When our group began to think about some of our new activities, we felt good about
how we were working to improve the quality of the services we provide. Many staff
members had reasons why they thought we were making these great strides. Here
are some of their responses:
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- Avery Biesk and Mary Trost are two new community volunteers. They assist
the staff in the classroom, with various special events, and on field trips.
They also work closely with the teaching staff to design creative play activities
that meet the individualized goals of each child in the classroom. Avery says
that this has been the most rewarding experience in his life. Both Avery and
Mary are very comfortable with the children. When Avery and Mary are around,
the children seem to really open up.
- Four staff members have formed a team: Kermit Bayvon, a health specialist;
Dawn Timon, a family advocate; Britta Goodwin, a teacher; and Joyce Gilbert,
the parent involvement coordinator. This group has developed a new intake form
for our program. It has cut down the amount of time needed to get family information
from sending programs. It has also reduced the number of forms families must
complete because each program area can use the same form. In addition, the form
contains family information that other community service providers also need.
To develop it, the team collaborated with the health center, the adult training
center, and two other community service providers that serve families in the
program.
- The executive director and Head Start director have been working on
a collaborative agreement with the local Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)
program, with the approval of the policy council. Based on our findings from
the community assessment and program evaluation, we plan to implement on-site
job training and career placement counseling for parents at each of our eleven
centers for the next program year. We also plan to provide child care for the
children whose parents are involved in job training, literacy, and GED classes
or are seeking employment. Our board of directors has identified private and
local funding support to help us extend our services to a full day so that we
may better meet the needs of our families.
- The management team and the fiscal officer have selected and helped
customize a new, computerized Head Start record-keeping and tracking system.
They say the system is really easy to use. It saves hours of time in tracking
and maintaining family information, updating records, and creating reports.
To learn the new software, the administrative and clerical staff spent hours
in computer training. While they were in training, the rest of the staff pitched
in and helped with the regular workload.
Summary Question
- What strategies are the staff and parents using to better meet
the needs of children and families in the program?
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