Did you know that every day 69 million children spend part of the day separated from their parents, yet 21 states and Washington, D.C., don’t require schools and childcare providers to have basic emergency plans?
At the Arkansas Early Childhood Association (AECA) Conference, Dr. Lori Peek will deliver the keynote presentation “Children in a Changing Climate: The Importance of Childcare Providers in Disasters.” This keynote address is part of Resilient Children/Resilient Communities Initiative, a partnership between the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute and Save the Children, funded by a grant from GSK. Washington County in Arkansas, one of the pilot communities, has united key players — such as Northwest Arkansas Child Care Aware, the Washington County Department of Emergency Management, and many local non-profits, government agencies and childcare providers — to discuss emergency planning around children.
Dr. Peek, an associate professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis at Colorado State University, will draw upon her work conducted during much of the past decade spent understanding children’s experiences in disaster to provide insight for childcare providers in Arkansas and across the nation.
In addition to her extensive research, Dr. Peek led the first statewide study on licensed childcare providers and disaster preparedness in Colorado and is currently collaborating on a project, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to write a new national school safety guidebook for emergency preparedness.
Dr. Peek is also co-founder and co-director of the Youth Creating Disaster Recovery and Resilience project and of the SHOREline youth empowerment and disaster recovery program. In addition to her positions at Colorado State University, Peek holds an appointment as an adjunct research scientist at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.
Join us to watch the live-stream of this crucial presentation on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 10:30 a.m. at aetn.org/earlyeducation. Parent and educator resources are also available on the site.