Module 4

• Think about how early childhood professionals may support families’ efforts, connect them with appropriate resources, and/or empower them to help themselves.

"Dedicated to Helping People Achieve and Maintain Independence" This is the motto of the Community Action Agency. Community Action Agency is the parent agency for the Head Start program I have been observing and interacting with families through. Through collaboration with state and local agencies CAASCM offers families support with preschool education, weatherization, food commodities, income taxes and housing supports. By connecting families with the agency and giving them contact information for outside agencies I can support their efforts and empower them to help themselves. If families have to make connections with resources and do the paperwork themselves they are more likely to be self-sufficient if they find themselves in a situation where they need assistance. By being knowledgeable in regards to available resources I can help them to help themselves. 

• Whom you observed and interacted with in your setting during this module
  Any special learning experiences you may have had or an experience that provided you with insight about children and families including advocacy efforts.

This module I was able to observe and accompany on home visits a family advocate for Head Start. The Family advocate makes quarterly visits with the family and discusses previous goals that were set and family needs. She provided the families with information that may assist them with meeting unmet needs and offered suggestions that would help them better their situation if necessary.

There was a family with six children; his, mine and ours. They were struggling with making ends meet. Mom was required to get a job to continue receiving food stamp benefits. Mom found a job at McDonalds and works 35 hours per week.As a result the state cut off her food stamps (1,200 per month) and disqualified her for daycare assistance. She makes a little over 900/ month before tax. This was a good example of how the system is not working. Now this working mom without daycare cannot afford her rent and groceries. The family advocate gave her the locations of food banks and food pantries to help her make ends meets. She also gave her contact information for housing assistance. I can see how this would get discouraging though, this mom received more on food stamps than she can make a month. 

 

• At least two insights gained from your observations of, and interactions and experiences with, children’s families regarding advocacy efforts and needs related to your area of interest within the field of early childhood.

Unfortunately, Quality Care is not top priority for the families that I have observed just having someone to care for their children and being able to afford to pay for it is a concern. These people worry daily about housing, food, transportation, and meeting basic needs. Idealistically quality preschool would include before and after care and nutritious meals. 

Observing and Interacting With Professionals, Children and Families in an Early Childhood Setting

The last two weeks I have been observing Sam. Sam is an Education Coordinator for Head Start. Sam oversees four Head Start directors and nine preschool and ECE centers. By observing Sam I have realized how much paperwork, time, devotion and education is necessary to successfully provide a quality early childhood program. You have to be able to work cooperatively with multiple agencies (public and private), families, children, staff, co-workers, and superiors in order to deliver the highest quality of educational and nutritional services to young children.

One time a licensing consultant told me, when I was complaining about a child care center, "we can't all be Cadillac's Mrs. Tefft." I know that no provider is going to be perfect, but I believe that if we all strive to be a Cadillac we will at the very least provide a loving, caring environment that nurtures children to explore and learn from their environment.

I think that this experience has opened my eyes to exactly how much work goes into providing quality care but more importantly it has showed me the importance of a quality ECE experience and what it should look like. I saw dedicated teachers who, despite low wages and long hours, worked collaboratively with other teachers and outside agencies, to give the children in their care the best possible foundation they could provide.