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This issue of Early Report focuses on current initiatives in
our communities addressing violence and its impact on young
children. A major grant has been awarded to CEED and the
Minneapolis and St. Paul Technical Colleges to work toward the
prevention of violence via early education training programs.
An Open Letter from
Sheila Wellstone:
"We must end the cycle of violence...
The epidemic of family violence is passed down
from generation to generation. Time and time again, we hear of
young boys repeating the violent behaviors of their fathers and
young girls witnessing their mother's abuse. Sadly, they simply
accept it as part of their lives. The children as victims who
experience family violence are themselves becoming perpetrators
as very young adults.
I call this the "cycle of violence. "I also call it
a shame and a tragedy. And, it's touching the lives of too many
young people. The violence that these children learn at home is
spilling onto the streets of our neighborhoods and communities,
sending shock waves through our schools and our workplaces.
Violence in the home has pervaded all aspects of our lives-in one
way or another.
As reported in the recent KIDSTAT report from the Minneapolis
Health Department, homicide is the leading cause of death for the
city's 15-19 year olds; nearly half of the trauma admissions for
13-17 year olds at Hennepin County Medical Center last year were
the results of gunshots, assaults, and stabbings. Behind these
numbers are real faces. We must keep them in front of us as we
act to stop the violence.
Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Education decided last
year to fund training for child care providers to assure
competent, culturally sensitive care, education, and counseling
for young children who have been affected by violence. It
targeted funds to higher education collaboratives preparing
residents from central city neighborhoods with the highest ratios
of poverty and violence to work as child care professionals.
Thanks to the ability of the Twin Cities community to rally
collaboration, Minnesota will benefit from these funds through
the "Partnership to Address Violence Through Education"
Project, called PAVE.
A large network of public and nonprofit child care providers
is collaborating with the University of Minnesota, St. Paul
Technical College, and Minneapolis Technical College to recruit,
educate, provide field experience and job placement for child
care professionals. Recruitment will focus on participants who
live in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and lack
post-secondary degrees, and who are either working in
neighborhood programs that serve young children or are graduating
from high school career management programs in child care.
Most of the direct benefits of this program will go to the
students who earn competencies as well as credentials, and to the
young children whom they serve. Approximately 800 students, at
least two-thirds of them from Minneapolis and St. Paul
neighborhoods where there is the highest poverty and violence,
will participate in the PAVE career training program over the
course of the five-year period of funding. In addition, PAVE will
work with communities to identify training needs related to child
development, violence prevention, and violence counseling and
offer community based workshops to help address these needs.
As I see it, we have a very clear mandate: We must make an
investment in a future generation that will be healthier and
better educated about violence. And we must work to raise
awareness about violence in the home and do the important work of
intervention and prevention.
PAVE and other programs I support put us on this path by
recognizing that, if we are going to invest today in a better
tomorrow, we have to invest in our children. Our goal is to
develop new norms of violence-free behavior for child care and
then, for families and neighborhoods. We know that, in order to
truly make our children's lives safe, we must make sure that each
and every child has a chance at good health, education, and
opportunity. With courage and conviction, we must work together
and send the message that violence cannot and will not be
tolerated.
All of us, working together, can make this a reality. As a
community, we can no longer ignore violence. We can no longer
stand by and say that it's someone else's responsibility. What
are we waiting for?
Many thanks to you who share my commitment to reduce violence
and abuse in the lives of our children.
Welcome to New CEED
Staff
We are pleased to introduce Marty Smith, the new Coordinator
of CEED. Marty joined us in October 1994 and has been active in
setting up PAVE and networking with a variety of community
agencies, in addition to the everyday work involved with CEED.
Marty brings with her a host of experiences, most recently
working with University, state, and community efforts in early
intervention for young children with special needs. As an
undergraduate here in the early seventies and also a parent of
children who attended the Shirley Moore Laboratory Nursery
School, she is finding CEED to be filled with old and new faces
and presenting an exciting forum for serving the needs of the
early childhood community.
Kathy Kolb has recently been hired to serve as the Coordinator
of the PAVE Project. We are pleased to have Kathy heading this
project; she brings a unique blend of community based and higher
education experiences. Most recently, Kathy has worked with
Strong Beginnings at GMDCA. She has also been instrumental in the
Violence Prevention Study taken on by the League of Women Voters
in Minneapolis.
John Schaffer and Christopher Watson are sharing the duties of
Resource Librarian for PAVE. They are busy pouring over the vast
wealth of materials and programs addressing violence prevention
throughout Minnesota and the entire nation.
We hope you will take the opportunity to contact each of these
new staff persons and get to know them. We are eager to serve the
needs of each of you and would appreciate hearing from you.
Marty Smith, Coordinator, CEED,
Kathy Kolb, Coordinator, PAVE Project
Christopher Watson and John Schaffer, PAVE Resource
Librarians
Sampler of Violence
Prevention Activities in Minnesota
PAVE will be working together with a number of initiatives
throughout the community addressing violence prevention and the
lives of children. We have collected a sampler for you to browse
regarding some of the ongoing efforts. It is impossible to list
every project, hence we selected a representative cross section
that will give a flavor for the depth and breadth of
community-based projects around these issues.
The Child Development
Center at The Wilder Foundation
The Child Development Center is a daytime child care program
that seeks to help each child reach his or her full potential.
Children aged 16 months to 12 years from all ethnic, economic,
and educational backgrounds attend the center. Parents who work,
attend school, or who need an enriched program to meet the
special needs of their child may be assured of affordable costs,
qualified and caring staff, family involvement, nutritionally
sound meals, and age-appropriate programming for all children.
Individual plans are part of the total curriculum which
emphasizes multicultural and multi-sensory activities that
promote children's readiness for school and supplement older
children's in-school learning. Positive assertiveness and
self-esteem building skills along with problem-solving techniques
are built into the program on a daily basis to assist children in
developing peace-seeking skills.
Wilder offers training and consultation to family child care
providers and Learning Readiness programs on topics such as:
self-esteem, child development, positive behavior strategies,
family communication, and anti-bias.
The Center serves as a training site for interns and students,
including participants in the PAVE grant.
For further information on Wilder's Child Development Center,
call Kris Barry at (612) 642-2090.
The City Leadership
Academy/Pillsbury Neighborhood Services
The City Leadership Academy, an initiative of Pillsbury
Neighborhood Services, is in its first year of service to the
communities of north and south Minneapolis. The Academy offers a
comprehensive, flexible, and culturally sensitive education
program that strives to provide participants with classes and
workshops promoting individual growth and family development.
Workshops and classes span a broad range of topics and activities
including: family interactive events, legal issues, health and
safety, family budgeting, child development, nutrition, and
college classes. The goal of the programs and services offered
through The City Leadership Academy is to strengthen the lives of
individual participants by promoting personal growth through
education.
All programs, workshops, and classes offered through The City
Leadership Academy have free child care and a free meal
available. This is an attempt to remove some of the barriers
individuals and parents face when they return to school or
attempt to engage in other educational experiences. Classes and
workshops are offered within the community-the South Campus is
located at the Richard Green Neighborhood Early Learning Center
(NELC), 324 East 35th Street; the North Campus is located at the
Camden Neighborhood Early Learning Center (NELC),1201 37th Avenue
North.
Workshops and classes developed through The City Leadership
Academy are designed to integrate existing community resources
into a comprehensive program, making it easier for families to
access them. Agencies that offer workshops and classes provide
participants with a further link to a broad range of community
services. The quality and breadth of programs offered through The
City Leadership Academy are further insured through
collaborations and partnerships that bring in resources from
agencies and institutions outside the communities of north and
south Minneapolis. Some of the organizations and institutions the
Academy is currently collaborating with are the American Red
Cross, the Minnesota Association of Certified Public Accountants,
local community health clinics, and the Minneapolis Legal Aid
Society. The City Leadership Academy will also work closely with
CEED and the PAVE project, as well as the University of Minnesota
Department of Continuing Education and Extension. During the 1995
winter quarter, Minneapolis Community College offered
"College in Your Neighborhood" classes on both the
North and South Campuses.
The City Leadership Academy is advised by community councils
formed on each campus consisting of community members who make
recommendations for future course offerings and evaluate past
programs. The Community Advisory Councils insure that all
workshops and course offerings reflect the unique needs of the
communities served through the Academy.
If you would like more information about The City Leadership
Academy, call (612) 529-9231, ext. 108.
Congregations Concerned
for Children
Congregations Concerned for Children (CCC) is a program
involving four Councils of Churches in Minnesota: Arrowhead,
Greater Minneapolis, Rochester Area, and St.Paul Area. The
purpose of the program is to direct the resources of religious
congregations towards the needs of children, especially those
experiencing poverty and violence. In the past three years, the
CCC programs throughout the state have offered a variety of
educational programming for congregations on violence prevention.
CCC Minneapolis held a forum featuring existing violence
prevention strategies in congregations, including a
child-visitation center, a parent-break program, an after-school
program, and congregational guidelines for preventing abuse by
volunteers and staff. As a result, other congregations are
replicating these models. CCC Arrowhead helped to organize a
Peace Camp for children to learn peaceful conflict resolution and
other peacemaking skills last summer. The Arrowhead program also
has a traveling educational program on violence prevention, which
includes a presentation on the impact of media violence on
children. CCC St. Paul has offered religious staff and
congregational members several opportunities to learn positive
parenting skills and has trained leaders to return to their
congregations to teach others. St. Paul held a workshop for
families on fun, non-competitive games. CCC Rochester has brought
a number of congregations together to learn more about child
abuse and neglect and what they can do to reduce violence in
families in their community. St. Paul, Arrowhead, and Minneapolis
convene local groups of clergy to design educational programming
and awareness-raising materials to reduce and address family
violence in their communities.
CCC has two publications to help congregations in their work
to prevent violence:
It Takes a Village: Religion, Congregations, and Child Abuse
(theological reflections, program ideas, and educational handouts
on child abuse, $10)
Parent Education for Congregations (a guide for selecting parent
education programming, $10)
Congregations Concerned for Children's 3,500 child advocates
speak up for public policies that prevent violence. Last year
they mounted a mail campaign to legislative leaders in support of
increased funding for crisis nurseries and home visitors. Through
CCC's efforts, hundreds of congregations in Minnesota are serving
as active agents in reducing and preventing violence in
children's lives.
For more information, call CCC at (612) 870-3660.
Early Childhood Resource
Center/
IMPACT STAGE II
The Early Childhood Resource Center (ECRC) is a nonprofit
organization that assists communities by providing services which
strengthen families and ensures the healthy development of all
children.
As a community based, grassroots child care resource and
referral organization, ECRC is committed to supporting,
respecting, and nurturing all families and child care providers
within their communities as they work towards stability and
self-empowerment. ECRC also works to ensure the child care/early
childhood system within the state of Minnesota is responsive to
the cultural needs of all children, families, and child care
providers.
ECRC provides:
Information and referral to families in south Minneapolis
Training to child care workers/providers. Currently, ECRC is
working to address issues of racism and diversity in child
care/early childhood education by creating a professional
development model that will ensure people of color have a point
of entrance into the field and opportunity for career
advancement. ECRC's program designed to accomplish these goals is
called IMPACT STAGE 11. Currently we are working in three areas:
Entrance & Upgrade-designed to increase the number of
people of color qualified and credentialed as assistant teachers
and head teachers in child care/ early childhood programs.
Train the Trainer-designed to increase the number of people of
color prepared to be trainers in child care/early childhood. The
project recruits people in the field with demonstrated
professional experience who are ready to explore further
professional opportunities.
Special Needs Apprenticeship Project-designed to increase the
number of people of color in the area of special needs. This
project is a collaboration between ECRC South Side Child Care
Committee and Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association.
ECRC will continue to pursue the goals of IMPACT STAGE 11 by
exploring every area of the child care/early childhood field and
develop models which will prepare people of color, both
academically and experientially, to move into areas that have
historically been closed.
ECRC is also involved in advocacy efforts with community based
child care programs and family child care providers to improve
the quality and quantity of child care available. ECRC also works
to improve access to child care/early childhood education
services for low-income families.
Call (612) 721-0112 for more information.
GMDCA: The Minnesota
Child Care Apprentice/Mentor Program
A Collaboration to Train
and Retain Quality Teachers
The quality and stability of early care and education for
Minnesota's children suffer from a lack of qualified, stable
teaching staff. The Minnesota Child Care Apprentice/Mentor
Program (MCCAMP) is a two-year registered apprenticeship program
of career development and compensation enhancement for retention
of both new and experienced teachers.
Begun in 1994 with funding from the Minnesota State
Legislature, the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant
through DHS Children's Services, and Hennepin County Employment
Intervention Program, MCCAMP provides tuition subsidy for the
Level I and Level 11 Child Care and Education Technical College
Certificates; 4,000 hours of on-the-job training with an
experienced mentor teacher; and regular six-month wage upgrades.
Bus passes and evening child care subsidies enable apprentices to
attend evening classes. Substitute teacher payments to centers
ensure that the apprentice and mentor can meet together weekly.
Mentor teachers attend a professional mentoring and adult
development and leadership course, observe their apprentice using
the Harms and Clifford Environmental Rating Scale, and receive
stipends of $1,040 for each year of the two-year program. Center
sponsors provide employment, 10% of the apprentice's tuition, and
guarantee the apprentice's ending wage goal of at least $8 per
hour for the 1994-96 Metro Pilot.
Recruitment to increase the number of teachers of color is a
primary goal of MCCAMP. Six of the first twelve apprentices are
people of color. Men in a non-traditional work role are also
supported by MCCAMP and three of the apprentices are men. All
participants attend workshops on developing culturally
appropriate practices, advocating for diverse families, and
helping children develop attitudes and skills for resisting bias
and living in a diverse world.
MCCAMP participants, as partners in PAVE, are looking forward
to working with CEED to infuse violence prevention objectives in
the apprentices' and mentors' coursework and on-the-job
implementations. Working together can encourage teaching staff to
achieve their vocational goals and envision teaching as a
long-term career. More stable relationships with well-prepared
teachers will in turn support strategies to reduce violence and
promote healing in children's lives. MCCAMP is a collaborative
effort of the Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association, child
care programs, the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry
Division of Apprenticeship, the Minnesota Department of Human
Services, Minneapolis Technical College, and Metropolitan State
University.
For more information about MCCAMP or to receive an application
for the PAVE-funded positions, call Nancy Johnson, Program
Director, or Nancy Bryant, Program Manager, at (612) 341-1177.
Growing Communities for
Peace
Growing Communities for Peace is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to empowering children and the adults who care for them
to live and interact nonviolently and in harmony with the earth,
in order to create communities capable of peace. Co-directors
Rebecca Janke and Julie Peterson have developed the costumed
heroine Peacemaker, a singer, songwriter, and storyteller, who
helps children learn peacemaking skills and gives them an
opportunity to emulate a peaceful heroine.
Using unique, hands-on material and original, skill-building
music designed for young children (pre-K to grade 2), their
interactive approach helps children discover the peacemaker
within themselves and increase their ability to employ
alternatives to violence. Growing Communities for Peace helps
child care providers, teachers, and parents design their physical
and emotional environment to encourage peacemaking skill
development, gives instruction on implementing five simple,
mnemonic steps for conflict resolution (which are set to music),
and offers numerous ideas on how to integrate the curriculum with
a peacemaking theme. Methods include teacher in-services, family
education programs, and Peacemaker visits.
Contact Rebecca or Julie at (612) 433-4303.
Higher Education Center
Against Violence and Abuse
The Minnesota State Legislature passed legislation in 1992
directing the Higher Education Coordinating Board to survey
recent college graduates in the state and evaluate the adequacy
of the professional education they had received about violence
and abuse. A task force of higher education and licensing board
representatives viewed the survey results as well as completed an
inventory of current courses on violence and abuse. Their
recommendation to the State Legislature was to establish a Higher
Education Center Against Violence and Abuse. Legislation and
funding to establish this center was part of the 1993 Minnesota
Omnibus Crime Bill. A grant was awarded to the School of Social
Work, in the College of Human Ecology, at The University of
Minnesota to establish the Higher Education Center Against
Violence and Abuse.
The Center works in cooperation with organizations statewide
to develop higher education programs that prepare professionals
to provide safety and services to victims of violence, hold
perpetrators accountable for their actions, and address the root
causes of violence. The Center serves as a resource to all
Minnesota higher education institutions and to selected
professional licensing agencies. The work of the Center is to
promote professional and general education about prevention,
extent, causes, and interventions for all types of violence.
Violence is understood to include not only violent street crimes,
but also domestic violence, rape, child abuse and neglect, abuse
of vulnerable adults, harassment based on gender or gender
orientation, hate/bias crimes, sexual exploitation of clients,
and all other forms of violence, abuse, and harassment.
Activities include task forces, clearinghouse, conferences,
pilot projects, and outreach.
If you would like more information, please contact: The Higher
Education Center Against Violence and Abuse, 386 McNeal Hall,
1985 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108. Phone: (612) 624-0721. In
Minnesota: (800) 646-2282.
The Initiative for
Violence-Free Families and Communities
in Ramsey County
The Initiative for Violence-Free Families and Communities in
Ramsey County is a five-year community collaboration based on the
vision of ending family and community violence in Ramsey County.
Members of the Initiative are involved in a community-wide effort
to end family and community violence, implementing targeted
violence prevention efforts through ten Action Teams in
workplaces, religious institutions, schools, and communities;
using the legislative process to effect system change and the
media to impact community attitudes about violence; and
increasing the effectiveness and sensitivity of the service
delivery system.
The Initiative is made up of over 500 individuals and more
than 100 organizations, all committed to the vision of ending
family and community violence through a collaborative community
approach. The Initiative is a living example of collaboration,
with members coming from battered women's and children's advocacy
programs, schools, private businesses and chambers of commerce,
hospitals, social service agencies, churches and synagogues,
television stations and newspapers, the state legislature and
city councils, neighborhoods, cultural and community
organizations, law enforcement and the courts, and all levels of
county government.
To learn more about The Initiative and how to get involved in
any of our Community Action Teams, please contact Shirley Pierce
at (612) 266-8020 or Dan Gault at (612)266-2404.
Minneapolis Technical
College/
Child Development Careers Program
Minneapolis Technical College (MTC) has a frill-time Child
Development Careers Program. This program is situated in the
heart of the city of Minneapolis, and it prepares students to
work in culturally diverse urban child care settings (child care
centers, family child care homes, early childhood/family
education programs, etc.)
The student body of MTC reflects the diversity of an urban
setting. The child development program has African American,
Native American, European American, and Asian American students;
the student body also includes a number of students from other
countries (e.g., Russia, Cameroon, Venezuela, Korea, and Egypt).
Special emphasis is given to issues of diversity and
multicultural education in all courses in the program.
Students in the child development program at MTC may elect to
complete a Level I certificate (15 credits), a Level II
certificate (30 credits), or a diploma (48 credits).Students may
elect to complete a second year of education offered in a
collaborative program with Minneapolis Community College;
students who complete the two-year program receive an Associate
of Applied Science degree in Child Development.
Students in the Child Development Careers program do field
experiences at various sites within the community. Several
programs available for field sites serve children who may have
been victims of violence and/or abuse. The staff and students are
excited about the opportunities the PAVE grant will offer for
more specialized training in the prevention of violence as well
as in strategies for working with children who are its victims.
Call Judy Canney at (612) 370-9400 for further information on
the Child Development program and the PAVE Project.
Minnesota Child Care
Resource and Referral Network
and Department of Human Services
Cultural Connections:
MN
Early Childhood Cultural Dynamics Training Project
In 1990, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a law
mandating cultural dynamics training for licensed child care
providers "once sufficient curriculum has been developed and
disseminated throughout the state." The Minnesota Statewide
Early Childhood Cultural Dynamics Advisory Committee was convened
to guide implementation of this law. The committee reflects
Minnesota's racial/ethnic diversity and is composed of child care
providers, CCR&R staff, trainers, consumers, and community
leaders. To date, the committee has developed the components of
the curriculum. Cultural Connections has initiated a pilot
project in four sites using the regional CCR&R agencies as
the framework for recruiting trainers and disseminating training
on a local level. For more information about this project, call
Zoe Nicholi at(612) 296-6086.
Cultural Beginnings
Cultural Beginnings is a project of the Minnesota Child Care
Resource and Referral Network. It is guided by a vision that all
children receive culturally appropriate care in order to become
healthy, productive adults frilly participating in a culturally
diverse society. The goal of Cultural Beginnings is to create
culturally appropriate child care options by facilitating new
forms of community and systems interactions that promote the full
participation of diverse racial/ethnic communities. A steering
committee has been meeting for two years to develop this project.
The project proposes an innovative approach to build capacity in
communities of color, white communities, and in the child care
system to create a range of culturally appropriate child care
options.
For more information about Cultural Beginnings, contact Gene
Ford at (612) 644-4414.
Infant/Toddler Training
Intensive Project
The Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network has
received grants from the Bush Foundation and the Minnesota
Department of Human Services to implement a two-year
infant/toddler Teacher Training Project for the State of
Minnesota. The overall goal of the project is to improve the
quality of infant and toddler care in our communities. The
project will develop a system of high-quality infant/toddler
training to assist caregivers in providing care for infants and
toddlers.
A comprehensive training system, the "Program for
Infant/Toddler Caregivers, " designed by Far West Laboratory
in collaboration with the California Department of Education,
will be used. A core of ethnically and geographically diverse
trainers will be established to work with caregivers throughout
the state.
For more information about this training project, call Beth
Menninga at (612) 644-4414.
Minnesota Extension
Services
Living Together
Peacefully:
Strategies to prepare three-to-five-year-old children with
non-violent living skills
Violence is a learned behavior. Living together peacefully is
also a learned behavior. The skills and models that we all need
in order to get along with each other must be introduced to
children very early in life. Young children need a variety of
skills and creative approaches to overcome the challenges in
their lives. Children who learn to assert themselves
non-violently can avoid becoming victims.
Living Together Peacefully is a curriculum with training
materials focused on creative ways children can learn to deal
with conflict. The focus is on three-to-five-year-old children.
The materials are developed for child care providers, Early
Childhood Family Education staff, and parents to use in their
work with this age group.
The project contains the following units:
Sharing: Learn ways to create a fun, sharing
environment.
Caring: Find out how children develop self
concepts that will increase peaceful behavior.
Feeling: Find out the causes of feelings and
help children learn to express them appropriately.
We Are All Alike; We Are All Different:
Explore ways to help children develop an understanding of
differences.
Positive Parenting: Alternatives to the
Physical Punishment of Children
There are many positive alternatives to the physical
punishment of children. The Minnesota Extension Service worked
with an advisory group of parent educators to determine the types
of tools needed to help parents use other discipline methods
besides spanking. The result is Positive Parenting, a set of 28
fact sheets for professionals and parents. Areas of focus
include:
Why We Use Physical Punishment
Understanding Discipline
Discipline Through Prevention
Discipline Through Guidance
Discipline Through Consequences
For more information about training sessions to introduce the
materials and activities, contact the Minnesota Extension
Services - Metro Cluster at (612) 463-3302.
Reuben Lindh Learning
Center
SEA Program
The South East Asian Program (SEA) at Reuben Lindh Learning
Center, which includes both preschool and family services, was
established in 1986. The SEA Preschool Program is for South East
Asian children, two-to-five years of age, who have not qualified
for public school services. The program helps children develop
self-esteem, confidence, and bilingual competencies. It works
toward building a trusting relationship between home and school,
reducing the need for future special education services in the
public schools, and developing English competencies for school
readiness.
The SEA Family Service Program serves families with young
children living in the community who need help in adjusting to
the day-today challenges of life in a different culture. This
program offers one-to-one family counseling, interpretation, and
advocacy for families. There is also sharing of cultural values,
celebrations, customs and crafts, which in turn enriches the
Center and its diverse staff and participants.
Referrals for the SEA Program come from county workers, health
care professionals, and other social service agencies.
Paj Yang is the coordinator, and she can be reached at (612)
721- 5111.
Strong Beginnings
The Minneapolis Public Schools' Strong Beginnings program is
an important two-year-old collaboration serving preschoolers who
are at risk of encountering problems in kindergarten. The
partners in the collaboration are the Minneapolis Public Schools,
the Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association, the Early Childhood
Resource Center, the Southside Child Care Committee, and 23
high-quality early childhood programs throughout Minneapolis
communities.
Each program site is contracted to serve between 1 and 12
three- and four-year-olds (about 140 each year) identified
through preschool screening, community outreach programs, or the
program sites themselves. Each program site is required to be
accredited by a national accreditation organization, typically
the National Association of the Education of Young Children or
the National Association of Family Child Care. Further
requirements include a maximum adult:child ratio of 1:8, access
to a special needs coordinator, an Individual Development Plan
established for each child, and a focus on supporting families as
partners in nurturing and educating their child. Families are
also supported in transitioning to kindergarten, which is a
months-long process in Minneapolis' parents choice-based school
system.
Career development is addressed in a variety of ways. Strong
Beginnings funds typically support the hiring of additional
staff, expanding part-time positions into full-time positions,
and wage increases. In-service training is coordinated by
connecting staff with existing training opportunities and
offering training through Strong Beginnings. During the first
year of the program, City of Minneapolis scholarship money was
available for coursework for staff of color.
Contact GMDCA for further information (612) 341-1177.
CEED is interested in hearing from you! What violence
prevention initiatives- Are active in your community? Are you
involved with? o Are you aware of? In order to enhance the
success of PAVE, we would like to link with you. Please contact
us at (612) 626-8708.
From the Director
by Mary McEvoy, Ph.D.
Violence! Crime! Poverty! These words leap out at us from
newspaper articles, television shows, and radio programs.
Legislation, including crime control, points out the rising
concern about the negative impact that violence is having on our
inner city neighborhoods. Should these issues be of concern to
Minnesotans? According to a July 1994 report presented by Mayor
Sharon Sayles Belton, violence is the worst health threat in
Minneapolis for children and youth (" 1994 Children,
Adolescents, and Violence," KIDSTAT, Minneapolis Health
Department). So, are the inner city cores of Minneapolis and St.
Paul doomed?
Fortunately, an emphasis on prevention as well as early
intervention thrives in Minnesota. Some of Minnesota's
initiatives to support healthy development of young children and
their families are known throughout the nation:
Since the mid '70s, the state has fostered Early Childhood and
Family Education programs which involve parents and their young
children in more than two-thirds of Minnesota's school districts.
The Minnesota Child Care Network includes resource and
referral centers in every county, along with 4C: Community
Coordinated Child Care programs.
The Minnesota Battered Women's Coalition has developed a
statewide system of shelters and advocated for programs to reduce
violence.
Child Care Works is a statewide lobbying collaborative, while
KIDS COUNT Minnesota is a collaborative which publishes reports
on trends in the well-being of the state's children.
The Culturally Relevant Anti-Bias Leadership Project operates
Cultural Beginnings and other approaches as a statewide training
program to reduce bias and increase cultural sensitivity in early
childhood education.
The Minnesota Legislature enacted a law in 1993 encouraging
all school districts to integrate a Violence Prevention Program
into their existing K-12 curricula, and established a grant
program equal to $3 per pupil to help school districts implement
the law.
The Minnesota Consortium for Children, Youth and Families,
based at the University of Minnesota, provides a forum, research
center, and a telecommunications network, called the Consortium
Electronic Clearinghouse. The Consortium initiated the Minnesota
Child Abuse Prevention Project to educate agency professionals
who touch the lives of children about children's developmental
needs.
Through the Children's Health Plan, Minnesota has led the way
in sharing the cost of preventive health care with parents.
Head Start has quadrupled its capacity in Minneapolis and St.
Paul during the last several years, thanks in part to support
from both state and local government as well as from the federal
government.
Through the University of Minnesota's Extension Service, child
care providers are working with parent and family educators on a
Living Together Peaceably project and developing a Kids: Handle
with Care curriculum to discourage any physical punishment and
encourage violence-free homes, child care centers, and
communities.
Programs for fathers are expanding, supported through the MN
Fathers' Resource Center, and encouraged by developing curriculum
such as Dads Make a Difference (Ramsey County 4-H Extension
Service).
In addition, in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul there are
umbrella organizations to promote coordinated and comprehensive
care for young children.
Success by Six is a broad collaborative sponsored by the
United Way of Minneapolis to promote attention to the needs of
young children.
Way to Grow provides guidance and referral beginning with home
visits within several neighborhoods of Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Public Schools fund High Five and Neighborhood
Early Learning Centers, and the Strong Beginnings program for
preschoolers, thanks to the passage of a referendum specifically
addressing early childhood needs.
Umbrella organizations providing funding, referral, training
and advocacy for child care providers are strong in both cities:
the Greater Minneapolis Day Care Association (GMDCA) and
Resources for Child Caring (RCC) in Saint Paul.
The Children's Initiative, funded by the Pew Foundation, is
planning to create a number of Family Learning Centers in Saint
Paul.
PAVE, the Partnership to Address Violence Through Education,
is joining with families and community agencies who work and live
in neighborhoods in Minneapolis and Saint Paul most affected by
violence. Together, we can address the issues of crime and
violence by building upon community strengths and celebrating the
cultural diversity of neighborhoods. We can help assure that
access to services, including higher education, is available for
all our citizens. Finally, we can identify and enhance what is
working in communities, be it loving families, quality child
care, neighborhood support services, access to employment, or
accessible health care services. Through coordination with other
programs like PAVE, as well as community members, policy makers,
families, and churches, we can help assure that children in
Minneapolis and St. Paul grow up in communities where they are
safe. It is what all of us expect for our children. How wonderful
it would be to read a headline like:
All Minnesota Neighborhoods- Safe! Thriving!
Courses Offered at the U of M on Violence Prevention
Child Psychology (CPsy) 5310 The Resilient Child in Today's
World: Research and Practice
Educational Psychology (EPsy) 8150 Psychology of Conflict
Resolutions
Social Work (SW) 5026 Conflict Resolution and Mediation
Social Work (SW) 5301 Child Abuse Prevention 1: Abuse and
Neglect, Research and Theory
Social Work (SW) 5302 Child Abuse Prevention 11: Program
Development
Social Work (SM) 5303 Child Abuse Prevention In Advocacy
Social Work (SW) 5311 Issues and Intervention in Child Sexual
Abuse
The Child Abuse Prevention Certificate (CAPS) is currently
offered by the Department of Continuing Education and Extension.
The CAPS certificate program combines classroom instruction,
readings, discussion seminars,and a directed field experience.
Instruction and academic advising is provided through an
interdisciplinary faculty effort. Call Assumpta Kintu at (612)
624-6500 or Nancy Johnson at (612) 624-1893 for further
information.
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Spring 1995, Volume 22, Issue 1