Sharing Web Resources

The Early Childhood and The Baby College Programs seemed particularly relevant to my current professional development because researchers confirm that the early-childhood years are key to building a strong foundation for future educational success Harlem Children's Zone has been bolstering its work with children and families in these critically important first years. Like all of HCZ’s programs, our early childhood programs provide their services free to the public, which is possible thanks to the generosity of people like you. The Baby College offers a nine-week parenting workshop to expectant parents and those raising a child up to three years old. Among other lessons, the workshops promote reading to children and verbal discipline over corporal punishment. Over the past two years, more than 870 people graduated from The Baby College.

I didn't find any ideas/statements/resources to be controversial, but the website made me think about an issue in new ways. For example, I see that there programs are free of charge. Whereas if this was in the United States, I feel as though some of our programs would charge and want a donations at the same time. The Baby College and The Promise Academy Charter Schools were good programs that focus on children getting a high-quality well-rounded education.

I learned that their last newsletter was from Spring 2009. It was very informative information about TEAM HCZ. The newsletter was titled 100 DAYS OF PEACE AND PURPOSE. The purpose was a look back at some of the people and events that made 100 Days a success. It had numerous of topics such as Public-service campaign helps Harlem community; Volunteers help HCZ; Chess team scores big at national tournament; Promise students excel on statewide exams; Bringing $7 million to Harlem taxpayers; Preventive programs launch Quality Assurance Team; College news; Multi-media arts show; Getting ready for college; Financial Summit for high school students; New initiative to create role models for boys; Showtime Tournament nets several winners. I like this quote by the president: 

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been

waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

- President Barack Obama

Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 1

This week I chose to listen to the podcast from the World Forum Foundation presented by Delfena Mitchell.
Delfena Mitchell is Director of the Liberty Children’s Home, on the outskirts of Belize City. This program opened in the summer of 2005 and is licensed to house up to 40 children, predominantly between birth to 5 years of age. However, older children who have younger siblings in care are and will always be accommodated.All of the children at the care center have been abandoned, abused or orphaned and many have disabilities, special needs or are HIV positive. Further information on this program is available at www.libertyfoundation.org.uk

What I have learned do far from the podcast is that Joseph is a nine years old boy that came to them about nine months ago. When he came to them, he hadn't spoken in over a year because his situation where he was living in was really bad. He was physically abused and he observed his sister and because of that he just shut down and didn't speak for over a year. He came to them with his six other brothers and sisters. At first, what they did with him was just trying to home school him there under the compound for a little bit, then they enrolled him in school out of town, but after the first week, he was kicked out of school and sent home because he seem to have a problem with understanding. One day she took him horse back riding with her and they would go on a 30 minutes horse back ride, so he was on the horse behind her on the same horse. They were riding and all of sudden he started talking and telling her about his grandmother that use to beat him with a stick and how when he was hungry and he wanted to eat, he had to take his food underneath his bed to eat so that the other children in the house or the adults wouldn't take his food away from him. He just started talking about his uncle that he misses and is gone away. Although he was talking, she couldn't understand everything he was saying because it was like he was regressed at his age. The important thing that got her excited was that he started talking again. They finished their ride and things went back to normal and he stopped talking again, but over a period of weeks he would start saying a couple of words. In the meantime, we were just allowing him to have a couple of words in our little informal session of training of schooling and then they would allow him time to be in the gardens on the compound because he liked to be outdoors. With a combination of Joseph going back to school and the medication in a matter of weeks you can see the change in him where he started talking and he was talking a mile a minute. Joseph speaks now and even the kids stop to listen to him because everybody was so use to him not saying anything. When he has anything to say we all want to hear what he has to say.

My new insights and information about the issues of poverty in China is that it has made major strides in poverty reduction in recent years. The economic growth being slower in Western China has cause it to be poorer than Eastern China. China has had helped to reduce chronic poverty due to the fact that it has transition from a centrally planned to a globalized market economy. China receives more foreign investment than any other country in the world except for the US.

Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I have selected is Harlem Children's Zone and here is the link:
http://www.hcz.org/index.php

Description of the Organization's focus

HISTORY

Harlem Children's Zone, Inc. has experienced incredible growth - from the number of children we serve to the breadth of our services. But one thing has stayed the same: the agency's "whatever it takes" attitude when it comes to helping children to succeed.

The organization began 1970 as Rheedlen, working with young children and their families as the city's first truancy-prevention program.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the crack epidemic tore through Harlem; open-air drug markets flourished while families disintegrated. While many inside and outside Harlem gave up hope, HCZ's staff believed that new approaches were necessary.

In 1991, the agency was among the first in the city to open a Beacon center. Our Countee Cullen Community Center turned a public school that used to shut its door at the end of the school day into a community center offering a range of services and activities on nights, weekends and summers.

In the 1990s, to help keep local schools safe, the Peacemakers program began placing AmeriCorps participants in classrooms. These young people were a welcome presence assisting teachers during the school day and then running programs after school.

The beginning of the Children's Zone^®
In the early 1990s, HCZ ran a pilot project that brought a range of support services to a single block. The idea was to address all the problems that poor families were facing: from crumbling apartments to failing schools, from violent crime to chronic health problems.

HCZ created a 10-year business plan, then to ensure its best-practice programs were operating as planned, HCZ was in the vanguard of nonprofits that began carefully evaluating and tracking the results of their work. Those evaluation results enabled staff to see if programs were achieving their objectives and to take corrective actions if they were not.

In 1997, the agency began a network of programs for a 24-block area: the Harlem Children's Zone Project. In 2007, the Zone Project grew to almost 100 blocks. Today the Children's Zone^®serves more than 8,000 children and 6,000 adults. Overall, the organization serves more than 10,000 children and more than 7,400 adults.  The FY 2010 budget for the agency overall is over $75 million.

A history of innovation

Over the years, the agency introduced several ground-breaking efforts: in 2000, The Baby College^® parenting workshops; in 2001, the Harlem Gems^® pre-school program; also in 2001, the HCZ Asthma Initiative, which teaches families to better manage the disease; in 2004, the Promise Academy, a high-quality public charter school; and in 2006, an obesity program to help children stay healthy.

Under the visionary leadership of its President and CEO, Geoffrey Canada, HCZ continues to offer innovative, efficiently run programs that are aimed at doing nothing less than breaking the cycle of generational poverty for the thousands of children and families it serves.

What caught my attention from the website is that they have education from early childhood through college. I like the way you can click on each level of education and it provided you with a description of it. There is a donation section that you can give to this organization if you want to. 

Getting Ready-Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Alternative Part 1:

I was unable to establish contact with the international early childhood professionals, so I chose the Alternative to Part 1.

First you must download iTunes Application to your computer or laptop, then proceed to these steps:

Steps to listening and subscribing to podcasts:

1. Type in www.worldforumfoundation.org in the web browser

2. In The Blue Search Box: Type in Podcasts

3. Click on World Forum Radio

4. Click on the Subscribe to World Forum Radio

5. After you click on it, it will send you to http://itunes.app.com/podcast/world-forum-radio/id332072980?mt=2

6. Click on the two World Forum Radio that you want and click on View In iTunes

7. A box that say External Protocol Request-Click on Launch Application

8. Listen to the two World Forum Radio that you choose to and then hit subscribe

OR

1. Type in www.worldforumfoundation.org/world-forum-radio/ in the web browser

2. Just scroll down and pick the two Episode that you want and click on to Listen to this episode

Part 2: Expanding Resources

I decided to study Harlem Children's Zone because when I clicked on most of the websites that was provided, it couldn't be found. I like the way this website was set up and I seen where you could sign up for their news letter versus the other sites that I looked at, they didn't have no where for you to sign up or subscribe.