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The Department of Family and Support Services, announces High-Tech CHI, a day-long event focused on exposing K-14 students to new and innovative technology. This event will be part of the Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) celebrations taking place across the globe this December and will be hosted by Presenting Sponsor Google at their Chicago office on December 9th, 2023. CSEdWeek is an annual call to action to inspire students to learn computer science, advocate for equity, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners to the field. Organizations from around the world contribute to CSEdWeek by organizing CS experiences for youth and families to participate in. High-Tech CHI will provide hands-on experiences for students, parents, and community members to learn about the latest technologies and relevant computing-based pathways by convening workforce development partners, industry leaders, educational institutions, and others to create interactive exhibits and on-the-spot career training and preparation opportunities. High-Tech CHI will take place on December 9th, 9:30AM – 2:30PM CT at Google Chicago, located at 320 N Morgan St Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60607.  Interested individuals can register now for High-Tech CHI at: bit.ly/hightechchi.

Governor JB Pritzker announced eighteen members of the Early Childhood Education and Care Transition Advisory Committee, chaired by Bela Moté, the strategic-planning group will consist of educators, childcare providers, and policy experts. The unified agency will address the obstacles that providers and families experience when navigating various agencies. Currently, services are housed in three separate agencies—the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS), and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The Transition Advisory Committee will help inform and provide feedback to the State as it prepares for the transition to a new single agency. The committee will be chaired by Bela Moté, who will work closely with Director Whalen to lead the transition. Bela is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, one of the largest early childhood and youth development organizations in Chicago, serving close to 2,500 children through their childcare centers and affiliate programs. She previously participated on the Governor’s Early Childhood Funding Commission. The Early Childhood Education and Care Transition Advisory Committee include a few of the following members:

• Dara Munson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Family Focus

• Mariana Osoria, First Deputy of Human Services, City of Chicago

• Angel Powell-Muldrow, Principal in District 148

• Edgar Ramirez, Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Commons

• Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro, Vice President of Education Policy & Research at the Latino Policy Forum

The Transition Advisory Committee will work with the State’s Early Childhood Transition Director, Ann Whalen, to release a report by December 31, 2025.

The State of Illinois, Dollywood Foundation Executive Director Nora Briggs, United Way of McLean County President and CEO David Taylor, local officials, parents, and community members joined together at the Bloomington Public Library for the statewide launch of Illinois’ partnership with The Dollywood Foundation to provide Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. This book gifting program mails free, high-quality, and age-appropriate books to children from birth to age five, regardless of the family’s income. Governor Pritzker’s FY24 budget allocates $1.6 million to the program to support early childhood learning in Illinois and instill lifelong reading practice. “I am so excited to announce that Illinois is expanding my Imagination Library statewide,” said Dolly Parton. “Thank you to Governor JB Pritzker and all our local program partners across Illinois who worked so hard to make this dream a reality.” The Imagination Library Program is supported by The Dollywood Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Dolly Parton in 1988. Since launching in 1995, the Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book-gifting program in the world, with the mission of inspiring a love of reading in children from birth to age five. The program is currently active in areas across forty counties in Illinois with over 30,000 children currently receiving books and with this expansion, is expected to fully cover the entire state. To learn more about becoming a local program partner, contact Pam Hunsaker at Phunsaker@imaginationlibrary.com. To check to see if a program is available in your area, visit the ‘find my program’ page on www.imaginationlibrary.com.