For
the past 2 weeks, I have been interacting with the Program Director/Vice
President of Education Ms. D. Spring of Matrix Human Services. This agency has been in operation for over
100 years per Ms. Spring. She stated
that when the program is at full capacity, the youngest person served is in the
womb and the oldest person is ninety plus.
She said that she is not at full capacity because she lost one of her
programs due to the loss of funding. It
was a program that targeted Hispanic pregnant females and children under one
year old but was open to anyone. The
reason that Hispanic females was its targeted group was because many on=f them
only spoke Spanish and that was they found the need to be the greatest. She thought that it would be fitting to first
give me the things that were accomplished in 2011 and they are as follows:
1)
They
launched a CDA program in 2009 which was to assist Assistant Teachers in
meeting the new Head Start mandates that will take effect in 2013. She stated that it will be coming to a close
sometime in June with 90% of the attendees nearing successful completion. For the benefit of those who may not know
what a (CDA) Child Development Associate is a credential that certifies that associates
meet professional standards in early childhood care and education (http://www.ehow.com/facts_5554229_cda-credentials.html#ixzz1mP8MXTb8).
2)
She
was also particularly proud of the fact that since her program has begun a
child tracking system that there is 100% of the data into the system making it
easier to do reports and access statistical information. Some of the statistical information that they
now have access to is a child’s average daily attendance which is significant
because the Head Start program is required to maintain 85% of its daily
attendance on a daily basis.
3)
A
monitoring system has been put into place to measure the accuracy and
efficiency of the delivery of services to families. Ms. Spring stated that this system keeps her
program centers in compliance with federal, state and local regulations.
4)
Finally,
she thought that their community outreach efforts provide sharing of space and
resources to collaborate on community events.
One such event was their 2nd Annual Trunk or Treat (instead
of Trick or Treat) which is family friendly activity that is a recruiting event
for her program on or around Halloween.
We
also talked about the fact that all of her administrative team is required to a
senator, city of Detroit, council person to allow them to keep such persons
abreast of the issues and concerns of the Head Start Program to assist them
with how to proceed with advocacy issues in the future. She is greatly concerned with the Head Start
Programs in the City of Detroit, Michigan.
Therefore, she is considering being in the running of the re-competition
by writing her own grant to ensure that the Head Start programs stay in the
City of Detroit. I like the way she seeks the input of her administrative team
in an effort to look at their area of expertise and consider how it should look,
thus allowing individuality take the forefront because all centers have their
own culture.
I also spoke briefly to the Nutrition
Specialist of this program and asked if she had any insights or considerations
that I should explore on my topic Childhood Obesity. She has family nights once a month to deliver
new information and meal and snack suggestions and/or food demonstration. She has several demonstrations from Chef
Isabella from Weight Watchers. She
started this program to break the cycle of Childhood Obesity.
In conclusion, I have gained a wealth of resources
as she gave me some information on some websites that would assist me in
writing my paper. She started the
Wigglers Win from a grant she wrote after she assessed the obesity of the
nearly 1400 children in the Head Start program.
It started in 2010 or 2012 and has gotten some positive feedback from
families. I have learned that being a
Program Director is often a job with a lot of responsibility and complications
and decisions that affect the lives of many.
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