News You Can Use Week of December 7 2012
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Head Start News Office of Head Start Blog for Parents and Community Partners on the Designation Renewal System Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, Director of the Office of Head Start has begun a new blog to provide parents and community partners with information about the designation renewal system. This blog will allow the field to hear directly from the Office of Head Start. In the first blog entitled “Reform Continues: Head Start Grant Applicants Under Review” Sanchez Fuentes said, “This Administration believes that fair, open, and equitable competition is a good thing. It gives all of us the opportunity to look at our programs, evaluate how we provide services, and continuously improve. We have a duty to ensure that the children and families we enroll in Head Start receive the highest quality services available in this country.” Be sure to check the OHS website for more information. If the blog raises questions that you would like OHS to address, please pass them along to Tommy Sheridan (tsheridan@nhsa.org). We will make sure OHS receives them. The 29th Annual Parent Conference and Family Engagement Institutes Were a Great Success! From Decem NHSA will make a dvd of the Opening Session keynote and featurred alumni and parents. Visit our Webpage for more information.
For the rest of the week, participants gained invaluable program resources and advocacy tools at trainings, and many even signed a personal message to President Obama thanking him for his support of Head Start programs and urging him to continue their funding.
Do You Know Your Membership Benefits? Membership FAQs Have Been Updated! Did you know that as a member you could receive discounts for Professional Development opportunities? NHSA membership benefits also extend to individuals who are employed or enrolled with the agency named in the membership application. Learn this and more by checking out our revamped Membership FAQs. You’ll be surprised with how many of your questions can be answered by this nifty source! Family Service and Parent Engagement Coordinators: The December NHSA Family Connections Newsletter is Ready to Print! This issue focuses on financial literacy, understanding family income and expenses, and how to manage personal income to ensure financial security. Family Connections is produced by PreschoolFirst and is an exclusive benefit for NHSA Program Members. To access, click here. The Critical Deadline for Crib Safety Compliance Is Approaching--Are You Ready? The federal law requiring Head Start programs and others to replace baby cribs and replace them with certified safe cribs is December 28th, 2012. Listen to NHSA Executive Director Yasmina Vinci’s radio broadcast on NHSA Radio to learn more about how to prove you are in compliance and what you can do if you are not. NHSA Would Like to Congratulate the Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors Facilitators Graduation held on November 16, 2012 “Donde hay gana, hay maña.” (“Where there is desire there is the ability.”) NHSA would like to congratulate trainers Joseph Castro and David Garcia on their successful 2-day Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors training in Carson, CA. NHSA proudly welcomes 20 new facilitators to the expanding Abriendo Puertas national network. Thank you Joseph, David, and the AP national network! Like the saying goes, your continued work and dedication for bringing Abriendo Puertas to the Head Start community helps parents of young children become their children’s lifelong teachers and advocates. Abriendo Puertas/ Opening Doors (AP) is a peer-to-peer training program that is strongly aligned with the Parent, Family, and Community Framework. One of the goals of Abriendo Puertas is to empower Hispanic parents to be their children’s first teacher. This new class of Abriendo Puertas facilitators is now fully prepared to implement and lead the 10 weekly sessions during which parents learn about topics ranging from health and nutrition to child development and to school readiness. Participants, with the support from the newly trained facilitators, build their capacity and confidence and develop their parenting skills while learning to be strong and effective advocates for their children. To find an AP facilitator or to find upcoming Abriendo Puertas trainings in your area please visit the Abriendo Puertas webpage.
Professional Development
Register Now for the 2013 Winter Leadership Institute! The 2013 Winter Leadership Institute comes just as a new Presidential term begins and a new Congress convenes. Join your colleagues and explore the many challenges and opportunities facing Head Start programs and the Head Start system in 2013, including:
Pre Conference sessions on Sunday, January 27 and Monday, January 28 will be offered by Teachstone (CLASS), Acelero, and others. For more information and to register, go to: http://www.nhsa.org/?e=events.detail&event_id=94 Tuesday, January 29, a special Health Institute will be offered from 8:30 - 3:00. This institute will focus on the future for Head Start's model of providing comprehensive health services and will address the opportunities and dangers arising from the Affordable Care Act. Participants will dialogue with partners in providing preventative health services and gain insights into the future of Head Start health and safety monitoring. The OHS Leadership Institute and NHSA’s 2013 Annual Conference are being held Back-to-Back! In a unique configuration of location and content, the OHS Leadership Institute and NHSA’s 2013 Annual Conference are being held back to back at the Gaylord National in Washington, D.C. April 28 - May 3, 2013. The OHS 2nd National Birth to Five Leadership Institute: Data-Driven Leadership: Your Role in School Readiness, will support the use of data by Head Start leaders to promote school readiness and inform quality improvement. Presenters from the National Centers and Head Start programs will focus on data and decision-making related to systems and service delivery. There will be many different sessions available that focus on all aspects of school readiness. A plenary session about monitoring and opportunities for networking in state and regional clusters also will be offered. The OHS Institute leads directly into NHSA’s 40th Annual Head Start Conference: Securing our Success: Kids Ready for School and Life! (Asegurando nuestro éxito: Niños listos para la escuela y la vida!) The National Centers will expand the breadth and depth of their offerings in dozens of sessions. Special Tracks and day-long sessions will explore current issues in great detail. Hundreds of educational sessions will address any area of interest a Head Start director, staff, or parent could want to explore. There will be a number of special events such as the Research to Practice Symposium, Research Luncheon, and Policy Breakfast. Combining the two events is an outstanding opportunity to both really understand OHS priorities and the directions Head Start and early childhood education are taking and gain a deep understanding of how to put that understanding into practice. Registration for both events will open in January! Reserve your room early as space is limited. Do You know About the NHSA Academy Basic Family and Health Services Credential? In addition, Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are offered to candidates who successfully complete the credential. Candidates can work at their own pace and are given a full six months to complete the course. There are no registration timelines--this means registration is available year round! Here are a few remarks from Academy candidates about the Family and Health Credential Program…
For more information visit the NHSA Academy page or contact Carleen Kinlock at cwallingtonkinlock@nhsa.org or 703-299-7513. Abriendo Puertas Was in Full Force at the 29th Annual Parent Conference and Family Engagement Institutes The following are images from the Abriendo Puertas Training Class in Dallas. It was a great success with participants from across the United States. Most of the activities incorporated the popular education methodology.
The closing activity pictured below is called, “Web of Support.” This exercise allowed participants to highlight their takeaways from the Abriendo Puertas training as well as how they will share these resources with their communities upon their return. While holding on to one end of astring, participants then tossed the ball to one another, forming an interconnected and strong “web” reflective of the Abriendo Puertas network they now represent.
Coming Up on January 16th: The Procurement Process from 3-5 pm EST. Avoid cost disallowances. Attend the Head Start Legal Advisory Service’s upcoming webinar on the procurement process, led by Ted Waters of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, to learn about conducting competitive procurements, performing cost and price analyses, and avoiding conflicts of interest on Wednesday, January 16th from 3-5 pm EST. This webinar will include tips for drafting policies and procedures, as well as codes of conduct, so be sure to sign up for this webinar! At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:
Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, CFOs and Fiscal Staff, other senior staff, but all are welcome to attend. Coming Up on Thursday, January 23rd: So You Have Monitoring Findings, Now What Do You Do? from 3-5 pm EST. A Head Start Legal Advisory Service Webinar Yikes! You have monitoring findings or expect to? Attend the Head Start Legal Advisory Service’s upcoming webinar on monitoring findings, led by Zoë Beckerman of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, to learn tips and strategies to successfully navigate the quality improvement process on Wednesday, January 23rd from 3-5 pm EST. The monitoring review findings are now linked to recompetition, be sure to sign up for this webinar! At the end of this webinar, you will be able to:
Who Should Attend: Executive Directors, Head Start Directors, Senior management and staff, but all are welcome to attend. The Head Start Legal Advisory Service is a collaboration between the law firm of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP and the National Head Start Association. Click here for the full schedule of Head Start Legal Advisory Service webinars, to learn about our new reduced pricing, and to register for either or both webinars The NHSA/CapLaw Webinar Series CAPLAW (Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc.) has partnered with NHSA to deliver timely training and resources on a wide variety of legal, governance and management topics of importance to NHSA members. (CAPLAW is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization dedicated to providing the legal, governance and management resources necessary to sustain and strengthen the national Community Action Agency network.)
Other News of Interest Lead for Literacy: Resources for Leaders Dedicated to Children’s Literacy Development from Birth to Age 9 The Lead for Literacy initiative is an invaluable resource for leaders dedicated to children’s literacy development. It consists of a series of one-page memos that revisit assumptions guiding current policies and practices, outlining common pitfalls, and presenting feasible solutions to today’s most pressing issues. This initiative is sponsored by the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at Harvard University. Recent memos run the gamut of “Designing a Volunteer Program Focused on Literacy” and “Implementing Volunteer Programs Focused on Literacy.” To access these and past memos, check out their website. | ||
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ber 1st to December 5th parents, staff and program alumni from the Head Start community descended upon Grapevine, Texas for the 29th Annual Parent Conference and Family Engagement Institutes. The conference, graciously hosted by Head Start of Greater Dallas, was a tremendous success! 
Designed specifically for Head Start family and health service providers, the Academy Basic Family and Health Services Credential program is a distance education, self-study course that offers an opportunity for family and health services staff to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in 12 competency areas based on the Head Start Program Performance Standards. Family and Health service workers and coordinators will reflect on their professional practice and gain insight into ways that Head Start services can be enhanced. 
