Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

The three organizations I chose were The Center Helping Obesity in Children End Successfully, Inc. (choicesforkids.org), the American Heart Association, and the Let's Move Organization.  Choices for kids aims to spread awareness and reduce the presence of childhood obesity in our communities.  Their mission is to provide parents and centers with resources that promote weight management and lifestyle changes through nutrition education, peer socialization, physical activity, and community involvement.  The American Heart Association also works to prevent childhood obesity.  Healthier Kids works to help families live heart healthy lives by providing tools and resources to teach and encourage healthier eating and physical activity.  The Let's Move Organization was an initiative founded by Michelle Obama.  They provide children with a healthier start.  They teach children best practices for nutrition, physical activity.

I chose these organizations because I feel in order to fight and prevent childhood obesity, we need to educate children, families, and the community.  All three of these organization believe in providing resources, activities, and events that educate others on making healthy food choices, budgeting for healthy food choices, and the necessity of more daily physical activity and less screen time.

I would love to work for any of these organizations.  Currently, I could not find any job openings for these organizations.  However, I think it would be necessary to have a well rounded skill set.  As an employee of these organizations, you would knowledge on the history of childhood obesity, healthy eating guidelines, and the importance of getting physical activity every day.  It would also be necessary to have strong communication, organization skills, and the ability to teach others, and build relationship with families, children, and the community.

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State

I found four organizations that were of interest to me:

• FLAEYC:  Their mission is to benefit children and families by providing leadership, advocacy, and professional development.  Their vision is to provide every child and their family's access to quality education and care and to ensure every professional is highly respected, supported, and equitably compensated.
• Children's Movement of Florida:  They are a non-partisan grassroots movement that insists on an increased investment in a child's first five years of life.  It is their goal to communicate the importance and benefits of early childhood education. They work to continuously improve Florida's VPK program, to provide a high-quality parent skills development program, health screenings for all children, assessment and support for children with special needs, and high-quality mentoring programs for educators.
• The Children's Forum:  They believe that investing adequate resources in young children will result in stronger families and communities prepared to succeed in a competitive global economy and accept the responsibilities of good citizenship.  They provide leadership and advocacy to achieve high-quality and accessible early care and education and after school services for all children.
• Early Learning Coalition of Pasco/Hernando County: They believe that it is necessary to prepare each child to enter and succeed in school.  This organization empowers families to establish and control the education and become advocates for their children.  They engage the community providing opportunities or involvement, growth, and empowerment.  They advocate for innovative, responsive, and effective community-based services.  They allocate resources to maximize the effectiveness.

          While researching these organizations, I looked to see if they had any employment opportunities.  The only posting I found was for a Curriculum Specialist for the Early Learning Coalition.  This person would provide trainings for providers who accept School Readiness scholarships.  School Readiness scholarships are funding awarded to families based on income qualifications.  In order for a provider to accept these scholarships, they must first apply, use one of the state approved curriculums, and then get approved by the state of Florida.  The trainings given would include training on the specific state approved curriculum and how to execute these curriculums at the centers.  There  would be specific skills needed to competently perform these duties.  The candidate must have knowledge of the School Readiness program, confidence in working with ages and stages, and knowledge regarding all of the state approved curriculums.  This person should also be computer and technology literate with an understanding of how individuals learn.

          These organizations were of interest to me for a couple of reasons.  First, I think it is important to communicate the importance and the benefits of early childhood education to anyone who will listen.  Second, we need to ensure that our educators are kept up to date on the most current research and trends regarding the field.  Finally, I am also passionate with my feelings regarding access of education to everyone.  Every child should have the right to attend high-quality early care and education programs.  Because of economics, locations, and unawareness of these programs, we need to think creatively to solve these challenges.

www.flaeyc.org
www.childrensmovementflorida.org
www.thechildrensforum.com
www.phelc.org