Getting to Know International Organizations

Organization: Concern Worldwide U.S

Organization: Concern Worldwide U.S

Concern is a worldwide organization that works in the world’s poorest countries. This organization has three main areas of focus: Emergency response after natural disasters to the area, health and nutrition and climate response and resilience (Concern USA). This organization also works with providing education in order to better the livelihood of all individuals as well as access to safe water. After researching this organization, I learned they focus on the power of women. This organization believes “Women are the most powerful change agents in their communities”; women have the ability to impact their family, which in- return impacts the community and ultimately the world.  

This organization focuses on specific communities and looks at the children and women of these communities and determines what supports are needed to eliminate extreme poverty. Concern USA works within the community and the existing “social structure” of the community. This organization thinks about the community as a whole looking at the men, women, and children as well as the villages and neighborhoods while also considering the 3,000 staff members, donors and partners of Concern USA (Concern USA). While Concern USA looks at the community as a whole, there is emphasis put on women and children rights, and an effort to make their voices heard to ensure equality among all community members.  From my understanding, this organization likes to provide practical solutions for each community, but also provides support where community members can adapt new policies and learnings to better their future.

I always knew that poverty was an issue throughout the world, especially in third world countries, however, I was unaware of the different organizations that are helping these countries and how effective they are. Throughout my research on Concern USA, I learned this organization was able to reach 9.1 million people in 28 countries spanning from Africa, Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean broken down into many areas of concern. For example, malnutrition treatment for 200,00 people, 32 health centers and units impacting 200,00 people in Niger as 34,500 families benefiting from water, health and sanitation, to name a few. When looking into statistics from this organization, it was put into perspective how many people are impacted by just one organization and the amount of poverty throughout the world. I also learned there are many ways to get involved whether you make a donation, become part of the team, or attend an event to learn more information. Completing this research this week has inspired me to learn more about these programs and look into ways I can contribute.

Reference

https://www.concernusa.org/

Changing Demographics and Diversity

National Institute for Early Education- NIEER

nieer.org

The organization I chose to study is NIEER or National Institute for Early Education Research. The goal of this organization is to “improve the lives of children by promoting development and early learning through research with a push for high- quality early education for all young children” (NIERR, 2018). This organization provides a wealth of information through a blog which focuses on early education involving current research and articles from different organizations.

NIEER has a weekly newsletter which provides periodic updates on early childhood education and development issues as well as activities and research completed by NIERR; each week there is a different topic discussed. For example, from past articles: Early Ed Workforce, New Cost Calculator and Inheriting Prejudice; Teaching teachers; and Super diversity, provider Voices and Mom’s Influence to name a few (NIEER, 2018).

Something that caught my attention on this website is the option for Early Education News. I found this feature to be very helpful and informative. NIEER provides “News” almost every day by uploading different articles about what is going on with education throughout the country. I enjoy this feature because it is easy to access and understand. I can easily browse the information to stay informed on current topics as well browse the articles to find something I am interested in.  

In the newsletter for this week there are many articles based on the cost of preschool programs, the natural environment of preschool- age children, and their health relating to the amount of sleep, diet and maternal education. This week’s newsletter focuses on the well- being of young children and what educators and families can do to help these children become more successful. The newsletter appears to be very informational for families and educators.

Our topic from this week is Changing Demographics and Diversity. As I was reading over resources from the NIEER website, I saw an article about top ten ideas for states in 2018. One of the topics discussed was making early childhood programs more affordable to all families. It was mentioned that it would be beneficial to include preschool, child care, head start programs, and voluntary home visiting programs to make these programs available for low and middle-income families (NIEER, 2018). The website did not mention how this would be accomplished, but, based on the changing demographics and diversities making these programs more affordable would greatly impact these communities.

Expanding Horizons and Expanding Resources

I attempted to listen to the World Forum radio and podcast, unfortunately, they were unavailable so I research The Global Fund for Children. I am intrigued by the number of children this organization can reach whom suffer from a challenging childhood. This organization focuses on many different aspects of a child’s life that could impact their education. They focus on education and ensuring all children have access to high- quality education, gender equality where all children have the same rights, youth empowerment is their third focus where children can shape their own future and lead healthy, productive lives and finally, freedom from violence and exploitation (World Forum Foundation). This organization identifies smaller organizations that are focusing on these four focus areas, and contributes to their organization by supplying a grant. I find it interesting that this organization can make contributions to further research and supports allowing more children in varying countries a greater opportunity to be successful.

As I was looking over the websites and early childhood organizations, I was looking for a topic that I do not know much about, and something that is a current issue within early childhood education. I wanted to focus on a site that I have not used before in my research. I decided to focus on National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). This website is generated by Rutgers Graduate School of Education. From my observation of this website there appears to be a focus on early learning, more specifically the preschool years. I believe preschool programs will be changing in the coming years as there is going to be more focus on high- quality preschool programs and the requirements of these teachers. I would like to learn more about this topic and stay informed about the current discussion and decisions. There are many tabs throughout the website that provides more information that is current but has also complied information from previous years. I was able to subscribe to a weekly news article to stay informed on current information. On the home page of this website there is a section titled “Weekly Education News”, I found this section of the website to be interesting and informative. 

References

National Institute for Early Education Research http://nieer.org

World Forum Foundation. “A Foundation whose mission is to promote an ongoing global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings.” Retrieved from http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php

My Supports

There are many supports in my daily life that help me to be successful.

• My family is a huge support system for me. My family helps me by providing resources, encouraging words, and trust. I know that I can go to my family with anything and I can trust that they will help me through it and share their opinion if needed. There are many benefits to having my family as a support in my life. My family provides joy in my life, my family can show me love, and can provide a comfortable environment. If I did not have my family, it could be challenging to make important decisions in my life. My life would be very different without my family as a support if they did not exist. I would feel lost without my family.  

• My job supports me financially, allowing me to have money to buy food, clothing, housing and many other important things. Having a job is a huge benefit in order to be successful because the money I earn from working contributes to many things I can do in my life. Without my job, I could not afford many things and would feel a sense of stress. It would be very challenging to exist comfortably without a job. 

• Technology is a huge support for me. Today, technology plays a role in almost everything that I do. My cell phone allows me to communicate with may individuals, my computer helps me learn, pay bills, and explore. Without technology, life would be more challenging, however, I believe I could exist without technology after getting used to it. 

• Colleagues help provide support within my job. Colleagues provide support when it comes to students, ideas, and even emotional support. I have established trust with my of my colleagues and I know I can count on them to help provide resources and ideas as well as a person to talk to. Without this support, it would be more challenging to be an effective teacher without the collaboration from colleagues. 

Challenge: Unemployed

Supports I would need include:

• Family to help provide basic needs. For example: housing, food, emotional support. I would need to rely heavily on my family to provide the resources I could not afford. Without my family as a support it could be challenging to find housing and would add more day to day stress. 
• Technology to help search for a job and create necessary resources to apply for jobs. Without technology as a support, it would make finding a job more challenging as many companies post online positions that are open. In addition to this, technology helps keep me informed, without technology it could be challenging to an active participate in the community. 
• Support from the state. This support would provide money each month to ensure I could afford to buy food, clothing and housing while looking for a job. Without this support an individual could easily become homeless. 

My Connections to Play

Throughout my childhood my parents would present different opportunities for my siblings and I to participate in. For example, we were enrolled in different organized sports, we would go to the park, take vacations, and play with friends. In each situation, we were presented with different activities and had to learn what to do. Throughout this time, we also learned to explore and create our own games as we played.   I think this taught me to become more independent in my life and gave me more knowledge and exposure on different experiences.





This quote could not be more true! As I teach third grade students, I see a huge difference in their life compared to mine. When I talk with my students about what they like to do for fun, they often discuss something that involves technology. Throughout my childhood, I did not have a phone or access to the internet like we do today. I remember playing outside with my friends and neighbors inventing our own games, playing on a playground, and playing sports. Social media can have a negative impact on children and I believe children are exposed to inappropriate things because of their access. I would not consider myself to be a sheltered child, but I definitely did not know everything my parents knew and was not overwhelmed                                                                  by media and all things internet.

Essential Play Items from my childhood:

My siblings and I would always play with these cardboard blocks building different structures, knocking the blocks down and creating different obstacle courses. My parents would help create these structures with us and always supported my play. 

  
I had many Barbies, Baby Dolls, and Beanie Babies that I would play with often. This was a great chance for me to create different scenarios and have an opportunity for fantasy play. My sister and I would often play "house" where we would act like my Mom. My parents were very supportive of this play and would allow us to bring our dolls out of the house to continue the play. 

Throughout my childhood I had many opportunities for arts and crafts. My parents were supportive in this play and would often draw, color, or build with me. When we had Playdoh out, my parents would get all the accessories out and would help us create different pieces with the Playdoh. Throughout my house my artwork was displayed showing me that my parents were proud of what I created. 

Play Today:

Play today is very different from my childhood. While children still play with some of the items I shared, more of their play is focused on using technology and on the internet. I feel play is different because children are not spending as much time outside playing with peers. In addition to this, children today have access to technology that I did not have in the past. I hope that children today get to experience more of the play I experienced at home and their parents reflect on what their child is doing after school. In addition this, I hope that in Early Childhood Education programs are beginning to add more play into the curriculum allowing children a chance to develop the important skills that can be learned from play.

Role of Play: 

When thinking about my childhood, I believe that I was exposed to different opportunities to play. My parents enrolled me in different programs, I experienced different play opportunities in school and I spent a lot of time out doors. Opportunities for play in my childhood allowed me to explore and learn things on my own preparing me for different experiences in adulthood. Thinking about the opportunities children are presented with today when it comes to play, I am grateful for what I experienced in my childhood, and I believe I was able to develop important skills to be successful that some children today may not exposed to today because their "play" looks different. My friends and family played a huge role in the play I was exposed to as a child. My parents were always trying to present new opportunities to my siblings and I and we were always encouraged to play with friends.