In the News

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Multnomah County joins project to help children learn 7 essential life skills, The Oregonian, Nov 2011

Funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Multnomah County is one of three initial communities nationwide that is part of the Mind in the Making and Community Schools Project through the Families and Work Institute and will be piloting and implementing the newly developed Seven Essential Skills Training Modules. These modules are part of Mind in the Making, a learning campaign led by Ellen Galinsky of the Families and Work Institute to disseminate information about the science of how young children learn best. 

As part of Linkage, Multnomah Mind in the Making is a three year project that uses Mind in the Making and the Seven Essential Skills as a focal point for building bridges between early childhood systems and SUN Community Schools.

About the Training Modules

The Seven Essential Skills Training Modules are a set of seven modules which  draw on brain development research to inform practices that lead to better outcomes for children through the promotion of essential skills that take place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Each training module covers one of the essential skills.

Training sessions provide participants the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences and practices, learn what researchers have discovered about how children learn best, and discuss how to apply this research in their role as a parent or educator.

The Seven Essential Skills Training Modules are intended to reach parents, early childhood practitioners, and elementary school administrators and staff.

Community Partners

Linkage is working with community partners that currently provide trainings, classes or workshops reaching at least one of the target audiences to deliver the Seven Essential Skills Modules. Master Facilitators will receive training and pilot the modules in this first year. Once finalized, community partners will offer the training modules as part of their existing set of training offerings over the next two years. Additional training opportunities may be added as needs are identified.

Our Community Partners include:

• The Black Parent Initiative
• Child Care Resource and Referral of Multnomah County
• Metropolitan Family Service
• Multnomah County Library Early Childhood Services
• Multnomah Education Service District
• Parent-Child Development Services (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Impact Northwest, Mount Hood Community College, Neighborhood House, Self-Enhancement, Inc.)
• Portland Public Schools Office of Family Engagement
• Portland State University's Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services
• SUN Community Schools