Sharing Web Resources (Continued)

          The website I chose to look into and find out more inforation on was the National Black Child Development Institute. I subscribed to their newsletter a few weeks back and I have learned much just by scrolling through the website. The specific sections on the website that I feel are relevant to my current professional development is the “What we do” section. In this section, the organizations public policy is addressed and it relates to me because I am African American and have a black child. I also provide care for a majority black children in subsidized communities. This section also discusses Early Care and Education and how this organization is supportive.

          Another important topic discussed on this website is family engagement. At my center, we push to get all families involved as much as possible. What I love about this website is that they have a Parent Empowerment Project. This project is a comprehensive, culturally-relevant, self-discovery curriculum for parents and guardians to improve their effectiveness as the primary positive influence in the lives of their children. This project caused me to think about this concern in a new way. I am seeking to implement a project like this into my center and see how well it fans out. I believe just as the National Black Child Development Institute believes that it is critical for us to make conscious decisions about engaging with family and community members in ways that demonstrate a deeper and more complete understanding. The organization also believes that as part of their efforts to build positive relationships that ensure parent engagement, an ongoing series of supports is necessary to create a strong foundation of connection, especially in the early years.

          The website contains valuable information on its advocates on the state and federal levels with a wide range of partners and collaborations, to protect and promote investments and policies that support children’s access to quality care and education birth through age 8, empower parents and families, and ensure funding and resource equity. Seeing this on their website adds to my understanding of how politicians support the early childhood field. New insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field I gained from exploring the website is that they offer resources on how to get families engaged and promote healthy practices. 

          Right now in America, poor nutrition practices among individuals and families, as well as systemic issues such as food deserts, economic insecurity, and the lack of affordable and accessible healthy foods, have contributed to the dramatic rise in childhood obesity and hunger. According to the CDC, one out of every four Black children is overweight, compared to one in seven White children. Over 20% of 4 year olds are obese, with the highest numbers among minority populations, and the trends continue as children grow up: among Black teenage girls ages 12 to 19, more than 40% are overweight or at risk of being overweight. At the same time, 90 percent of Black children will be in families receiving food stamps at some point in their childhood and the consequences of obesity and hunger in terms of children’s healthy development over the course of their lifetime are critical.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part 1

I was granted the opportunity to hear back from one of the international contacts I reached out to. Eric Atmore of South Africa emailed me articles that discussed some of the current issues in the early childhood development of South African youth. Mr. Eric Atmore along with two other colleagues wrote the article “Challenges facing the early childhood development sector in South Africa”. In this article, majority of young children in South Africa are negatively impacted by a range of social and economic inequalities. Apartheid and the resultant socio-economic inequalities have created a childhood of adversity for most black South African children in the country, including inadequate access to health care, education, social services and quality nutrition (Atmore, van Niekerk & Ashley-Cooper, 2012). 

There are approximately 6,5 million South African children under the age of seven. Of these, some 3,8 million children (59,2%) live in circumstances of dire poverty (DoSD, DoE & DoH, 2004). These children, along with their families, teachers, communities, and the South African government face a range of challenges and obstacles. The most significant of these are poverty, education, health and HIV/Aids (Etmore et al., 2012).

My new insights on poverty are that I never realized how poor other countries are and what they are subjected to on a daily basis. More than half of South Africa’s children live in severe poverty, which jeopardises the realisation of their rights as contained in the South African Constitution.  Children living in poverty are extremely vulnerable, discriminated against and isolated. Monetary poverty is closely related to poor health and well being, as well as to limited access to education, nutrition, healthcare services and safe environments. The government does provide financial support for children when their parents are too poor to do so, in order for them to meet their basic needs. This is achieved through social assistance programmes, such as the Child Support Grant, paid to the caregivers of eligible children (Atmore et al., 2012). 

Reference:

Atmore, E.,  van Niekerk, L., Ashley-Cooper, M. (2012). Challenges facing the      

       early childhood development sector in South Africa. South African Journal of Childhood        Education, (2)1. 

Sharing Web Resources

Organization: National Black Child Development Institute

http://www.nbcdi.org/

In subscribing to the newsletter for the National Black Child Development Institute, this newsletter focused on recent events that have taken place in which child development was the topic pf discussion. The newsletter also listed some new career opportunities, a podcast feature from Dr. DeHaney, budget extension, etc. This newsletter allows me to obtain information about a variety of issues and lists the most important issues in bold lettering. After reviewing the article, the most important issue that stood out to me the most was “Early Childhood Education Takes Center Stage at the Clinton Global Initiative.” This topic really stood out to me because I am always trying to find ways to make more people aware of the importance of Early Childhood Education and what could be better than presenting it at an initiative meeting.

This event was hosted by President Bill Clinton, Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Clinton Foundation Board Member Chelsea Clinton. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Dr. DeHaney participated in the Early Childhood Education Working Group.The early years of a child’s development are critical building blocks that set the foundation for future academic and lifetime success. The meeting discusse the following subtopics regarding regarding Early Childhood Education Working Group;  Strengthening Family and Community Engagement, Leveraging Digital Media and Technology, Supporting Early Childhood Educators and Developing Innovative Financial Strategies and Partnerships. The mission of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is to turn ideas into action. With her colleagues, Dr. DeHaney will play a key role in prioritizing early childhood education and developing actionable solutions to improve the scope and quality of care offered to our youngest Americans.

Considering th topic for this week is changing demographics and diversity, I have found that the newsletter and website offers additional information regarding this topic. There is a section in both the newsletter and the website that discusses early childhood educators in Cuba. The Ambassador Programs are working with NCBI board members to plan an early childhood education program in Cuba. This will be a wonderful experience to see how different early childhood programs are in Cuba compared to the US. I will be emailing the board to find out more information.

Expanding Resources

This week I chose to reach out to Morocco, The Federal Republic of NIgeria, South Africa, The Philippines and Germany in search for some answers to my underlying questions about what goes on around the world in the early childhood profession. I have not yet heard anything back from my contacts so far, but I did unfortunately receive notification that my Moroccan contact no longer had that email address. I am hoping to establish communication with them fairly soon, but it has only been one day since my initial contact email, and I am really optimistic that I will hear back from a few of them. In order to establish the contact with these indivudals, I first utilized the resources provided in the blog assignment resource tab for this week’s assignment. I then perused the areas across the world and chose the one’s that truly stood out for me. I have not heard too much information on the locations I chose to establish contact and so I figured the contact should be able to provide me with some information to further enhance my knowledge base. I am super excited to hear back from them and see how similar and different our early childhood issues and trends are when compared to theirs.

When it was time to select the organizations website I wish to use for the course of this class, I chose one that could help improve my program as well as provide resources that may be useful to the families in my center. I carefully viewed the list of organizations and chose the National Black Child Development Institute. After first accessing their website, I was pleased to see that I could subscribe to a weekly newsletter, so that is just what I did. After that, I viewed their history, mission & vision statements, and goals and was pleased to see that they share a commin goal with most early childhood professionals: a society that ensures a successful future for all children. This organization’s mission is ” to improve and advance the quality of life for Black children and their families through education and advocacy.” This mission really stuck out to me because there are few organizations that focus on the well being of Black children. I am a Black woman and I have a 5 year old daughter who I work hard for so that she can be successful. I would do anything to see that she has the best education so that she can become the best person she can be.