Three local or state organizations that appeal to me
are Illinois Action for Children, Christopher’s House, and the Marillac Social
Center. Illinois Action for Children is childcare subsidy program that assists
families with paying for childcare and also offers. Professional development
opportunities are available as well as assistance for teen parents,
professional development opportunities to name a few. This agency also has a
healthy foods program, Infant toddler specialist program and assists
individuals with obtaining accreditation. The most important thing that this
agency does is provide childcare services to children who are in preschool that
are being cared for by individuals in the home. This gives children a chance to
become familiar with the childcare setting while they receive skills that will
enhance their development.
Christopher
House is an agency that supports the family entirely. They offer services to
the family in the area of early childhood education, youth development, family
support services, prenatal and parent education. There will be an Elementary
School that will be opening up in the Fall of 2013 that will service families.
Events are held to support families such as read-a-thon, food walk, and their
annual Family to Family Event. The Family to Family Event caught my attention because
350 families are sponsored during the Holiday seasons. This event shows
compassion and a dedication to serving families. Christopher House is dedicated
to serving families from birth to age 18 by providing education that will
enhances a person’s life for the long run (christopherhouse.org, 2012).
The Marillac Social Service has provided services to
families since 1914 (marillachouse.org, n.d.). Programs are available for the
entire family that assists with child development, parent/child relationships
and an early childhood center is also available. Services are also available to
seniors where they are able to meet monthly and acquire life skills such as
money management and nutrition. This agency is dedicated to serving the whole
family. Not only are they committed to children, but to have a program that
focuses on senior citizens is what caught my attention.
Within each of these agencies mentioned above, there
are opportunities to advocate and become part of a community of practice. Each
of these agencies collaborates with one another to provide services that are
beneficial to families. After searching the different websites I discovered
that Illinois Action for Children and the Marillac Social Center is a place
that I would like to work for. There are no current positions available at the
Marillac Social Center. The job opportunity that interests me is on Illinois action
for children website. This position is the family resource supervisor. The
skills that I need to possess are being able to able to lead and manage a team
that is responsible for working with families. Communication skills seems to be
a key component as well as knowing how to collaborate with other agencies to
provide resources and referrals. Being part of a community of practice seems to
be the key component of this position.
References
Christopher House. (2013). Retrieved May 18, 2013
from http://www.christopherhouse.org/
Illinois Action for Children. (2012). Retrieved May
18, 2013 from http://actforchildren.org
Marillac Social Center. (2013). Providing Social
Services to Family Since 1914. Retrieved May
18, 2013 from
http://www.marillachouse.org/home.html
3 comments:
Shevia.
I enjoyed reading your blog post. You have listed many great organizations of interest. As you stated, with each of these agencies there are opportunities to advocate and become part of a community of practice.
I read in your response to my blog that you are interested in how I obtained the Minnesota Registry title. I did a little research for you and I think I found the comparison in IL to MN.
Check out http://registry.ilgateways.com
This site is a way for professionals to track their trainings, but also how to become a registered trainer. Hope this helps!
Also here is the cite for Illinois AEYC http://illinoisaeyc.org/
Erika
Erika,
I greatly appreciate the research that you've done to assist me.
Shevia,
The Christopher House is an agencysimiular to the Parents as Teachers Program that I work with. We work with the whole family as well, starting with the pregnancy through 5 years of age. And I enjoy teaching and reading to the children, and helping the parents with resources that will help provide support to them.
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