"My Own Capacity"

Which issues impacting young children and their families and/or the field of early childhood fuel your passion?

The field that really fuels my passion is infants and toddlers and also foster care. I feel that I have a direct passion for this age range. I specifically appreciate this age range because this is the most influential time in a child's life. In this time a child can learn so much from speaking to walking. Also they learn how to build relationships. I want to advocate for families with children this age so that I can be a point of contact for information and resources they can use in ensuring that there children get a good start. I also love with a passion fostering children. I know for sure that I will foster and also have a children's home for foster children. Fostering children is something that I have desired as a young child. I feel that the love I received must be shared with others.

What special skills do you have that will contribute to your advocacy efforts? How will you incorporate these skills into your work?

I feel that the skills that I am learning in this class will be the skills that I combine with the passion I have for the issue associated with fostering children. In this class I have learned how to find issues pertaining to early childhood development. I have learned different strategies to address the issues and I have also learned how to research previous research pertaining to the issues that I will address as an advocate. All of these things are important to understand as an early childhood advocate. Another skill that I feel is important is to socialize with people in the communities around us to listen for issues that are pertaining to early childhood development and with that choose the direction of advocacy I can go in.


What resources do you have at your disposal that can benefit your advocacy work?

Two resources that I will use is: Zero to Three's website and also NAEYC resources that are made available on their website. Through out my journey at Walden I have learned many things pertaining to different subjects in the early childhood field.

What knowledge, skills, dispositions, and/or talents do you possess that will contribute to your advocacy work?

The one thing that I feel will help me in my advocacy journey is the desire to help the people around me. I feel that as a advocate I only task is to help address that issue of choice to ultimately makes someone life better.

In what ways do you hope to grow in order to be a more effective advocate?

I would love to learn about more advocates that are addressing the issue of fostering children and the effects of foster children.

My Role as an Advocate

What motivated you to start advocating for very young children?

When entering into my educational journey at Walden I initially started out in another specialization. When I learned what an advocate was I got excited because I though "I am already doing this". Once I realized that Walden offered a specialization in Early Childhood Advocacy I decided to change my specialization. My true passion is to advocate for issue that are going on in this field. I also just want to be a mouth for our children. In doing so the spirit of advocacy was ignited and I hope to eventually grow in this field.


Why is it essential to acknowledge and foster advocacy efforts at the micro as well as the macro level?

I feel that their are many issue that go on in early childhood development that are on a micro and macro level. I feel that advocating for things that are on a micro level can help assist with the macro issues. For example children in poverty is a macro issue that is affecting children across that globe. Advocating with an organization that helps fund schools supplies to our local communities and also help to educate the parents of low income homes can eventually help to address that nations issue of children in poverty.

What does it take to be a community leader on early childhood issues?
I think the only thing it take to be a community leader on early childhood issues is to have the passion and a desire to do something about the issue pertaining to early childhood. Advocates on all levels are either a person of a group of people that are so passionate about issue that are going on and they want to do something about it.

What resources does it take to be a state leader on early childhood issues?
I think that getting local and statewide organizations to help fund you as you choose to be a state leader is helpful. I feel that grants and other governmental programs that my be offered are also helpful in funding you as a state leader.

What tactics or strategies do you use to mobilize others?
I feel that the proof is in the pudding. What I mean is when you are trying to mobilize others to either join your initiative are to just help others that are affected by the issue you are advocating I feel that information is key. I feel that it is important as an advocate to research the issue that you are advocating for and that proving that the tactics or resolutions of these issues are proven to be successful. No one is going to follow someone if they are not sure of their authenticity.

What advice would you give to someone who was interested in taking a leadership role in advocating for young children and their families?
My advice would be to research the position that this person is aspiring to go into. Maybe take the time to shadow someone that is already in a similar role. I also think that it would be important for this person to develop a network of people that also support this cause  to assit them. Even though this person is the point of contact in leadership it is important to also have people around that are supporting this effort and don't mind helping this cause.

"Personal Advocacy Reflection"

"Personal Advocacy Reflection"

This may sound weird but my inspiration person that was an advocate of fostering children was Josephine Baker. When I was little my mother would always have us to watch different history movies about African- Americans. I remember picking up a movie about Josephine Baker. I saw a beautiful picker of her and I said mom “I want this one”. When I got it how I remembered watching the movie and one major part caught my attention. When she became older in her fame she started adopting children. She not only adopted her race but she adopted all nationalities. This really inspired me to adopt and foster one day. I remember in the movie she had a beautiful long table and it was full of children of all nationalities. This really inspired me. Now I am an advocate of children and also ones that have been fostered. Seeing how she adopted many children made me feel that I could to. Also another organization that inspired me to foster and advocate for foster children was that Holt foundation. They are a Christina foster network that was started to help children find homes for adoption. Now it is worldwide and is helping children around the world. I love to see stories of how people take one concern and turn it into a movement. I feel that is the bases of advocacy. Learning in week one that advocates are normally people that are passionate about an issue of policy that causes them to want to do something about it. I know that one day I will have a foster care network that will also help children around the world.

Hello Advocates!

I am very excited about the new information we will be learning in the class. I am also excited about sharing this new information with you all. Even though this class is small there is an abundance of information that flows through all of you. I hope that in any way I can contribute things to this class that you all can take with you in your future endeavors.

When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning Community

· Post at least three consequences of your experience being a part of a caring, collaborative learning community for your professional growth and development.

 

1.     Ability to build healthy networks

 

2.     Ability to glean from others around me.

 

 

3.     Constructive criticism that helps me to grow in the areas those are weak.

 

· Post one goal for using this collegial experience to enhance your advocacy, policy, and/or system development work on behalf of young children, families, and the early childhood community.

 

I feel that this degree will enable me to transfer knowledge in result building up the community around me. I am excited about me future in early childhood advocacy. I hope that all of my colleagues have received everything that they may feel was vital from me. I can say that our class was small but we packed a wealth of information that was transferred.

My Hypothetical Family Situation

Hello, my name is Nicole and I am a happy mother of four. I am married to a wonder man named Donavan. Our children’s names are Isaiah (8), Eden (5), Obadiah (3), and Zachariah (1). All my life I have waited to have children. Also a desire that I have had since a child was to adopt and foster children. I was adopted a 3 months and I feel that this is truly a gift that was brought in to my life and I wanted to continue to give the gift to others. I don’t have any specific amount of children that I want to have but I do want to help as many children as I can. Currently we are researching different adoptions agencies and have found three that we are looking at. One agency is very interested in us as a family but they are located across the globe. To complete this adoption we will have to go there. This location is in Nigeria. We are very excited and are in the process of getting this together for our children because we also want them to go along with us. This is a transition in both our families’ life that will cause us to never be the same again. We want to do more research about the place we are getting our new child from and we also want to get information of getting our current children adjusted to this new family structure.

Questions:

1. Are there any specific websites I should be reviewing with regard to learning about quality services and programs for my child and family in this hypothetical family situation?

2. Have I given a complete picture of my family, or are there details missing that I should include in order to complete the assignment successfully? If so, what are your suggestions?

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

• Share one or more strategies you have discovered as you worked on the assignments in this course, and particularly this week, that are currently being used by advocates or organizations to influence the political will toward improving early childhood systems in order to foster the well-being of young children and their families.

This week I choose to research the early childhood and primary strand. In this research one area that I had to gain more information on was the professional development. As a Director of a daycare I see how important it is to promote EC professionals to go back to get more education and also more hands on experience through vital and physical travel seeing different early childhood environments. This week I was able to read a mission statement from the Center for the study of Child Care Employment. They have four priorities: access to education; rewarding environments; workforce information; and leadership development (Center for the study of Child Care Employment ,2011). In my facility I feel that it is equally as important to request each professional best when working with the  children, parents, and their colleagues. In the same respect I feel that as an employer I must have different resources available for each employee to have access to. Some ways I give them this opportunity is by having quarterly seminars and also access to webnairs form other organizations that connect them to early childhood across the globe. I fell that each professional should be given that opportunity to better advance themselves. I feel that the need to provide this type of service should provoke the state and local government to provide different funds that each state can contribute to educating each professional.

• What part of this work appeals to you most and why?

The thing that appeals to me the most is seeing teachers and also the children learning from each other because of the information that at their disposal. I feel that the children should also be connected with the world around them through the most updated technology. Most schools around me are learning with ebooks. This is an up-to-date way for children to get information. I am required as an EC professional to get my children equipped for the technology ahead of them.




Reference


Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cscce/