learning Part of Education Cycle - Ohio's officials and the early learning community share a deep commitment to early childhood education and now need to coalesce on a plan that will ensure kindergarten readiness and school success, especially for the economically disadvantaged. (Read the rest of Linda Kass’ Business First column here.)
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