It takes a village…

I do understand the challenges that a center faces when trying to find the necessary resources to support staff in attending a state conference.  Previous to working for Ohio AEYC, I was a center director for twenty years.  I was confronted with the realities of balancing a budget that was short on training funds and maneuvering through the complexities of how to staff the center so that my teachers could attend training.   The value and benefits of teachers attending the conference ranked high on our list of priorities.  We all felt that professional development was a necessary ingredient to the quality of care we were committed to providing. 

So our work began.  We met with the teaching staff and developed a plan that involved educating and recruiting the support of all members of our “village”.  We decided to share our desires for training with the parents and provide them with the direct benefits it would have on their children.  We made the commitment to bring back fresh ideas and current research from the field that we could put into classroom practice.    We thought of creative ways we could document our conference experience to share with the parents, such as making a video to bring back and play in our entry way.  Additionally, we distributed a letter to all the center parents.  With the support of our board of directors, we presented a letter on their behalf asking families what they thought they could do to assist and support us with obtaining our goal. We wanted to send as many teachers to the conference as financially possible without closing the center.  We asked them to consider the following:

• Find alternative child care for the day. (Plan a special “at home-day”)
• Volunteer to care for their child and other classmates in their home
• Sponsor a teacher to attend with a donation
• Pick up their child(ren) early on Friday
• Volunteer at the center

The tradition began many moons ago with great success.  As it turned out, the Village was more than willing to help out and lend the support needed.  In fact, we were a center licensed to care for over a 100 children and on conference Friday (back in April of 1998), we had 7 children attend.  Three of the children belonged to a staff member who was attending the Ohio AEYC Conference.   I must admit too much time has passed to recall the amount of funds that were raised.  Well, it must have been adequate! 

Recently I asked the center to give me an update on how the Village is doing.  The director, Sherry Roush was proud to report, “ Typically, parents make other arrangements for 70% of our children that day!”

I hope this idea can help you support your staff in attending the conference. And we would love to hear some ideas that worked in your village.