Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jack Needham. I'm Executive Editor of Digital Strategy here at The Daily Journal. And I'm really excited to be with you this afternoon with special guest, Dr. Joanna Clifton, who's here representing the Inglewood Child Development Centre to talk about a really exciting initiative we have going on at The Daily journal, allowing our attorney audience to donate to a very worthy cause. Welcome, Dr. Clifson. Hello, how are you? Very well. It's a pleasure to be. Let's get started. Dr. Clifton, would you mind just giving our audience a little bit of background on who you are, your role at the Child Development Center, and how you came to that role and what it involves? So my name is Dr. Joanna Clifson. I am the director of the Early Childhood Department within the Inglewood Unified School District, and I'm helmed at the child development center. I've been in education for 26 years. So this is my seventh year as the director of early education. I was a grant manager for the adult ed department and I was a WASC coordinator and I, I was a teacher, a math and science teacher and a reading teacher for a long time. And then I saw that I'd always wanted to work with all of the span, whether it be from preschool all the way to adult ed and I hadn't worked with preschool. So I applied for the position. And it's like going to Disneyland because I get to work with honey bunnies all day. And so the kids you're working with, what age are they? They are from two years old up to five years old. I'm responsible for all of the preschool child development and for TK. So I work with two to five-year-olds. Amazing. And tell us a little bit about what the Child Development Center does. We're a state and county funded program and we offer low to no cost child early education services and extended care for families. We provide potty training, toilet team support, both full day and part day programs. And then we ensure my I have the boring part. I ensure that we're in compliance with state and federal funding. We ensure that the children have a developmentally appropriate early education foundation so that they don't fear school when they're transitioning. Our students come in as early as two years old. My goal, we're under construction, the district's building a new center. So the goal is to bring in 18-month-old babies so that They have the educational foundation that they can move into TK and then kindergarten with the gaps being filled, but it not being a traumatic situation. That's amazing. And we'll talk a little bit more about how important all that work is in a second. But I did just want to let folks know who are watching that obviously the center you mentioned has grant funding, but it can also, you know, donations can assist for work you're doing as well. Yeah. So we have, we're funded via the state and the county and those funds are restricted. With grant funding my goal is a lot of our families in the last few years have come in. housing is an issue. So we have unhoused families. We have families that are working extremely hard, but they can't afford to do laundry because laundry, I didn't know that laundry cost like $5 to wash a load of clothes. Some families need laundry detergent. So they had a community schools grant, but we didn't have the proper coding. The state hadn't transitioned, so we didn'T qualify. However, we can receive donations so that families can have shelf-stable items. When we do receive donations. One of our board members, Dr. McGee, she donated a bunch of clothes. So we did a boutique and the families were able to come in and get beautiful clothes. We offer diapers. We offer wipes, gas cards, because gas is like $87 a gallon. So, we offer gas cards. Just recently, one of our Board members, he bought shoes for the students. And then we were able to get uniforms for the kids. And so, we have really hardworking families that need assistance beyond just being in school. So the goal is to have a turn one of our unused classrooms into, I want to call it a basic needs pantry. I'm sure I'll come up with a better name. I'll chat GBT it. And then we can, they can just go in and get the things that they need and they can maintain their humanness. We had a family that when things started to take a downturn, they removed 60 housing beds from Inglewood. So one of my families had to go to the Inland Empire. And so she had to separate her family. And one of my babies stopped smiling. And so that hurt my heart. And I want to be able to give them housing vouchers so that they don't have to live out of their cars. And I know it can't be maybe a week or two, but when you have people that just want to take a shower. So the goal is to use the funding for school and for education and for all of those things, but then also give them the humanness that they need beyond that. That's our goal with our campaign. And it's an incredible mission and one we're so happy and proud to be part of here at The Daily Journal. And speaking of donations, we currently have a donation drive going on where we're facilitating donations from our readership. We have a goal of $20,000. Obviously, it would be amazing if we met or surpassed that goal. But in terms of, and if folks would like to donate, you can find the link to do so in the show notes for this live stream. And we'll also be sending further communication from a daily journal, letting you know where you can donate. But Dr. Clifton, if someone did donate today as part of this drive, what sort of items would they be assisting with? Right now, uniforms for the siblings of our students, shoes, we're doing an enrollment, But shoes, uniforms, backpacks, food staples, laundry detergent, gift cards for gas. Just when the parents come in and they say they need certain things, like if their lights are about to be turned off, we would, you know, provide them with a gift card to pay, you know, to keep their lights on. Things that we take for granted every day. Things that if you haven't been impacted by the change in services, then that's where the money's being provided right now. So like I had a family come in that needed to do laundry and Miss Mona, one of my teachers, she went in her pocket and she, you know, paid for them to do laundry. So it would actually alleviate in the child, early childhood educational realm. these are some of the lowest paid teachers but if I tell you my staff is phenomenal that if a family needs something they show up so when they needed laundry detergent we took up a collection really fast and we bought laundry deterigent when they need and then I was like wait do you have laundry at home or do you Have to go you know to the laundry you know the laundromat and she said I have to go to the laundroom and I was Like well do you? Have money and she was like you've done so much I'm like but you need to wash so then we took Up another collection right quick so the goal is to ensure that we can provide those on the spot things for the families. If they give us a 24 hour notice, we got a huge donation the other day. Thank you to Ms. Lucy. And so that money is in a separate account. I go to district office, they can cut me a check and then I can get a gift card that keeps, you know, the trail of the money and then provide it to the families for when they needed. So right now it's those things that, those staples that they need that they don't have, especially with school starting. We got one family, we got clothes for the baby, but he has a brother and a sister. So they have two uniforms. So I told mom, I said, let me see what I can do. And hopefully I can get them two more uniforms. And then that way they'll have clothes for the week. And if she needs to do laundry, we have a washing machine and dryer at the site, but it's broken so they're fixing it so then we can send her over to the laundry and and she can wash their uniforms it's it's amazing and and so many of these things sound so basic to so many of us who who are privileged uh but in terms of the link as as as an expert in this field the link between this stability and having these basic needs met in early childhood and and going on to have success at school and education what's the link there how important is it that we get these basic resources to people especially in early childhood to set them up for success so there are a lot of rules and guidelines so we have um the the food and lunch program we can feed children so long as they're on site but if they leave before snack time they can't take the snack if they if we don't stay a certain amount of hours in between meals we don'T qualify for supper So a baby coming, if you've ever seen a baby come in hungry and they eat up everything and then sometimes we don't have extra to give to them, you can't learn if you're hungry. You can't learning if you want to take a shower. You can learn if, you know, you don't, your shoes hurt your feet. We had a baby, he had the toes of his, he said, my feet hurt. So you have to listen to them. And mom was like, but I just bought a pair of shoes. I said, sweetie, it's okay. We had gotten a donation a few years ago and we just happened to have some shoes for him. All of those things. How can I teach you to self-regulate or spell your name or count or any of those things? Or like my honey bunny that stopped smiling. I had to let her mom know that she knows that you guys have to sleep in the car sometimes. She knows that she sent her brother away. You have to know that they are humans. They are people. And that if they have what they need, it's a smile, a blanket that smells good, a good pillow, somewhere safe. We have babies that come in and they're comfortable vulnerable enough to just take a nap and sleep. So having those basic needs, I want you to imagine in the middle of the night, we had a baby with special needs and you have to go to the restroom, but you're in your car because they have what's called safe park where you can park in a safe area. We get up, I'm assuming, and if I'm wrong, we get up and go to The Restroom and we don't think about it not being cold. We don't think about putting our shoes, we don'T think about anything. Imagine being in a car in year three and you HAVE to open the door and now it's cold and it's not safe. And those are the things that we've experienced. So trying to create a stable environment within the locus of my control, because I keep forgetting to play the lotto, is just to provide them with, you can take a snack home. If you like, they'll come in and say, we don't have a blanket. That translates to, and not being judged. A lot of parents think, no, sweetie, they didn't have money to do laundry. So then that way we have blankets there, blankets and pillows and covers. We have clean mats. That way they can have a safe space. All of that counts towards knowing that school is a safe place and that the people that your parents are, you know, they trust us with a piece of their soul when they bring us our babies. So we have to make sure that they have what they need. And my goal is to transfer that. I don't want you to not come to school because you don't have clean clothes. So if you need to do laundry, here's some here's a place where you can do laundry. If you need help with doing laundry. And then we found that I can take care of my honey bunnies within the school. but then they have brothers and sisters. So then I'm like, okay, well, what do you need? So it's taking care of the whole family and giving the parents a base where they can come and we can help as much as we can. And it helps with self-regulation. It helps with learning when you're not hungry. It helped with feeling safe. It help with, again, that there are humans who deserve so much. And this little bit helps. Yeah. And again, Dr. Clifton, it's just incredible work and and and kind of awestruck by by the work you're doing and how important it is and obviously again we're very excited to be involved with this initiative at the daily journal we have our twenty thousand dollar goal obviously we'd love to to raise even more than that but beyond what we're doing in in the next few months dr clifton if if any of our readers really want to get involved on a regular basis with what you'redoing make regular donations or you can just learn more about the program, the center, and what you do, what's the best thing for them to do? They can always email me at joanna, J-O-A-N-N, A dot Clifton, C-L-I-F like Frank at Englewood, U-S-D dot com. They can call 310-419-2691. And they can also come by. We're located in Englewood, 10409 10th Avenue, Englewick, California, 90303. We have a few other donors that come by and bring backpacks and things. And we just have to make sure that you scan in and that you clear all of the security hurdles that we have to have. And then you can always visit and come see the kids. We Have People Come By and Read Books to the Kids. They Bring Books to the Kids, They Hang Out and Play with the Babies. We're doing enrollment now, uptick in enrollment Again, with the change in environment, we had a hit with the enrollment, but that's upticking too. So, you know, if you want to come by and visit and just see how wonderful the babies are, how well they engage, how phenomenal they are, intelligent, and just to see how they're sweet and how could you not want them to have everything. They also, our goal is to finally to go on a field trip. We would like to take them to the zoo and to the Aquarium of the Pacific so that they can see things in real life. So, yeah, our goal is to give them a very strong foundational environment, again, to make school fun so that when they're transitioning, they know that this is what, you know, this iswhat happens at school and that your teachers are kind people. And yeah, and that theycan have their basic needs met. Because so long as I'm there, so long even when our other babies walk by that have a transition, they can still come, you know, if they need something, their parents know that they can come and see us and we will help them. Dr. Clifton, thank you so much for all the amazing work you do and for joining us today and telling us more about the Child Development Center and how our readers can get involved. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right, everyone, that's the end of our live stream, but we will be posting this video later today and we'll also be sending you more details on how you can get involved. Thanks for joining us.