October 30, 2025 OCDEL Warns of SPAM Emails Targeting Child Care Providers Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) has received multiple reports across regions regarding providers being contacted with inquiries that appear to be SPAM. Learn More The sender of the emails is not affiliated with Lancaster REC – as it purports to be – and appears to be a SPAM effort directed at child care providers. OCDEL asked providers not to click on any links in the emails. Tips to avoid being compromised by phishing emails that have become more sophisticated through the use of generative AI include: Be suspicious of emails that impart a sense of urgency and read them through thoroughly before opening any attachments or links. Phishing emails often use alarming language such as “Act now” or “Warning.” Double check URLs because attackers often use email addresses and links that closely resemble a trusted source. When in doubt, contact the sender – for example, if you receive a communication from a normally trustworthy source that seems to be suspicious, reach out to that person by looking up the organization’s phone number and calling them. The following is an example of how SPAM emails might appear:
October 29, 2025 Resources for November Observances Various organizations, states, and nations recognize various observances each month. Resources help parents, caregivers, and child care professionals acknowledge and navigate these observances. Here is a list of resources for November observances: Month-Long Observances CHILD SAFETY AND PROTECTION MONTH Developmentally Appropriate Parenting Series, Part V: Safety, Trying Together Creating Safe Environments for Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children, Trying Together Creating an Emergency Kit for Your Family, Trying Together Discussing Emergencies with Children in a Non-Threatening Way, Trying Together Organizations Publish New Child Safety and Development Resources for Families and Educators, Trying Together New Food Safety Fact Sheets, Trying Together FAMILY STORIES MONTH Family Stories Month – November 2025, National Today Activities for National Family Stories Month, Connections Academy NATIONAL ADOPTION AWARENESS MONTH Foster and Adoptive Families, Trying Together Support Resources for Parents and Caregivers, Trying Together PA Statewide Adoption & Permanency Network (SWAN), Department of Human Services NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVERS APPRECIATION MONTH Developmentally Appropriate Parenting Series, Part XII: Caring for the Caregiver, Trying Together A Guide to Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others, Trying Together Support Resources for Parents and Caregivers, Trying Together Self Care Resources for Parents and Caregivers, Trying Together Navigating Difficult Emotions as Caregivers: A Guide for Families, Trying Together NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH Native American Heritage Month, U.S. Department of the Interior/Indian Affairs Native American Heritage Month, American Library Association Native American Heritage Month Activities, Lesson Plans, and Printables, TeacherVision Week-Long Observances NOVEMBER 3 – 9 IS NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK WEEK Buzzword Boxes & Activities, Buzzword Reading Ready Pittsburgh Offers Resources for Families and Caregivers, Trying Together NOVEMBER 16 – 20 IS NATIONAL HUNGER & HOMELESS AWARENESS WEEK The Facts, Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week Food Access Programs, City of Pittsburgh NOVEMBER 10 – 14 IS NATIONAL YOUNG READERS WEEK Reading Ready Pittsburgh Offers Resources for Families and Caregivers, Trying Together Why Is It Important to Read to Your Child?, The Child Mind Institute WQED Kids Book List Focuses on Promoting Empathy in Children, Buzzword NOVEMBER 23 – 30 IS NATIONAL FAMILY WEEK Allegheny County Family Resource Map Highlights Support for Locals, Trying Together Types of Family Structures, Trying Together Family Guide: Family Dynamics, Trying Together The Story Behind Intergenerational Play, Playful Pittsburgh Days of Recognition NOVEMBER 4 IS ELECTION DAY General Election Day, Allegheny County PA Election 2025, Spotlight PA NOVEMBER 5 IS INTERNATIONAL STRESS AWARENESS DAY How to Ask for and Receive Help, Trying Together Stress Relievers: Tips to Tame Stress, Mayo Clinic NOVEMBER 8 IS NATIONAL STEM/STEAM DAY 5 Fun Ways to Celebrate National STEM Day and STEAM Day, Left Brain Craft Brain Why is STEM Important in Early Childhood Education?, American University International STEM Day, American Library Association NOVEMBER 9 IS WORLD ADOPTION DAY Foster and Adoptive Families, Trying Together PA’s Statewide Adoption & Permanency Network (SWAN), Department of Human Services NOVEMBER 13 IS WORLD KINDNESS DAY World Kindness Day, Random Acts of Kindness Foundation 7 Ways to Make Kindness a Norm in Your Daily Life, Random Acts of Kindness Foundation Pre-K Kindness in the Classroom Lessons, Random Acts of Kindness Foundation NOVEMBER 20 IS UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’S DAY World Children’s Day, Unicef Universal Children’s Day Activities, Twinkl NOVEMBER 21 IS INTERNATIONAL STAND UP TO BULLYING DAY Stop Bullying Now Hotline, The Cybersmile Foundation Office for Civil Rights Issues Fact Sheet on Diversity & Inclusion Activities, Trying Together
October 28, 2025 Trying Together Exec Director Touts Importance of Early Childhood Education at Business Solves Conference Trying Together’s executive director discussed the importance of early childhood education during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Business Solves conference on October 28. Learn More Cara Ciminillo, Trying Together’s executive director, joined Mark Bezilla, vice president and manager of corporate volunteerism at PNC Bank, and Brittany Scott, senior manager of policy and childhood education at the chamber, to discuss Trying Together’s partnership with the bank. During the partnership spotlight – titled Creating Systems-Level Change for Children – both Ciminillo and Bezilla discussed why early childhood education is critical to the workforce. “We see child care as a structure just as a bridge is to a city,” Ciminillo said. “In Pennsylvania, more than 75 chambers of commerce have endorsed child care as a top priority.” Ciminillo cited a study in Washington County that found that a shortage of more than 1,500 child care slots resulted in $5 million in lost productivity for the county’s workforce. She added that early childhood education is an “infrastructure for the economy” because it allows parents to remain in the workforce. Ciminillo and Bezillo discussed how Trying Together and PNC Bank have partnered on various initiatives, from financial management courses to helping to build early childhood education kits at Trying Together’s office. She also talked about the areas in which Trying Together works in the early childhood education field. “Our work spans two areas – direct support to the caregiving community and the developmental needs of children and family through professional development, coaching, behavioral health consultation, and child care navigation tools, and advocacy and system change by partnering with philanthropy, government and the business community to help bring about long-term policy solutions,” she said. “Child care is the workforce behind the workforce. It’s what helps us have a thriving economy.” To listen to the entire discussion, watch the 2025 Business Solves Conference Day 1.
Pittsburgh-Based Milk Bank Adds New PA Sites, Plans to Host Fundraiser in November The Pittsburgh-based Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank has expanded to include three new milk depots in Pennsylvania and will host a cookie-themed fundraiser in Pittsburgh in November. Learn More The nonprofit – which is based in Pittsburgh – has added depots at UPMC Hamot in Erie, St. Luke’s Baby and Me Support Center in Bethlehem, and WellSpan York Hospital in York as well as at CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital in Charleston, WV. In Pittsburgh, the milk bank operates a site at 3217 Penn Avenue that includes a depot, dispensary, and lab. It also operates a depot in nearby North Huntingdon and other sites throughout the state. In a recent interview with Pittsburgh’s NPR station, 90.5 WESA, the milk bank’s executive director, Denise O’Connor, said there has been a surge in demand for human donor milk. “We went from no one using donor milk in this area in western PA to within six months of us opening in 2016, every single NICU in Western Pennsylvania using donor milk,” she said. “Exposure to human milk early on helps to create a more diverse and better microbiome, which is so important for a lifetime of health.” O’Connor added that early access to human milk also supports long-term breastfeeding success, helps babies to stay exclusively breastfed for longer, and promotes better health outcomes through infancy and beyond. Milk Bank & Cookies The milk bank will hold an event – Milk Bank & Cookies – on Thursday, November 6 at Stage AE that will act as a fundraiser. During the event, the region’s top bakers and cookie-table makers will compete to raise funds for the Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank. This year’s theme is “The Mother of All Cookie Tables.” The event will include cookie displays and local celebrity judges. Proceeds will help to provide donor milk to medically fragile infants in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. The event starts with a cocktail hour at 6 p.m., after which the cookie table will be open. Each attendee will be given a small box to fill with cookies. Winners will be announced at the end of the evening. Tickets, which cost $75, are now available.
The Buzzword is RECIPE As part of its programming, Buzzword distributes its signature “BUZZ Boxes” to local families to help excite children from birth to age five as well as their caregivers about new words that are all around them. These family engagement kits come complete with a high-quality children’s book and enriching activities that support early literacy skills and development. Learn More This month’s Buzzword is RECIPE, which means a set of instructions for preparing something. Buzzword’s RECIPE Activity Book will give children – ages birth to five – and their caregivers the opportunity to connect through science, art, music, and early literacy activities. Caregivers are encouraged to read through Empanadas for Everyone by Jackie Azua Kramer with their child. Then, they should go through the different activities and ideas together, taking time to explain the meaning of the words and connecting them to their child’s real-life experiences. Buzzword has also provided a RECIPE book list of recommendations from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for further reading. View the RECIPE Activity Book and book recommendations. More Information Want to learn more on how to get involved with Buzzword? Ask your local Allegheny County Family Center about the program, or email buzzword@tryingtogether.org.
October 27, 2025 Urban League of Pittsburgh to Hold Annual Thanksgiving Distribution Event The Urban League of Pittsburgh will provide free groceries to those who intend to celebrate Thanksgiving but cannot afford to make a turkey dinner. Learn More The league – which has a mission of enabling under-served communities to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power, and civil rights – will hold its annual Thanksgiving distribution on Saturday, November 22 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, located at 1000 Fort Duquesne Boulevard in Pittsburgh. The Thanksgiving distribution will bring together community partners to provide holiday meals as well as essential resources and services to more than 900 families from around the region. Organizations interested in taking part in the event must register by 5 p.m. on Friday, October 31. To sign up to become a vendor at the 2025 Annual Thanksgiving Distribution, register online. The event will be held in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Rapid Response Team to Continue Offering Services in Allegheny County Trying Together and ELRC Region 5’s Rapid Response Team will continue to offer services for Allegheny County families and providers, despite the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) announcing earlier this month that it would no longer be able to support the initiative in the same capacity due to changes in federal funding. Learn More Deysi Keegan, the Rapid Response Team’s assistant director, said that the changes at the state and federal level would not prevent the team from performing its work. “The Rapid Response Team is dedicated to continuing this vital work – supporting children, families, and educators through timely, compassionate, and collaborative interventions,” she said. “Our goal is to build understanding, strengthen relationships, and promote environments where every child feels seen, supported, and capable of success.” The Rapid Response Team is a short-term service that provides hands-on coaching for educators and resources for families and caregivers to prevent the expulsion or suspension of children in early childhood education. It serves children from birth to age 5 as well as their teachers and families or caregivers. The team utilizes principles of early relational health and social-emotional development of young children as well as building the capacities of adults to utilize positive approaches to address behavioral challenges and family engagement and relationships. The team contacts the provider or family within 48 hours once a referral is made. If a child is in immediate danger or suspension or expulsion, the team will take part in a meeting or virtual observation. If a child has already been suspended, the team will provide the child’s family and child care with resources. “When children are experiencing big behaviors, they are communicating important needs, emotions, or challenges that they may not yet have the words to express,” Keegan said. “It is essential that the adults in their lives take the time to listen, observe, and understand what those behaviors are telling us. By responding with empathy and curiosity instead of judgment, we can create the safety and connection children need to thrive.” In a statement, OCDEL said that it was “deeply grateful for the impactful work and success of the Rapid Response Teams.” “Unfortunately, due to changes in federal funding, OCDEL will no longer be able to support the RRT initiative in the same capacity,” the statement read. “OCDEL knows this has been a great support to the early childhood education field, and is considering opportunities to continue this sort of work in new and meaningful ways.” Caregivers of children whom the Rapid Response Team has assisted praised its approach. “My family and I worked with the Rapid Response Team to support my son and his preschool program,” said the mother of a student whom the team helped. “I really appreciated the approach that the Rapid Response Team had with the situation and the way they partnered well with the child care center. I liked that we worked together as a team to create a plan that stayed consistent between home and my son’s classroom. This type of resource is invaluable for families and early learning programs to support the growth and development of children.”
October 22, 2025 IECMHC Provides Resources for Helping to Calm Children Down There are many skills that take great effort for children to muster from an early age, and one of them is the ability to calm themselves down. Learn More In a recent newsletter, the Pennsylvania Key’s Infant Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) provided resources on methods to help calm children down and how to teach children to calm themselves down. Children are not born with self-control, the IECMHC wrote in the newsletter, so it’s important that caregivers help children to grow their ability to control their emotions, respond in appropriate ways to frustration, get along with others, and become independent. The IECMHC’s resources discuss how caregivers can help young children learn skills to help them control or regulate themselves and how a calm-down corner – a special area of the classroom with calming materials and tools – can be useful for when children’s emotions feel too big for them. Resources in the newsletter on calming corners and other calming methods include: Calm Down Corners (The Pennsylvania Key) How to Set Up and Use a Calming Corner for Kids The Peace Corner: An Essential Classroom Resource Break Card: When to Use Self-Regulation Breathing Strategies “We Can Be Problem Solvers” children’s book Relaxation in a Bottle activity
October 21, 2025 Helping Children Write Well Involves Strengthening Motor Skills and Imaginations Teaching a student to write well is a process that begins long before they pick up a pencil, a new Edutopia article asserts. Learn More The article outlines six ways to help preschool students build the skills they need to write well. These include focusing on gross motor skills, spatial awareness, curiosity, strengthening bodies, and helping children to explore with their hands. Edutopia outlines six strategies to support writing for young children. These include: Strengthening bodies before pencils: Writing is a fine motor task, but relies on a foundation of gross motor strength. When children climb, dance, or balance, they develop core stability, spatial awareness, and shoulder strength – all muscles that later help them sit upright at a desk and steady their hands for writing. Hands-on exploration: To learn to hold pencils, children must first get experience digging, squeezing, rolling, and building with materials such as clay, play dough, mud, sticks, and other materials to develop grip strength and coordination. Develop spatial and directional concepts: Just as much as it’s about forming letters, writing involves understanding directionality and spatial organization. Such concepts as up and down, left to right, diagonal strokes, and repeating patterns all help to pave the way. Connect play to communication: As children begin to see that their drawings, marks, and symbols can have meaning, they’ll start to understand writing as having a purpose. Nurture curiosity as a driver for literacy: Children are often eager to record and share discoveries. Teachers can fuel motivation to decode and create written language by connecting a spark of curiosity to literacy opportunities. Guide emerging writers gently: When children are ready to try early writing, it’s important to provide gentle invitations – such as adding names to artwork – and helping them to practice without pressure. Celebrate attempts and encourage the joy of expression, rather than correcting a child’s form too early. To find activities to pair with these four strategies, read Edutopia’s article on how to help children build the skills they need for writing.
Podcast Discusses How to Promote Better Sleep and Other Wellness Habits for Children It’s often difficult for caregivers to get children to go to sleep and, as a result, it can be a challenge to get children who are not getting enough sleep to focus on learning. Learn More Sometimes, getting children to go to bed at the desired time can be difficult due to inconsistent routines or small disruptions that can throw them off. In the latest Thriving Kids podcast, Shelby Harris, PsyD, DBSM, discusses how caregivers can help children develop lasting sleep habits as well as why better rest can make everything else easier, from focusing on learning to mood or resilience. The podcast discusses sleep, but also other ways to build healthy habits, such as encouraging regular movement, eating balanced meals, and creating predictable routines. Recommendations listed in the Thriving Kids podcast to help children build strong wellness habits include: Make wellness a routine – plan meals together, take family bike rides, and encourage sleep through such routines as bedtime stories or listening to relaxing music before the lights go out. Understand healthy choices – help children understand how different foods affect their bodies and minds, and discuss how healthy choices can make them feel better, such as how vegetables can give them stronger muscles or sleep can make their brains sharper. Discuss healthy habits early – start talking about healthy choices when children are small by letting them pick out fruits while food shopping and involving them in meal preparation (let them help wash vegetables). Have routine family check-ins – get children to talk about how things are going and celebrate successes; find out if they are getting enough sleep and praise efforts to be healthy, while working together on areas that need to be tweaked. For more information on how to promote wellness in young children, listen to the Thriving Kids podcast.
