Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

In researching national/federal organizations or communities of practice UNICEF appealed to me. In gaining insight to their focus groups I was interested in the work they do for education. One particular program connected children to the country and to the world through books. Story Box is a psycho social program designed to promote emotional, cognitive, and social development of children and adolescents. Children receive access to books opening the minds of children to all the possible opportunities. I would love to take part in being a volunteer who collects books to send. UNICEF is in partnership with Libraries without Borders who send mobile libraries to vulnerable neighborhoods promote reading in my classroom weekly by various homework assignments or projects. We recently did the PAWS for reading challenge through Scholastic. For every 20 minutes of books my students read a book was donated to less fortunate children. I believe reading and a love for reading is imperative we should do everything possible to put books in children hands.

Education Specialist

Purpose of the Position

The Education Specialist will contribute to the effective and efficient implementation of UNICEF's girls' education work program through a joint assignment to both the UNGEI Secretariat and newly established Girls' Education Results Manager. For UNGEI, the Education Specialist ensures that UNGEI's positions, plans and approaches are based on strategic analysis, programming evidence, and current knowledge of gender and education trends and issues. For UNICEF's work in girls' education, the Education Specialist will support the development and implementation of a work plan to strengthen results in girls' education, including supporting the development of equitable approaches to expanding secondary education, through technical support, tools and guidance.

Voices For America’s Children help American families who struggle daily.  This organization is the nation’s largest network of multi issue child advocacy organizations helping to improve the lives of all children, those most vulnerable and their families. They focus of 6 policies equity and diversity, health, school readiness, school success, safety, and economic stability. There are various branches in all states so volunteers can get involved. However, they also offer internship opportunities these individuals must show possess excellent research, analytical, organizational, and communication skills. They must be team players and able to work in fast pace environment.

 

Save the Children helps children in the United States as well as around the world. They are recognized for their commitment to accountability, innovation, and collaboration, their work takes them into the heart of communities, where they help children and families help themselves. I believe the organization appeals to me as well because when disaster strikes around the world, Save the Children is there to save lives with food, medical care, and education. Not only are they there through and after natural disasters they also help children with everyday adversities such as poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease. You are able to volunteer in this program for short term to long term assignments. The job opportunities range from but are not limited to finance, fundraising, marketing, communications, public policy, and social medias, as well as research, and administrative work.

REGIONAL EDUCATION TECHNICAL ADVISOR & SYRIA ED CO-FOCAL POINT

The role

To ensure the coordinated and consistent delivery of high quality, timely and accountable education programmes across the Syria regional response. This includes specific responsibility to be the Whole of Syria education co-focal point on behalf of Save the Children, working in close coordination with UNICEF (30%), as well as acting as the Save the Children regional No Lost Generation focal point (20%).

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

When I began researching for the require information for this week’s assignment; I must confessed that it was a little bit hard for me because I did not what organization to choose and what kind of jobs were available. I finally found different organizations that I think are of great interest for me and maybe for you; that goes with the job search as well. I chose the following organizations because I seem them as a community of practice in where excellent resources are being provided for the parents and anyone who is interested into helping a child in need.

 I do not know if it is obvious but one of the organizations that I chose was NAEYC; I chose this organization because I trust it completely, I am sure that is an organization that is interested in the well-being of all the children.  “Communities of practice can inspire us, make us creative, and produce long-term change” (Helm, 2007). I am pretty sure that NAEYC will be helpful into inspiring other people to help a child in need by practicing the goals and principals of the organization. My center is accredited by NAEYC so, I am pretty aware of the process of accreditation, meaning this can come handy if I decide to take a job with them. They have thousands of jobs listing, but for one reason or another I am not qualify to take them. I may lack the experience, or the educational level they require, but maybe next year I would be able to apply to one of them and see what comes out of it.

The other organization is ZERO TO THREE, I first learned about it during my first two courses here at Walden; but the thing that intrigued me about it is that  is very similar to NAEYC in where it wants to “ensure all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life" (zerotothree.org, 2014). This organization is more focuses in toddlers, they have articles in how to help a child; especially a toddler young child. One of the jobs that called my attention was “administrative coordinator” I read the requirements and I should say that I am able to do almost all of them, but lack the experience it requires. The last organization is United Way of the Mid South, is a nonprofit organization designed to help low-income families overcome difficulties (United Way, 2015). One of the things about this organization is that it values the individual and diversity. 

One of the jobs that called my attention was “executive assistant resource development”, I read the qualification and I was impressed to found out that I have those experiences; the bad news is that it was posted two months ago. The good news is that if I want I can volunteer; I would love to help a child in need and see how that child can go on and help somebody else. I think these three organizations contribute to the well-being of the community one way or another, at the end they work with other organization and network of people to ensure the safety of the children and family as well. As with any job that requires experiences and skills, I think that a community practice needs to go through different level of challenges to have a better understanding of what is really that the whole group is hoping for and then work together to get those results up and running. 

 

References

Helm, J. (2007). Building communities of practice. YC: Young Children, 62(4), 12-16.

         Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database
         athttp://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?          
         direct=true&db=ehh&AN=25792186&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). Retrieved

        from http://www.naeyc.org/

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2014). Retrieved

       from http://www.zerotothree.org/

United Way: Live United. (2015) Retrieved from

     http://www.unitedway.org/take-action/volunteer

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