Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community:  Local and State Levels

Three local or state organizations or communities of practices:

Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative’s Step Up Project

This is a three year old program funding by the Kellogg Foundation, MLICCI that is designed to demonstrate what it cost for centers serving low-income families to successfully participate in the Quality Rating Scale; create detailed recommendations for providing resources so that poor children are not left behind, and to examine whether/how other states have made quality improvements to their early care and education systems without making these critical serves unaffordable for low-income working families.  The project includes 20 representative low-income centers from across the state that receive technical assistance and financial support  and their progress is monitored closely and evaluated as the basis for an extensive study of the sector’s needs.  I chose this program because of the work they do in assisting programs with resources for low-income families and ensuring that they are able to provide quality services to children and families while helping them to meet the standards for quality education.

Institute for Disabilities Studies Project Prepare

Project Prepare is funded by the Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division for Early Childhood Care & Development (GR#525Q7847).  The goal is to improve the quality of care for children in licensed child care settings across the state by enhancing the professional development opportunities needed for centers to successfully include children at risk and children with special needs.  They also provide professional development opportunities and support to enable educational programs to better serve children with special needs.  I chose this program because of the professional development opportunities and resources they provide to programs.  I have worked with this program for several years and they have been a invaluable resource to myself and the program in which I work.  The provide institutes and trainings to help programs serving children with disabilities to gain knowledge and skills to enable them to provide better services.

Excel by 5

 The Excel By 5 is an early childhood community certification program that focuses on a

community's young children.  It emphasizes the important roles parents and early

childhood educators play in the lives of children during their most formative years - birth to age 5. Early childhood educators/providers come together quarterly (minimum) and receive training on early learning guidelines and age appropriate curricula so that everyone knows and understands the levels of competencies leading to a successful transition from one level of the child's education to the next.  The hold Community-wide meetings to provide updates to businesses, parents, school reps, childcare providers, faith based organizations, local elected officials, advocates for early childhood; networking opportunities; community health fairs; community family events; and ways to maintain a quality early childhood community.  I chose this program because of my work with the organization from its inception and the collaborative efforts that all the community organizations provide to ensure that Cleveland, Mississippi became a certified Excel by 5 community.

The job opportunity which interest me would be to own a community center that addresses the needs for children and youth in the area of counseling, education and teen pregnancy.  There are no programs in this area that serve children and youth in these areas and provide a place for children to go who come from homes where there is dysfunction, abuse or school dropout.  I am currently obtaining the skills needed to operate this type of program.  I have obtained my Masters in Counseling and will soon complete my Master in Early Childhood.  I am also working on my license through the State for Counseling.  I am in the process of writing a proposal for a grant to assist in funding this program.

References

Excel by 5. Cleveland Community Excel by 5.  Retrieved from http://www.excelby5.com/cleveland

Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative. Step Up Project.  Retrieved from

http://www.mschildcare.org/programs/step-up-project.html.

University of Southern Mississippi.  Institute for Disability Services.  Retrieved from

           

  http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies/prepare-overview.