- Think about how early childhood professionals may support families’ efforts, connect them with appropriate resources, and/or empower 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.
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.
Hi Susan, It is heart breaking when you read or hear about situations that you encountered on a home visit. No the system don't work, they never thought about who will pay for the children while the mom works. I am a believer and is an advocate for people taking care of themselves, but when you have this situation how will they not have the same issues maybe 6 months down the line. what should this mother do without shelter and food?
ReplyDeleteThis is quite a tale of woe, and while it may seem very difficult, thanks be to God it is not impossible. Prayers for the family are very much in order. It is very difficult for me to see how the state could possibly justify taking food away from a family of this size. Food is a huge part of the expense for a family of 4 or 5 let alone twice that size. Any one that does the math can see that $900 a month will not accomplish that if the entire check was used for food alone -- and in this instance, the amount is before tax. My prayer is that God's grace will be with this family as they walk through this experience.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that God blessed them with a family advocate to come and provide resource information to them for housing and other types of assistance. Access to the knowledge about these things can be a real help. And, you were there just so you could come back and share this information with us. In my own life, I have found that where one door is allowed to be closed, God always has another open.
Much success to this family as they seek the answer they need concerning this situation. Thank you Susan for sharing this story with us, so we can do the behind the scenes work to support them in prayer.
Sherrell.
That is so awful to hear about that family. :( I definitely know how being in that situation feels. While I have been off work we have had to get assistance but when I go back we obviously won't. Even though our assistance isn't what I would be making, I have to pay for childcare for two kids when I go back, so that takes most of my check, then paying out the bills, and by the time we can buy food we get about bare bones to eat. It's almost like we struggle more when we are working hard because there comes more bills when you're not staying home, such as more gas used, daycare, sometimes even more meals out of the home because when we get out of work late sometimes we just don't have time to prepare a meal unless we want to eat at 8-9pm. My daughter doesn't understand why she can't get lunchables like all the other kids at school, but I just can't afford to get that. I have to buy the store brand crackers and packaged meat separately for her to "make" a lunchable. I feel bad but if I were to spend the money on those we wouldn't be able to get enough food for the family.
ReplyDeleteThe system is more than broken it is failing. I have encountered countless number of parents who are working a low paying job expected to pull up their bootstraps and make it work. When are we going to wake up and realize that the less support we give to our low-income families only helps the cycle to continue? With impending budget cuts, it really makes it difficult for advocates of head start to help the families that are in dire need. These families rely on programs like head start to guide and support them as they try to break the vicious cycle of poverty. I am just heartbroken about what is happening to the Head Start program that I have been part of for 9 years and about our families who are being affected.
ReplyDeleteAgain, what part of empowering the poor do we not understand. Everyone knows that giving people everything without having them work for it only makes them feel worse about their situation as ell as expect more from the gov. Why don't we use a scale where the more the person makes the less the state agencies give to families until they can be independent of state agencies? Ugh
ReplyDelete