Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina is a wonderful agency dedicated to helping parents utilize better strategies when interacting with their children to help prevent child abuse.  I chose this agency because of their commitment to providing children with the experience of growing up in a nurturing environment and developing secure positive relationships with their parents and caregivers. They offer information and training to other agencies on implementing curricula for families who are at risk for losing their children to foster care.  They also provide support to agencies when implementing these programs to parents to ensure model fidelity.  There are a few positions that I would be interested in such as the coach or coordinator for the different curricula offered through prevent child abuse agency.  The requirements for the positions are not posted but knowledge of the curricula and experience working with children and families is a must.

The Children and Family Services Center in Charlotte, NC is an agency comprised of 10 other agencies working with children and families.  I chose this agency because they have a variety of services to offer children and families.  The other agencies provided health care, counseling, early education services and advocacy services for children.  All of these areas are of importance to me and I would like to be a part of an agency serving in these areas or one of the other agencies that are a part of the family services center. 

The Exceptional Children's Assistance Center is another agency that interested me.  Their mission is to improve the lives of all children, but they have an emphasis on children with disabilities.  They provide education for families on IEPs, advocating for their children and a host of other services available for parents.  They have parent educators who provided information, education and support to parents of children with disabilities.  There are no listed qualifications for the parent educator positions but I feel that this would provide a different avenue for the parent educator skills that I currently possess.

Profile of a Volunteer

The person I chose to view is my Aunt Marie.  Every since I was little, she has been the one to volunteer to take all the children during the summer, she takes care of children and families in the neighborhood and she still has to work two jobs.  She has always been the person more like my grandmother and tries to take care of the world.  Every year during Christmas time, she puts a list together for needy families around the area and gets people to buy things the families need and toys for the children to have.  When she sees a need in the community, she tries to fill it.  She feels like no child should go without if she can help it.  She takes in kids around her neighborhood and they always want to stay with her.  She is also very involved with family as well.  She tries to make it to every niece, nephew, and cousins' special occasion.  She is the only one in the family who makes this effort and she is 1 of 10 siblings, so this is saying and doing alot! 

I know people appreciate the efforts that my aunt puts forth on all occasions.  She tries to make sure the community gets the things they need and still make time for her family.  I always remember her as my favorite aunt because she was one of the ones who took myself and most of my cousins on vacation during the summer.  And that meant a lot to me.  People always know they can come to her when they need something and I'm sure that is comforting to them.  I realized that it is hard for me to voluteer my extra time because I am often trying to keep time for my son, but he's getting older and I feel that my knowledge and efforts could be used for helping others.  I am trying to decide where I want these efforts to go and how to best apply my time.  I want to do more for my community and am looking for a way to fulfill that in the best way possible. 

Using Social Media to Get Connected

My experience with social media is limited to a few things.  I use facebook to keep track of family and some friends from high school.  I know there are professional social media networks, but I just don't have the patience to through many of the sites.  I don't even go on Facebook everyday and I know that there are people who live for facebook.  I also know that people use social media sites to bully children and teenagers.  I think the fact that I enjoy live company so to speak, I feel limited when I use social media websites.  I would much rather connect then speak on the phone or in person.  It seems that social media is so impersonal and is a way for people to hide what they truly are. 

Various social media are very helpful when advocating for children and families.  I think that there are many avenues to use when advocating.  Facebook, blogging and youtube are great ways to get your issues heard and exposed to the world.  They can shed light to a whole different group of people who never new these issues existed.  By sharing your advocacy efforts, you can help educate the public and your circle of friends to get the word out.  You never know who is connected to whom.  By putting the issues out there, you can bring attention to it.  Using these social media sites can be a positive experience for those who use it correctly. 

Advocacy Messages

"Parents who really know it all have the right seat at the right time for their child."
"Read to a child today and spark a lifetime of ambition."
"The odds of one man succeeding in the fashion world 1 in 23,000,000 the odds of having a child with autism 1 in 110."

The first message really stands out because many first time parents know that they need car seats for their babies.  Parents also want to feel that they know what is best for their child and do what is best for their child.  Using other parents in the video who seem to revel in knowing facts about children and then stumping them with the fact about the car seat seem to make their message stronger.  The fact that is was the last fact that you heard and then they made it visual with putting a child in car seat made the message stand out more.  Advertisements that use families often get more responses that are geared toward parents.  They are more likely too remember or go buy what is advertised. 

The message on reading to a child is effective because many children will respond to the different characters used in the advertisement.  If a child sees these characters, then they will more than likely become excited and their parents will watch the message to see what it's about.  The message itself, reading to a child and lifetime ambition a very strong because many parents want their children to have ambition as they get older.  If advertisers connect that with reading then the hopes is that parents will be more like to read to their child. 

In the their message, the numbers really stand out especially when used with a well known fashion icon.  Connecting him to autism makes the message more real to others who have been touched by autism because you think that if a man like Tommy Hilfiger can be effected by autism then maybe I'm not so alone.  It also illuminates the fact that the chances of a child having autism are very strong.  A parent would most likely visit the website to see what information is out there for a parent with an autistic child. 

My Own Capacity

There are two main issues that fuel my passion in the field of early childhood.  One is the quality of care that parents are receiving in early educational settings and the other is access to quality care that children from low socioeconomic backgrounds have.  I feel that my knowledge and experiences throughout my early educational career and my understanding of child development and issues surrounding this gives me more fuel behind my passion.  The fact that I am a continuing learner in that I always want to know more about the issues children and families face and the best ways to serve them also gives me more ways in which to help children and families.  I will use these skills when I open my own child development center to provide high quality care, resources for families such as parenting classes, connections to speech therapists, physical therapists, maybe even job trainings where they can learn a skill to help them become the best they can for their children.  Understanding the challenges that families face and helping them understand how these issues will impact their children is very important.  In order to be more effective in my advocacy efforts, I hope that I can gain a good understanding of how to inform the public about major issues that our young children and families face.  I also would like to learn how I can go about helping set up public policies that will benefit not only children and families but public interests as well. 

My Role as an Advocate

        I started advocating for children and families when I noticed the level of quality that children were receiving varied across the board.  Some teachers really went out of their way to ensure that children received the best early education experiences, others just showed up for the pay check.  The teachers that were more vested in their classroom, children and the curriculum had more knowledge of child development and an understanding of the issues that children and families face.  They were passionate, attentive and wanted to see children get the most out of their experiences.  They knew how to focus on the individual child as well as the classroom as a whole to scaffold learning and assess how and if children were progressing.  This is the type of teacher that I was and I expect no less from those who work in the field.  Knowing the level of differences in the quality that teachers provide, I want to find a way to ensure that teachers understand the needs of the children and families they serve and know how to connect families to the child’s educational experiences. 

                Advocacy can be an extensive process.  It starts with one person who wants to implement change to benefit children and families in their environment.  This can lead to understanding how services can impact children and families in a broader context.  It is important to acknowledge all efforts to improve the quality of services for children and families because not every issue is known to the public.  To be a community leader on early childhood issues, you have to have knowledge of the issues and want to initiate change for children and families.  Having passion and commitment about early childhood issues is also essential.  Becoming educated on the issue, researching the issues and being a part of a community to want to elicit change is what it takes to be a community leader.

                In order to be a state leader on early childhood issues, it takes being elected by the public “to represent the ideas and interests of their communities; therefore the public has the right and the responsibility not only to know their elected officials’ position on pending policy legislation but also to communicate their ideas, therefore influencing the way they are represented” (Kieff, 2009).  Money is the main resource that a state leader needs to advocate for issues in the community and is in a position to pool other resources and work with organizations to bring light to early education concerns.  Helping others understand the importance of these issues by passing on information and having real life situations that people can relate to helps others get involved.  Understanding the concerns of stakeholders and being able to connect the concerns to the appropriate individuals. 

                Building relationships to connect with others who have the same passion and establishing strong open communication with those involved in the advocacy efforts.  It is important that the messages are the same between advocates and so everyone is on the same page and makes the message that much stronger when it is supported by everyone involved!

Personal Advocacy Reflection

I was a preschool teacher for 12 years and a teacher for the agency for which I am currently employed for 5.  After going through some personal life changes, I decided to apply for an adminstrative position with the agency.  To my surprise and delight I got the job.  When I became a family educator, I struggled with delivering the material so that parents were interested and excited about being in my class.  My supervisor pushed me to do more by believing that I had what it takes.  She helped me set personal goals for myself as well as for my work as a facilitator.  She advocated that our children and families deserved that best services that we could deliver and saw how I could use my background as a preschool teacher to help parents understand the roles they play in their children's lives.  She pushed me to be more responsive, more personable and helped me understand how to challenge the parents to do things that are possible for them but also different from what they've been doing.  She helped me see my role in their lives and encouraged me to keep setting goals for myself.  She's encouraged me to take trainings, continue with school and further my career by asking what I want for myself and for the children and families I serve.  She sets examples by her leadership, persistance, and loving nature to see our team grow and excel.  She often says that she has a hard time letting her brain shut down from thinking of how we can best serve our clients, even when she goes home!  I've never had a supervisor who puts so much faith and strength into her staff and believes whole heartedly in giving our families the best of the best.  This has fueled me to keep striving to learn all that I can, be self motivated to bring my own style to my work and become as resourceful to families as I possibly can.