Exploring
Roles in the ECE Community: Michigan
Great Start
of Michigan
children. The vision of Great Start is to ensure that children birth
to age 5, are safe, healthy and eager to succeed in school and life. The mission is to assure a coordinated system
of community resources and supports to assist Michigan families in providing a
great start for children birth to five. Great Start is an interconnected and
intertwined network of public and private supports and services assisting groups
to accomplish goals appropriate to the needs of the community. The five system components, or points on the
star, are Family Support, Pediatric and Family Health, Social & Emotional
Health, Parenting Leadership and Child Care & Early Learning. Within the
statewide initiative, counties have unique Great Start Collaborative bodies
through which local efforts are accomplished. If I were to have a position
within this system it would be as a state-wide lead and trainer in the area of
early care and education. I greatly enjoy
empowering early educators through training and resources. Great
Start is Michigan’s state-wide initiative fostering the school and life success
of young
Great Start
to Quality
Great
Start to Quality is dedicated to helping parents find the highest quality
learning environment for their children and helps child care providers and
educators improve the quality of the care they offer to young children. Within
this system, I am connected with the quality work through validation and
assessment of all licensed care and education settings. Networking with my
fellow Quality Assessment Specialists around the state as well as with the
Quality Consultants who coach and mentor site administrators and directors and
owners, has been a resource of great personal and professional value. If I
could have a position outside of my current one, it would be to eventually move
up to be on the leadership council for this initiative. I would like to be
within the group making the decisions for the Quality Rating and Improvement
System. This wouldn’t require an additional training though, the valuable
experiences I am gaining through the assessment work will help.
MiAEYC
The Michigan
Association of the Education of Young Children strives to improve the education
and welfare of young children, birth to age eight. They serve and support young
children, families and early childhood professionals. MiAEYC provides
professional development to its membership via training, resources and
services. There are over 2,800 members in over 20 affiliate and local chapters.
MiAEYC has a particular interest in appropriate assessment, qualifications and
training, center regulations, early literacy and universal Pre-K. Within MiAEYC
is the Upper Peninsula chapter, UPAEYC. This group mainly works to provide
larger annual training events in the U.P. I think it would be worthwhile to
have community level subgroups to make it possible for providers to interact
more regularly with peers and Master’s level mentors. This concept is something
I have already begun inquiring about at the state level and I could see myself
being a U.P. lead on this initiative. I would just need to know more specific
information on the structure of local chapters. 
Tammra,
ReplyDeleteIn reviewing your blog, I found that Great Start to Quality in Michigan is very similar to Parent Aware in Minnesota. Both are committed to quality and improvement in early childhood education programs as well as educator’s development. Great Start to Quality and Parent Aware both provide resources for families to find quality child care for their children. If you are interested in reviewing Parent Aware’s website, here is the address: http://www.childcareawaremn.org .
Great Start of Michigan appears to be a fabulous cite for families. It offers a multitude of services and supports ranging from parent education for parents in the critical role they play in the healthy development to parents as advocate for children.
You mentioned that you would enjoy being a part of Great Start to Quality as a part of their leadership council. What a great way to get more involved in your community to better the lives of children and families. Do you feel this is something you will pursue in the future? If so, I wish you luck.
Erika
I just may pursue that. I feel that my options are wide open actually with completing this program. I have made many pursuits in my years and with the last two opportunities, I was the one pursued so I plan to just see where God opens doors for me in this field.
DeleteHi Tammra,
ReplyDeleteI was interested in reading about the organizations you researched, especially MiAEYC. I am a huge supporter of the associations in our states that our represented within NAEYC. Have you ever presented for the association during one of their conferences? I would love it if you could pass on information regarding the next conference; I have never presented in Michigan, so that would pretty amazing.
What precisely do you see yourself getting involved with for Great Start of Michigan? I think working for parent education is a huge undertaking. Without a doubt, parent workshops are important for both children and their teachers. If you could be able to encourage parents to get involved, you would be touching an enormous amount of young children. I do believe that parents want what is best for the children and what to advocate for them; the challenge is understanding the avenues open to do this. I hope we remain in contact, so I can follow your journey. You are on the road to making a huge difference, which is a passion we share with you. Good luck, Tammra.
Lois
Lois,
DeleteI have presented on several occasions for MiAEYC revolving around I Am Moving, I Am Learning as I am one of the 4-person team for Michigan. They have an infant-toddler conference near Detroit every year and a larger early childhood conference in Grand Rapids every April. You can find info on both of them at their website (miaeyc.org). The call for proposals is due by November each year. :)
What great organizations with such fulfilling missions. I worked for an organization similar to Great Start, in Indiana. It was called Healthy Families. It was very rewarding although there were days I struggled going into the homes. Not being able to sit down because they had no furniture or cockroaches crawling across the floor. It was very sad at times.
ReplyDeleteI also worked for a Resource and Referral agency in Ohio. It too, was very rewarding and enjoyable. I truly felt like I was making a difference everyday. Thank you for sharing your great resources.
Tammra,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to thank you for the video entitled: Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change. Source: developingchild.harvard.edu. I took notes and will include this in my challenge. What I deemed from the video is to Build Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes. This makes tons of sense to me. I really thank you for the thought provoking resource.
Great Start is similar to First Five-California. First 5 California, along with First 5 county commissions and numerous other partners, touches the lives of millions of children and their families. Since 1998, First 5 California has launched innovative programs and services designed to help young children grow up healthy and do well in school and in life.
Great Start to Quality is similar to our State childcare resource centers called Child Care Resource Center (CCRC), formerly called Kids N Care. Since our state is in a financial crisis many of the resources and referrals have closed. Many of our local day care centers are suffering and our Day Care Home providers are going through many stages of enrollments. CCRC serves over 35,000 children and families each month – working effectively with parents, child care professionals, community members, businesses and government agencies to promote higher standards in child care and early education.
Coming to our state on June 5th the California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC), Co-sponsors for an all-day event Seize the Moment will provide participants with the opportunity to meet with state legislators, network with other early learning advocates and learn about critical policy issues, including quality improvement efforts, child care licensing and transitional kindergarten. I may attend this event.
References
Child Care Resource Center-Los Angeles. Retrieved May 18, 2013 http://www.ccrcla.org/
California Children and Families Commission or First 5 California. Retrieved May 18, 2013
http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/
California Association for the Education of Young Children. Retrieved May 18, 2013 http://caeyc.org
Tammra,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to thank you for the video entitled: Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change. Source: developingchild.harvard.edu. I took notes and will include this in my challenge. What I deemed from the video is to Build Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes. This makes tons of sense to me. I really thank you for the thought provoking resource.
Great Start is similar to First Five-California. First 5 California, along with First 5 county commissions and numerous other partners, touches the lives of millions of children and their families. Since 1998, First 5 California has launched innovative programs and services designed to help young children grow up healthy and do well in school and in life.
Great Start to Quality is similar to our State childcare resource centers called Child Care Resource Center (CCRC), formerly called Kids N Care. Since our state is in a financial crisis many of the resources and referrals have closed. Many of our local day care centers are suffering and our Day Care Home providers are going through many stages of enrollments. CCRC serves over 35,000 children and families each month – working effectively with parents, child care professionals, community members, businesses and government agencies to promote higher standards in child care and early education.
Coming to our state on June 5th the California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC), Co-sponsors for an all-day event Seize the Moment will provide participants with the opportunity to meet with state legislators, network with other early learning advocates and learn about critical policy issues, including quality improvement efforts, child care licensing and transitional kindergarten. I may attend this event.
References
Child Care Resource Center-Los Angeles. Retrieved May 18, 2013 http://www.ccrcla.org/
California Children and Families Commission or First 5 California. Retrieved May 18, 2013
http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/
California Association for the Education of Young Children. Retrieved May 18, 2013 http://caeyc.org
Tammra
ReplyDeleteI think that Michigan has some great resources and they would be great places to work for.I hope after you finish up your degree that you will find some that will give you lots of joy. I am still trying to really see where I fit in, but in the mean time I will keep moving on!!!
I enjoyed reading your blog
Thanks
Hi Tammra,
ReplyDeleteI liked the Great Start to Quality link! I think this is Michigan's QRS right? I know NY has QualityStars NY. I tried to navigate the information, but I was unable to find if this was mainly for centers and preschools, or does family child care also gets rated? Just curious :)
Thanks for sharing,
Angie
Angie,
DeleteMichigan calls it the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). All licensed care 0-5 are eligible for assessment from family home care to private-pay centers, state-funded Pre-k to Head Start. It is at this point a voluntary system. We use High Scope's Program Quality Assessment (PQA) for preschool, Infant-toddler and family child care.