National Organizations & CoP

National organizations or Communities of Practice (CoP) that appeal to me include the Children’s Defense Fund, Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, as well as Zero to Three. First of all I chose the Children’s Defense Fund to utilize as a great source of information to cite and gain information from. The Children’s Defense Fund offers numerous articles on specific relevant topics to my challenge statement, stays current on policy changes, and can be a source of advocacy or referral information (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012). The Cradle to Prison pipeline initiative the Children’s Defense Fund is currently working on directly relates to the early intervention strategies for young children that I hope to address such as how to address trauma in early childhood. The second organization I chose to explore is Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health. This organization offers several CoPs that are specific to topics. For example, there is a specific Child Welfare CoP as well as Early Childhood CoP, both which address current mental health needs of children, which I felt to be very valid to my challenge statement. Each CoP has an individual assigned as the community lead.  Based on the website the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Heatlh state both of these CoPs offer “Access up-to-date information, events, funding opportunities, and resources, or ask a question related to child welfare services and the needs of children and families in the child welfare system” (Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, n.d.). This would be a great resource to learn from other professionals around the country dedicated to a unified goal. Lastly, I looked at Zero to Three as this organization offers resources for early childhood educators, stays current on policy changes, and has relevant information pertaining to the mental health of young children and how this can translate into success in classrooms. Additionally, this resource offers information about state policy changes as well as national policy changes. This is imperative for all early childhood educators despite the challenge as funding, standardization, and other initiatives affect the strategies and models of intervention.

            Current job opportunities available that interest me include a Project Director for Early Education Services division for ICF International. This organization works as a contract agent for community and government projects in key areas of development such as education. The organization serves the United States as well as other countries worldwide. This project actually is located in Fairfax, Virginia and serves to address retention, education reform, and professional development. Qualifications include a Master’s degree and five years’ experience in early care or education, as well as military experience and quality control experience. While I meet most qualifications for this job I do not currently have military experience.

References:

Children’s Defense Fund, (2012). Programs & campaigns. Retrieved from

http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/

Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, (n.d.). Communities of practice.

Retrieved from http://www.tapartnership.org/communitiesOfPractice.php

Zero to Three National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, (2012). Building early childhood

systems. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/

Community of Practice

I just became a member of the Graduation Matters community of practice. This community of practice is dedicated to working to discover why children don’t graduate high school or transition to higher education and find ways to assist in increasing the rates of children that do. This community of practice appealed to me initially because I am the mother of five children, I work in higher education, and I am obtaining a graduate degree in early childhood education. I feel as though I have a lot of offer to this group, but also I have a high investment in it as well. Not only personally as the goals and mission of this group may affect my own children, but also as a professional that has a great deal to offer in terms of knowledge and experience.

Next, I am interested in Early Childhood Professionals of Wyoming. This community of practice is a way for early childhood professionals within the state to ask questions, become informed of pertinent policy changes, or work together to discover best practices for increasing the educational attainment of the children within our state. State organizations such as this are imperative to knowing and understanding our state legislature, funding, policies, and even culture.

 

Lastly, there is not a formal name, but a community of practice exists between the community colleges within my state that offer early childhood education programs. This highly appeals to me as I consider my future goals, career, and endeavors that lie ahead. This community of practice serves to share information, work together when seeking state funding, and also works collaboratively when addressing state legislature about policies or procedural changes that may negatively or positively impact early childhood education within higher education.  

 

As we begin to wrap up our course work and complete our studies I have been exploring job opportunities. I am most interested in ways to combine my background in mental health with my graduate degree. I have been invited to interview for a position that assists children and families that are homeless, have substance abuse issues, or mental health needs to gain self-sufficiency through intervention and support. In order to fulfill the roles of this job I would need to rely heavily on my skills developed as a mental health case manager, but also include the knowledge I have gained in terms of how to offer support to families, encourage families and professionals to work collaboratively together, as well as demonstrate a respect for family cultures, diversity, and individual cultures. Next, I have been working to help pave the way for the development of an early childhood education center on the college campus where I currently work. This would require a great deal of skill and knowledge gained in terms of finding funding resources, budgeting and allocating funds, as well as developing a program from the onset in terms of curriculum, floor plans, marketing, and licensing.