Words of Insiration

Words of inspiration and motivation

One goal that I have is to advocate for some portions of the systems development work to change across agencies. It takes a parent several hours within a day to go to all of their appointments and by the end of the day they are exhausted and depleted and my have not been successful which means they may have to go back tomorrow. One of the goals I would like to see developed is a tool that cross references all agencies on one system where we can navigate our clients from the comfort of their home and they will not have to go to four places in one day to get the service they need. There is a big project coming to my community and I have the chance to have a seat at the table, so it will be one of the many things I would like to suggest. This is already being done among the Community Health Workers (CHW) in Chicago.

I appreciated the resources and feedback that you gave me throughout the course and I look forward to using it to advocate in my profession and engage in public policy. Thanks for everything.

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems - Part 2

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

My family is a mom and dad that are not married but dad is active in the children’s life. Their names are Jamie and Ken. Jamie had a child before meeting Ken, Elle, she is three years old. Jamie had her first baby with Ken that has autism, Bella, she is two years old. They now have a third baby, Addison, that is one years old. Jamie is a single parent. Jamie is trying to find a school for Elle but their seems to be a shortage of three year old slots in the city so Elle is at home with her siblings. When Jamie met Ken and had Bella, who has autism, her whole world was turned upside down. Jamie always had a lot of support from grandma and her sisters, so they would pick up Elle and take her on adventures while Jamie had Dr. appointments for Bella .  Recently, her sisters decided to move to another state to pursue careers so that just left grandma as her support system, who is an older woman. She didn’t know what to do or where to turn.

 Even though dad was in the picture, Jamie was still single, and they were living in separate households which meant Jamie was responsible for bills. Jamie struggled because she had too many doctor appointments for Bella during her first year of her life and she took too many days off work, so they fired her. Jamie was overwhelmed and could not keep up with everything and successfully attend to Bella. She could not ask grandma to take on any of the burden because she still worked, and Ken couldn’t help as much because he worked as well. Jamie is going to be homeless soon because she doesn’t have a job to pay rent. Jamie will also not have any money for diapers or milk and is not sure if she should look for another job because of Bella’s doctor appointments.

Questions for Jamie:

Does she have a church home that could support her with alms for rent, food, electrical, gas?

Does she have resources for food pantries or diaper depots?

Is she getting child support?

Can she move with her mom or Ken?

Does she have resources for her child that has autism?

Is she enrolled in a nurse family partnership program or parenting class?

Does she know about early childhood education resources available to her?

Does she have resources for subsidized housing or section 8?
Did Jamie apply for Food Stamps and unemployment?

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

Strategies:

The Alliance for early success want to fortify their communications strategies, and to line up influential spokespersons who could help them make their case to decision-makers and the wider public.

 Alliance for early success partners have refined advocacy strategies over the decade: making innovative use of research and data, as well as new interactive data-tracking tools; working toward unified, coordinated messaging that can help influence and sway politicians

 The Alliance for early success developed an approach that focuses most intensively on vulnerable children, valuing and building on the strengths of their families and communities.

This work is important to me because in order to advance causes and policies in early childhood education, we need alliances and politicians pushing our agendas. We need collaboration around a community willing to network to get the job done. It takes a village to support our children literally and if we work together we can accomplish great things.


Reference

Birth to Five Policy Alliance. (2011). Retrieved from http://earlysuccess.org/

Parent, Family and Community Engagement

Parent, Family and Community Engagement

·       Why involvement opportunities for parents and family members benefit young children, families, and the early childhood field

Giving parents opportunities to volunteer in the classroom not only give them a peace of mind, but it also gives the child confidence to engage with other children and their teachers. it also helps children to feel supported. Learning about nutritional values of food and how to become creative when fixing meals is also a benefit for families. The opportunity of educational training for parents and family/activity night helps them to network with other parents and build a community with their Head Start center.

·       The value that hearing such stories has for early childhood professionals, for the public, and for policymakers and government officials

Early childhood professionals believe that children should be able to explore uninhibited to develop creativity and an imagination. In the stories told by former Head Start participants dreaming and imagination is mentioned often, and I believe it is because of the foundation laid for them as children. This is not only valuable, but rewarding.

Quality Programs for All Children

Quality Programs for All Children


I find it peculiar and somewhat biased that in the 1800's white males considered child care a privilege to the poor. These group of people (the poor) were not only considered inferior, but immoral, and were not capable of training their own children. Now, through observation and research, it is realized that parents are their child's first and best teacher and that the parent-child bond must be developed so that the child can excel in school and life. 

The current opinion in the United States with regard to the value and the importance of providing quality services for young children and families is that this is a necessity because of the many benefits to children who experience school. 

The chart below has influenced my thinking.

Reference

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/low-income-grand-rapids-preschoolers-are-catching-will-lansing-notice

Early Childhood Public Policy

Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy

I chose the specialty of public policy and advocacy because I believe I am a natural advocate and I want to create change. Reminiscing on my childhood I can remember always standing up for what was right and figuring out a way to make things right. What I hope to accomplish to promote the well-being of children, families, and the early childhood field is to advocate for more home visitors in undeserved communities to make families aware of the importance of school readiness.

Advocates are important in the early childhood field to create change in policy and programming that will benefit children and their families. Someone has to fight for the well-being of children and families in this nation. Advocacy... “is the willingness to take a stand on behalf of children and families that goes beyond common decency or expectations” (Jalongo & Isenberg, 2000, p. 36) Furthermore, advocates study the research and literature related to issues and develop well-informed belief systems that they share passionately with others.

What I hope to learn about public policy and advocacy is how to advocate effectively to create a resolve that is positive, how to influence stake holders, and how to turn an idea into a policy. 

Reference

Kieff, J. (2009). Informed advocacy in early childhood care and education: Making a difference for young children and families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

My role as an advocate

My role as an advocate

What started me to advocate for young children was my own personal experience as a child of having no voice and being discriminated against and being mistreated. I think it is important to acknowledge and foster advocacy at the micro level as well as the macro level because the micro level is always a starting point and that is where you build relationships and network. The macro level is where the decision makers are and if you can master getting solutions on the micro level then the macro level will be easy. To be a community leader on early childhood issues you must get involved in the community and do the work. You will gain the experience and you will hear the stories to advocate for solutions. The tactics I use to mobilize others is through social media. I can reach thousands of people that way and the message stay relevant. My advice to future leaders is to be relatable, be good listeners, be empathetic and be fierce. This is hard work but it pays off handsomely.