The research is in: high-quality early education, health care, and social/emotional development services lay the groundwork for children to be more successful in school, more likely to graduate from college and have higher overall lifetime earnings. That's why making high-quality early care and education available to every family makes sense for Ohio.

But the work is not finished yet... The continued success of groundWork will depend in large part on the efforts of thousands of local advocates across the state reaching out to their legislators and local leaders to convey the importance of early care and education in their community.

Dr. James Heckman coming to Ohio on March 18, 2010 for "The Economic Case for Investing in Early Childhood Education". Click here for more details and registration information.

Center for Early Childhood Development Implementation Plan

Human Services in Tough Times: State Tax and Budget Workshop

Ohio faces a tough budget situation which will become even more difficult when the federal stimulus ends in Summer 2011.  The Center for Community Solutions is hosting a budget workshop that will prepare health and human service advocates to be effective champions for the next budget.  Learn about the major challenges facing health and human service programs in this budget and beyond, and how to influence the key policy choices that will shape the future. 

The workshop is FREE. Registration is required. To register, please contact Eboney Williams at ewilliams@CommunitySolutions.com.

 Click HERE for more information from The Center for Community Solutions

Lora Comichisto currently serves as the Administrative Coordinator for the Tru-Mah-Col Association for the Education of Young Children (AEYC) in Cortland, Ohio. Lora began her career by serving as the Childcare Program Manager for the YWCA of Youngstown. In that time, Lora directed and oversaw eight locations throughout Mahoning County, and successfully navigated the YWCA Discovery Place through NAEYC Accreditation.

In the last ten years Lora has served the field of early care and education, Lora has licensed and opened one preschool center on the west side of Youngstown as well as several after school programs throughout Mahoning County, primarily serving inner city Youngstown children and families. Lora has extensive experience in Head Start partnerships, the Early Learning Initiative (ELI), and special needs populations.

In 2007, Lora was fortunate to take the position as the first paid staff person for Tru-Mah-Col AEYC to conduct all administrative functions for the organization including grant writing, fund management, training and program coordination, membership work and representing the organization at the local and state levels. Lora also serves on the Administrator Core Knowledge Competencies writing team in Columbus.

Lora has served as a tireless advocate for the early childhood community. In 2005, Lora joined the Tru-Mah-Col AEYC Board of Directors as the Public Policy Chair and has since become the Mahoning Valley groundWork Coordinating Committee Chair. Some of Lora’s favorite moments advocating for early childhood include last year’s budget and the 2008 Mahoning Valley Candidate Forum. Last year’s successful forum attracted over 200 local early care and education professionals and 17 legislative candidates.

In her spare time, Lora enjoys spending time with her husband of 12 years, Christofer, and 2 1/2 year old son, Luca. Lora particularly enjoys visiting with family and friends and watching her son grow and learn every day.

Thank you, Lora, for the work that you do and the support for the early care and education community!