~ Sharing Web Resources~

Blog Assignment: Week 4

~The National Black Child Development Institute~ http://nbcdi.org/

The National Black Child Development Institute has over 24 Affiliates around the country with the mission to improve and advance the lives of Black children and their families through education and advocacy.

      What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development?

I am passionate about their Initiatives: Teacher Education & Compensation Helps (TEACH); Child Welfare; Early Childhood Education; Education; Health and Nutrition and Literacy.

Below are two Initiatives on this site:

TEACH:

The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Project gives scholarships to child care workers to complete course work in early childhood education and to increase their compensation

Literacy:

NBCDI has partnered with Reading is Fundamental (RIF) to offer an early literacy training program to early childhood educators to build their capacity and resources to develop and enhance early literacy skills of African Americans.

      Which ideas/statements/resources, either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you find controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?

I believe that Black children have suffered a lot from social disparities as we have read so much about in week 4: NBCDI President Felicia DeHaney, PhD, Keynote Howard University’s 2012 School of Education Commencement speaker said:

On May 10, 2012, Dr. DeHaney addressed the School of Education’s 2012 graduating class with a message of inspiration, hope, and determination.  She encouraged the graduates to keep three types of people in their lives: “one person to look up to, who inspires you to always reach for the stars; one person who is where you are in life, who can keep you grounded and remind you that you’re not alone; and the most important of the three, the one who is behind you, who you inspire, who you are responsible to lead and make their path just a little easier to follow.”  These words left the graduates motivated, and gave them support and the will to move forward, reassured that there is no goal that cannot be achieved.

      What information does the website or the e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field?

The information on how this Institute was founded as stated on its website adds to my understanding on how politicians view social change and how neuroscientist, through the institution’s advocacy for healthy children: Conceived by the Black Women’s Community Development Foundation whose concerns were that of the unsatisfactory conditions faced by families wanting to rear healthy children, they decided to organize a national advocacy group. In 1970, the Institute was incorporated and the work began to organize groups within communities as a basis for creating a unified national voice to develop strategies to improve the life circumstances of the developing Black child through policy change. 

      What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?

Childhood obesity is one topic that I found is a new insight on issues in early childhood. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every four black children is overweight, compared to one in seven white children. At NBCDI, they believe that culturally relevant long term interventions which aim to impact obesity in young children is achieved by working with parents and caregivers and prove to be the most promising approach to decreasing the incidence of obesity over time.

http://nbcdi.org/blog/2010/08/27/nbcdi-child-health-talk/