International Contacts

As I listen to podcast I am learning about several professionals, and in targeting international contacts recently I listened to the podcast that featured Maysoun Chehab who trains early childhood professionals, advocates and creates programs for children in Lebanon and surrounding areas. One of her focuses in psychosocial support projects. What really caught my attention was a program in which they implemented following the War in Lebanon. 126 primary schools where destroyed. The program targeted parents and teachers on the affects children could be experiencing from the trauma of war.The program gave made parents more comfortable in assessing and dealing with the situation support projects range of social and emotional effects. The resource center provides other programs of this same nature.

Current Issue/Sharing Resources

As the we all know hurricane Sandy was devastating for so many individuals, but did any one think about how children are being affected in this aftermath.  Something I found interesting on  http://nbcdi.org was a an blog on helping African American families cope with crisis. The book is entitled Helping Children Cope with Crisis.
"Helping Children Cope with Crisis is an activity book for African American families that was developed by the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in collaboration with other organizations serving the African American community."

I find this information very helpful to families.  Especially for African American families because we have a tendency to not address things and assume the children will be ok. Children are very resilient but having a resource like this can help them cope.

Resource:

http://nbcdi.org/blog/2012/11/02/helping-children-cope-with-crisis/

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I have chosen to explore the website of the National Black Child Development Organization.  I have requested to receive there newsletter and am awaiting information from them.  Thus far I have found it interesting the the organization developed a program entitled Parent Empowerment Program(PEP). PEP was designed to give parents the tools to be their child's first teacher and is geared towards lower income African Americans but of course it can be used in a broad spectrum of parents.  I look forward to sharing more as I continue to explore the site.

I have also chosen to listen to podcast on World Forum.  The first professional I have researched is Susan Lyon who is the creator of the Innovative Teacher Project.  The Innovative Teacher Project is a pilot program to integrate the Reggio Emilia approach in a child development center in San Fransico.