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Get involved!
A role for everyone
You may be thinking, "Fine, I see the
importance of early childhood development ... but what can I actually DO?"
Whatever your profession, your role, your
interests, your age -- there are ways you can make a difference in assuring a
bright future for our community's youngest children!
Below are some specific "early childhood
action tips" to consider.
Try some of these, or think of your own ideas! Encourage your colleagues
and peers, family and friends to get involved too.
Volunteer
through
one of the Tulsa area's many non-profit organizations which provide a wide
variety of programs benefiting young children and their families. You
are needed. Contact Tulsa Volunteer Central and
search for volunteer
opportunities online, to find valuable volunteer roles which match your
interests, skills, preferences, and time available.
Support JumpStart...make a
donation
Your tax-deductible contribution will help
assure the success of this important work!
- Make checks payable to "JumpStart"
and mail to: JumpStart, c/o Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa,
16 East 16th Street, Suite 202, Tulsa, OK 74119.
- Credit card contributions
(using MasterCard or Visa) can now be made quickly and conveniently, by
phone. Please call Mary McCrackin or Jan Figart, 585-5551, M-F 8:30-5.
Early Childhood Action Tips
Adapted from “The Seven Lessons of Early Childhood Public Engagement”
prepared by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Families and Work
Institute. These tips originally were part of a series of tools and materials
published to support the “I Am Your Child” Early Childhood Public Engagement
Campaign. Presented here with permission.
Find ways to help! Click on an occupation or
group on this list ...
Architects,
Developers and the Building Trades (Contractors, Carpenters, Electricians,
Painters, Plumbers, etc.)
Businesses and Other Employers
Civic,
Community and Professional Organizations
Colleges and Universities
Faith Communities
Government (at all levels)
Hospitals and Health
Care Professionals
Law Enforcement
Libraries
Local Government
Media
Parents and Families
Philanthropy
Seniors and Retirees
Service Providers
in a Wide Range of Fields (Health Care, Family Support/Parent Education, Early
Care and Education, Child Welfare, etc.)
Unions and Worker Associations
Youth
Architects, Developers
and the Building Trades
(Contractors, Carpenters, Electricians, Painters, Plumbers, etc.)
Assess the condition of playgrounds and facilities
currently used for early childhood programs according to the Consumer Product
Safety Commission’s National Standards for Playground Safety.
Volunteer to repair or renovate early childhood
playgrounds and facilities.
Design and build low-cost early care and education
and family center facilities.
Use non-toxic building materials.
Encourage clients in public spaces to include
rooms for parent classes and meetings, areas for mothers to nurse their infants
and early care and education facilities in workplaces, parks, housing and
commercial developments, and other public places.
Include instruction about early childhood facility
design and construction in architecture schools and building trades training and
apprenticeship programs.
Public articles in professional journals about the
importance of the early years and how a wide range of individuals and groups in
the building trades can make a difference.
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Businesses and Other Employers
Work with media to publicize local programs that
offer parent education, family support, early care and education and health
services.
Inform employees about the importance of the first
years of life and provide parenting information using a wide variety of
communication vehicles, such as bulletin boards, in-house newsletters,
electronic networks, or literature in paycheck
envelopes.
Provide employees with family insurance coverage
that provides such health services as prenatal and maternity care, well child
and mental health care and immunizations.
Learn about best practices in the work / family
arena.
Conduct surveys or focus groups to learn about
employee needs.
Create an internal task force to study needs.
Underwrite some employee child care costs
Review polities and practices to consider how to
become more supportive to families, and whenever possible, offer flexible work
schedules and telecommuting options.
Inform the public about the importance of the
early years on company ads, promotions and products.
Sponsor community parenting seminars or family
support groups at the workplace.
Invite local speakers to offer parenting seminars
at work sites.
Honor and reward employees who volunteer to
provide or improve early childhood programs and services.
Offer employees access to online parenting
information and resources at work.
Serve on community planning and improvement
committees.
Share expertise (such as accounting skills,
management training, public relations, etc.) with early care and education
programs and health and family support programs and volunteer to serve on their
boards.
Provide in-kind support, such as copying, faxing,
mailing or printing to local early childhood health, education and care, and
family support programs.
Communicate concern about the importance of the
early years to policymakers.
Work with other community partners (United Way,
service providers, government, media, philanthropy, faith communities, schools,
libraries, unions, etc.) to expand and improve health services, early care and
education, and family support / parent education programs for families with
young children.
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Civic, Community and
Professional Organizations
Educate members and the public about the
importance of the first years of life.
Collect and publish information about state and
local early childhood needs and resources.
Organize referral services and / or help lines for
families with young children.
Host or co-sponsor community forums on early
childhood topics, such as early childhood brain development, parenting programs
that work, improving the quality of child care, or expanding access to health
care.
Help local service providers design services that
are sensitive to the cultural and linguistic needs and preferences of their
communities. Help providers recognize and eliminate obstacles that may prevent
segments of the community from using their services.
Organize volunteers to build or refurbish
neighborhood playgrounds or improve child care facilities.
Organize volunteers to work in early childhood
programs, mentor young children, or read stories to children in libraries, early
education settings, and hospitals.
Celebrate and honor state and community leaders
and organizations that are making a difference for young children and their
families.
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Colleges and Universities
Create campus parenting and child care programs
for students and staff, and ensure that their facilities
are safe and inviting for young children and their parents and caregivers.
Establish curricula that encourage family-centered
and collaborative practice among educators, health and family education and
support professionals..jpg)
Gather faculty and students across various
disciplines and departments to share resources and research, and develop
interdisciplinary programs and courses related to early childhood.
Encourage faculty to make early childhood a focus
of their research.
Take active part in efforts – local, regional, and
national – to raise the qualifications of individuals providing services for
young children and their families.
Provide courses and education programs for child
car providers and other early childhood service providers at convenient times
and places.
Help evaluate the quality of local and regional
early childhood services.
Learn how other colleges and universities are
supporting the healthy development of young children and replicate promising
practices.
Encourage and support students, faculty and staff
to perform volunteer service in early childhood health, education and car, and
family support / parent education programs.
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Faith Communities
Share information about the importance of the
first years of life.
Include parenting books in the congregation’s
library.
Celebrate families raising young children.
Sponsor or donate space for parenting, family
support, health care, and early care and education programs.
Adopt a local early childhood program, offering
financial support and other resources, the use of facilities, and / or
volunteers from your congregation.
Include information about healthy early childhood
development in professional training and education programs for clergy and lay
leaders, hospital chaplains, and seminary students.
Mobilize retired and senior congregation members
to volunteer in hospitals, early care and education programs, at libraries and
at family centers.
Organize parenting classes and provide child care
to parents who attend.
Encourage older members to “adopt” or “mentor”
young families.
Establish community-wide interfaith councils of
child and family ministries that focus on the needs of new and expectant
parents. If this kind of council exists in your area, become an active
participant.
Assure that family and community representatives
are involved in designing any services developed to serve them.
Inform the public about the importance of the
early years and about local resources available to assist families with young
children.
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Government (at all levels)
Increase investments in young children and their
families, trying new investments to research on effective policies and
practices.
Create incentives for other organizations, in the
public and private sectors, to expand and improve services to families with
young children.
Require ongoing collaboration and coordination
among agencies that administer early childhood programs and services.
Collect and share data about the needs of young
children and their families.
Document and share information on the cost and
effectiveness of programs serving young children and their families. Benchmark
the results of those efforts.
Convene groups of citizens to address early
childhood issues.
Convene a group of business leaders to investigate
how to finance early childhood programs and services.
Institute appropriate quality-control mechanisms
to assure the safety and healthy development of young children in early
childhood programs, and provide technical assistance to those who need to
improve quality.
Provide low- or no-interest loans to early
childhood programs that have plans to improve quality or undertake facility
construction and renovation.
Establish tax advantages for family-friendly
businesses.
Support research that holds promise for improving
results for young children and their families.
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Hospitals and Health Care
Professionals
Educate families, patients and staff about the
importance of the first years of life, early brain development, and the
importance of every child having a primary health care provider or “medical
home.”
Work with community-based organizations, the media
and early childhood professional organizations to promote and provide
immunizations and health exams for young children.
Provide expectant and new parents with information
about maternal health, including mental health.
Provide facilities and materials for prenatal and
parenting classes, early care and education programs, and other services that
support healthy early childhood development.
Collaborate with other community partners to
expand and improve locally available health, parenting and family support and
early care and education programs.
Inform policymakers and the importance of the
first years of life, and support laws and policies that increase and improve
health, parenting, family support and early care and education programs.
Volunteer as telephone or on-site consultants to
early childhood programs on health and safety issues.
Use professional journals, conferences and
meetings to inform peers about key issues in early child development, including
new research on brain development.
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Law
Enforcement
Inform other community members of the law
enforcement community, and the public at large, about the importance of the
first years of life and the wisdom of prevention.
Develop and vision of law enforcement that regards
family support and parent education, voluntary home visits, and other services
to families with young children as crime prevention strategies; share this
vision with the public.
Promote public policies and legislation designed
to assist families with young children and prevent child abuse.
Collaborate with other community partners (such as
schools, health care providers, early care and education programs, and family
support/parent education programs) to expand and improve services to families
with young children.
Include information about relevant issues in early
child development, as well as child abuse prevention and intervention, in
training programs for law enforcement professionals. Train police officers to
work collaboratively with social workers, health care providers, and other
professionals who interact with young children and their families.
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Libraries
Publicize the importance of the first years of
life.
Become an information source about all community,
child and family activities and initiatives.
Publicize the availability of special collections
of parenting materials as well as resources and books for young children.
Provide meeting space to community groups working
to improve the quality and availability of programs and services that support
families with young children.
Sponsor or host parenting and family literacy
classes.
Offer family literacy programs in early care and
education and family resource centers and other community settings.
Encourage families to read to their children
beginning at birth and throughout childhood.
Establish family reading room for other community
groups.
Hold story times for the youngest children and
their caregivers.
Help parents gain access to on-line resources
about parenting and child development.
Share on-line library services with early
childhood programs.
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Local
Government
Develop legislation, public policies, budgets,
taxes, and financing mechanisms that assist families with young children.
Include programs and facilities for young children
and their families in parks and in recreation and senior services departments.
vUse planning and zoning data about children and
families to create appropriate regulations and facilities (parks, sidewalks,
child care centers, family child care homes, housing, etc.)
Link economic development and job creation with
initiatives that meet the needs of young children and their families.
Collaborate with community partners such as other
local governments, schools, and non-profit organizations to expand and improve
programs and services for young children and their families.
Develop model programs
Advocate for young children and their families
with county, state, and federal governments.
Encourage the education of the people who provide
services for young children, through scholarship funds and other strategies.
Work with county, state, and federal regulators so
that municipal regulations on fire, safety, and buildings are the same and/or
complementary when applied to facilities for young children.
Link maternal and child health, immunizations, and
other child health and development resources with other programs and services
for young children and their families.
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Media
Create and broadcast programming that informs the
public about the importance of the early years.
Create an early childhood “beat.”
Report on state or local efforts to expand and
improve programs and services that assist families with young children.
Organize and/or participate in state or local
early childhood community efforts to improve the lives of young children and
their families.
Document positive aspects of the lives of families
with young children.
Publicize local resources available to families
with young children.
Report on state and community early childhood
champions-individuals, organizations and businesses that are improving programs
and services for young children and their families.
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Parents and Families
Acquire the skills and tools they need to become
forceful advocates for their children.
Learn more about early childhood development,
including early brain development.
Join and form parent support organizations.
Speak out to the media and at public hearings
about the needs of children and families.
Talk with legislators and elected officials, call
radio talk shows and write letters to the editor about early childhood needs and
issues.
Support and mentor other families.
Attend courses and read parenting education
materials.
Ask for help when needed.
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Philanthropy
Provide long-term support for early childhood
system development efforts.
Fund, sponsor and convene community mobilization
efforts to expand and improve the quality of programs and services available to
young children and their families.
Initiate and participate in partnerships wi5th
other sectors that improve and expand programs and services for young children
and their families.
Fund projects that demonstrate or replicate
successful early childhood projects.
Fund public awareness efforts.
Provide low- or no-interest loans for quality
improvement efforts by early childhood programs, including renovation of
facilities.
Inform policymakers about the importance of the
first years of life, and about local needs and conditions as well as ways to
improve the quality and coordination of services for young children and their
families.
Form funding partnerships with peers to leverage
or generate new resources for early childhood programs and services.
Use funding programs creatively to meet a wide
spectrum of needs experienced by families with young children.
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Schools
Inform all school personnel and parents about the
importance of the first years of life. Make this information available, to the
greatest extent possible, to parents who are not fluent in English.
Build partnerships with neighborhood early
childhood programs and create effective transition programs from early childhood
programs to schools.
Incorporate information about parenting and child
development, including new insights into early brain development, into the
curricula of various content areas at all grade levels.
Offer voluntary parent education programs, such as
Parents as Teachers, HIPPY and family literacy programs.
Provide programs that help teen parents finish
school and learn parenting skills.
Collaborate with other community partners to
expand and improve services that assist families with young children.
Include information on early childhood development
in school libraries.
Include early care and education and family center
facilities in new school construction projects and reallocate vacant classrooms
for such programs, when available.
Offer indoor and outdoor space to early childhood
program facilities.
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Seniors and Retirees
Volunteer to read to young children at libraries,
hospitals schools, early care and education programs and family resource
centers.
Volunteer to assist community organizations,
agencies, and programs serving young children and their families.
“Adopt” or mentor young families.
Use their language skills to help recent
immigrants gain access to services for their young children.
Serve on the boards of non-profit organizations
that provide programs and services for young children and their families.
Learn and share information about early childhood
development, including brain development.
Talk with legislators and elected officials, call
radio talk shows, and write letters to the editor about early childhood needs
and issues.
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Service Providers in a
Wide Range of Fields
(Health Care, Family Support/Parent Education, Early
Care and Education, Child Welfare, etc.)
Educate families, staff and the public about the
importance of the first years of life. Make a concerted effort to reach those
who are not fluent in English or are isolated from the community by geographic,
cultural, social, or economic factors.
Involve a wide range of families and community
members in designing and evaluating programs and services.
Collaborate with other service providers and
community partners on an ongoing basis to expand, coordinate, and improve early
childhood programs and services. Share newsletters, sponsor shared staff
training or develop new projects together.
Make facilities safe and inviting for young
children and their parents and caregivers.
Enhance the quality of the early childhood
services through staff development, national accreditation, and ongoing
evaluation and improvement efforts.
Participate in community efforts to define and
improve the quality of services for young children and their families.
Establish or contribute to “one-stop” resource
centers to link families with appropriate services.
Make collaborative efforts to help parents
identify and seek early assistance for young children with disabilities.
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Unions and Worker Associations
Inform union members about the importance of the
early years, through Union magazines or newsletters.
Sponsor local speakers to offer parenting and
child development seminars at work sites.
Examine union contracts with member’s family needs
in mind, particularly those who are really struggling to manage work and family
life. Look for contract provisions that address work and family concerns:
flex-time, telecommuting, child care assistance, resource and referral services,
paid leave, and other supports for families with young children.
Draft contract proposals that address child care
and family issues. Pay particular attention to flex-time language and insure
that it both protects workers and supports the industry.
Negotiate for family insurance coverage that
provides such health services as prenatal and maternity care, well child and
mental health care and immunizations.
Survey or conduct focus groups to assess
membership child care needs.
Consult with local child care agencies or
specialists for help in developing a survey that gets results.
Present results at union meetings and develop an
agenda for supporting parents with young children. Discuss the agenda at
labor/management meetings.
Honor and rewards members who volunteer to provide
or improve early childhood programs and services.
Use the talent and skill of members to assist
neighborhood child care, family support, child health and parenting programs
with construction, maintenance, health care, technology, etc.
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Work with other community partners (United Way,
service providers, government, media, philanthropy, faith communities, schools,
libraries, employers, etc.) to expand and improve health services, early care
and education, and family support/parent education programs for families with
young children.
Address child care, child health and parenting
support issues as part of the union’s political agenda.
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Youth
Take seriously the vital contribution they can
make as role models for their younger brothers and sisters and other young
children in their neighborhoods.
Volunteer to read to younger children at
preschools, in family child care homes, in libraries, at church, school, family
centers or in hospitals.
Work through youth service groups (Girl Scouts,
Boy Scouts, Camp Fire, 4H Youth Development Groups, Kiwanis, settlement houses,
etc.) to volunteer at area early care and education, health and parenting, and
family support programs.
Photograph, draw, paint or sculpt young children
and their families for community awareness exhibits and activities.
Learn about early childhood development.
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