Saturday, March 14, 2015

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

This week’s blog includes organizations at the local and state levels which I find helpful at the early childhood level.  This is an assignment that I enjoy because I have a “resource file” of helpful websites and organizations which I utilize on a daily basis.  Because this course is focusing upon my Capstone Project, I am choosing those resources that will most benefit me in reference to this assignment. 

The first organization is Food Bank of South Jersey.  This organization provides immediate access to emergency food, nutrition education, and sustainable ways to improve their lives.  Quality, fresh food and nutrition education is an issue in the poverty stricken areas, and childhood obesity is prevalent among our children in these areas.  This organization helps aide in those issues as well.  This organization partners with many non-profit organizations and initiatives to educate our people.  The Campbell Soup Company is a large contributor to the food bank as well as another organization called The Food Trust, which focuses upon educating our youth about food, and food choices, and healthy living. This is a wonderful resources, even for those not living in the New Jersey area, and can be found at http://www.foodbanksj.org .

The second organization I have chosen and found to be most helpful is www.hhs.gov,  US Department of Health and Human Services.  Currently if you visit the site, Healthy Eating is one of the focal points, as well as many others.  All of these topics take you to outside links with a  wealth of information.  If you go to the search bar and type childhood obesity, a wealth of information is presented and these are wonderful resources for both teachers, and families. 
The link is http://www.hhs.gov.

The last organization I would like to focus upon is the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children.  This organization is the state represented affiliate of the NAEYC organization.  This is a wonderful reference for position statements as well as resources covering a wealth of topics in Early Childhood.  Regarding childhood obesity, this website has links to state programs for childcare nutrition guidelines, as well as resources for parents and educators.  Whenever I need a scholarly resource regarding any topic within my profession, this is one of the first places I peruse for information.  They can be accessed at  http://www.njaeyc.org.


Many of these resources have employment links within their website.  Additionally, if you contact a live person at the contact phone number, they are helpful in finding employment resources as well.  When one is looking for employment within these different early childhood related entities, one needs to be creative in finding those resources as they are sometimes not readily available.  The one position I discovered at the Food Bank of SJ, is for teacher trainer and parental liaison.  Teaching and sharing is my passion, and if I were currently looking for a new position, this would definitely be one I would pursue. 

Website References
http://www.foodbanksj.org/
http://www.hhs.gov/
http://www.njaeyc.org/

5 comments:

  1. Hi Karen, I like your choice of the food bank. Most people don;'t understand how important this is to the children and the community. I am a member of a food program that serves food to at least 300 people on every 3rd Monday of each month. I was shocked at how many children came. But not only did they come but, many elderly came just for the socialization of meeting friends and family a good time. It served multiple purposes.

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  2. Hi Karen

    Good job, I enjoyed reading your post on the food bank. I will look into more information about the food bank. Yes fresh food and nutrition is an issues in poverty in ever country.

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  3. I always like reading your discussion questions and blog posts because I learn from them. I don't know if you do it on purpose, but a lot of your posts are out of the box so to speak. I would have never though to look into a food bank for potential early childhood information however, that would be a place to provide parenting classes. It sounds like you love the job you are currently in. Remind me where do you work and what is your position?

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  4. Thanks Jocelyn, I work as a district preschool teacher in Camden City NJ schools, in a private provider location called Respond Inc. I love what I do and cannot imagine teaching elsewhere! Also, I feel like we have been through this journey together!!!

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  5. Hi Karen,
    It was a joy reading you post, especially the fact that you seem to have specialized on one topic - Nutrition. In Africa, we have seen many cases of malnutrition and they can be pathetic indeed. The references that you chose are great indeed.

    Thank you
    Florence

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