Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Holiday Blessings
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Growing and Changing
Monday, December 07, 2009
Barnes and Noble Event
Texas HIPPY will be hosting a winter fundraising event on December 10, 2009 at the Lincoln Park Barnes & Noble in Dallas, TX. Get a jump on your Christmas shopping at Barnes & Noble, all you have to do is present this voucher
http://www.unt.edu/hippy/involved/pages/holiday_bookfair_flyer.pdf
OR mention HIPPY when you make your purchase on this Thursday, December 10th at ANY Barnes & Noble store across the country! The proceeds of the fundraiser will go towards new teaching materials and program expansion to reach even more families in Dallas. The fundraiser will include winter arts and crafts, a treasure hunt, storytime with acclaimed children's book author, Janie Bynum and live music.
11:00am – Preschool Storytime
5:00pm – Meet children’s author, Janie Bynum, author of Kiki’s Blankie
7:00pm – Holiday Storytime
Join us!!!
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Thankful
Thanks CNM Staff! Your generosity made a big difference in the holidays for a family who needed us!
PIC: CNM staff with their generous contribution
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Organizational Skills
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Stay at Home Moms Data
View the original report: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-561.pdf
Read a policy summary from Ed Watch: http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2009/closer-look-stay-home-moms-15067
Friday, November 06, 2009
Health Bill Includes Home Visitation
13 ‘‘SEC. 511. MATERNAL, INFANT, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD
14 HOME VISITING PROGRAMS.
15 ‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are—
16 ‘‘(1) to strengthen and improve the programs
17 and activities carried out under this title;
18 ‘‘(2) to improve coordination of services for at
19 risk communities; and
20 ‘‘(3) to identify and provide comprehensive
21 services to improve outcomes for families who reside
22 in at risk communities.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sky Ranch
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Corpus Christi HIPPY!
She's now back in Corpus starting up HIPPY as a pilot with 2 home visitors (AmeriCorps members) each serving about 15 families. Corpus Christi HIPPY is a collaboration between the Diocese of Corpus Christi and Corpus Christi Independent School District. Title I funding will be provided by CCISD to implement the program at Holy Family Catholic School. Says Teresa, "It is my hope that the parents will learn skills that will give them self-confidence and self esteem." Within the next 4 weeks a HIPPY USA trainer will come onsite to provide Teresa and her team with an orientation site visit and get them started!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
My Civic Duty
Friday, September 18, 2009
Curriculum Crosswalk
- Identifies & names body parts & their functions
- Moves body according to directions given
- Uses the body & senses to explore their environment
- Discriminates between a variety of sights, sounds, textures, smells, & tastes
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Helen is Helping!
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Mentor Connect
At the end of May we held a HIPPY Transition Fair to introduce our HIPPY Home Visitors / AmeriCorps Members to a variety of career opportunities. Members had an opportunity to meet with representatives from a variety of careers, as well as brush up on their interviewing skills and get feedback on their resumes. We also inaugurated the HIPPY Mentor Connect program. The purpose of Mentor Connect is to ensure that members successfully transition from their position as Home Instructor into college and a successful career.
HIPPY Mentor Connect is an informally structured program focused on connecting HIPPY home instructors or alumni with individual mentors that can add insight and guidance as home instructors/alumni strive to reach their education and career goals. Recognizing that one of the primary factors toward achieving success is access to information, HIPPY Mentor Connect will assist HIPPY home instructors in their personal and professional development by providing a valuable resource to bridge the gap. HIPPY Mentor Connect volunteers will serve as a support and resource for HIPPY Home Instructors/Alumni. Each mentor will be assigned a home instructor with aspirations of joining the mentor’s career field. The mentor will assist the home instructor navigate toward reaching their professional goals by offering their expertise of the field and providing the home instructor with guidance, advice, and support as needed. Each mentor will commit to assisting in the personal and professional development of a home instructor. The primary way that a mentor will keep their commitment is by making themselves accessible to their mentee via phone, e-mail, etc. HIPPY Mentor Connect will host two formal events. Other relationship development will be conducted via the mentor relationship at the leisure of the mentor and the mentee.
Are you ready to connect?
Friday, August 28, 2009
Parenting Education is Economic Development
Sibling of a HIPPY child at a family meeting in Dallas
"The impact of good parenting goes far beyond its influence on individual children." according to a June 2009 report from the Partnership for America's Economic Success. We all know that our economy is in a slump and HOPE that it is bouncing back. Faced with doom and gloom predictions and conflicting advice from economists, what can one person do? Well, parenting or supporting parent education is something we can all do! Research irrefutably demonstrates that children whose parents interact with them positively from birth onwards develop into more successful students, adults and ultimately parents themselves. The report identifies HIPPY as one of 10 programs that can "sharply increase the odds of healthy social, behavioral and cognitive development, helping them become the engaged citizens and productive workers our country needs." Who said we work in the "non-profit" arena? What better profit could there be?
Check out the full report: http://www.partnershipforsuccess.org/uploads/20090708_PAESParentingBriefFinal.pdf
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Social Networking
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Dallas HIPPY Spotlight
Last year I was asked by HIPPY USA to serve as the external monitor visiting Dallas HIPPY. Usually other HIPPY USA trainers are brought in to evaluate Texas sites, but I quickly agreed because I felt it was an opportunity to provide in depth technical assistance to our original Texas HIPPY site and work in my home turf. Each site is assigned a national trainer for a 2-3 year cycle, and last year our “visit” began with an assessment of program strengths and challenges and identification of areas in which staff wanted technical assistance and support. We developed a plan together and this year I have followed up with in depth observations of home visits, a file review and observation of parent group meetings to see how the plan has been implemented. As I zoomed around town from one home visit and school to another I was suddenly reminded that this little corner of the world is abuzz with HIPPY! Right in the neighborhood where I live (Oak Cliff) there are several “HIPPY Schools”. Indeed, this is one of our challenges; HIPPY can often seem invisible because it’s happening in the privacy of family homes and in remote corners of school campuses. On my first home visit, the parent recognized me from 20 years ago when she was first in HIPPY with her oldest son and I was the HIPPY coordinator! She said that when she had her youngest daughter, now 4, she sought the program out even though she had moved to a new neighborhood. She wanted to ensure her daughter had the same opportunities she had given to her oldest son. At the parent meeting in another neighborhood the coordinator started the meeting with a quick warm up that resulted in parents identifying the skills that children were learning in the HIPPY activities. To have a group of parents of preschoolers engaged in “teacher talk” about vocabulary development, logical thinking and eye hand coordination caught the attention of nearby teachers who weren’t sure if this was a staff development or a parent meeting! Later, back “at home” in the Dallas HIPPY office, I was so impressed by the intensity and level of the home visitor training; the coordinators have developed a series of interactive and engaging training activities that prepare home visitors for enriching conversations with parents about the development of their children, the skills they are practicing and the instructional techniques used in HIPPY. Each component that I observed brought home the realization that we need to bring HIPPY into the public eye! We have some really great things happening!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Dallas HIPPY Board of Friends
- Dallas Recreation Center resources
- Dallas Public library, Every Child Ready to Read activities
- Injury Prevention Center planning activities
- Boys and Girls Club of Dallas initiatives
We were so pleased to have Irma Vela, retired HIPPY coordinator joining us and sharing her expertise and support for HIPPY. Thanks to her, Dallas HIPPY has since received a gift of various household items to be used as door prizes for parent meetings.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Starting a New Program
- Need for school readiness and parent involvement - once the organization recognizes this need they see HIPPY as a viable solution that is cost effective and has the desired outcomes.
- A champion, who advocates for the program until it becomes a reality! This person is a leader who is often within the organization that eventually hosts the program, although sometimes it's a dedicated volunteer or other member of the community.
- Innovation culture in the organization - HIPPY often takes a change in perspective from seeing parents as a problem to recognizing them as powerful advocates and partners in their children's education. While home visitation has a proven track record, it is often perceived as risky or outside of the normal operations of an organization and it takes an innovative organization to recognize the power of this method.
- Funding, this is what it all comes down to--finding that funding means grant writing, pulling together collaborations and partnerships and building HIPPY into existing resource streams.
Over the years I have witnessed so much interest in HIPPY, but unless all these aspects are in place, that interest does not gel into a new program starting up. It takes between 8 months and 3 years for that original interest to coalesce into a real program. This is a long and arduous process that can be compared to starting up a new business. The other day I found a website that helps non profits develop new parent education programs and identify what needs to be in place for a program to be successful. I thought it was interesting and an excellent resource for new programss to be developed so I'm sharing it here: http://www.cyfernet.org/pdpe/
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
RCT or die?
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Creating Intelligence
In "Rising Above I.Q." a June 7th, 2009 NY Times op ed written by Nicholas D. Kristof, he says that by studying the "the success of Asian-Americans, Jews and West Indian blacks...there may be some lessons for the rest of us." What makes individuals in these groups rise above the norm? He scratches off higher intelligence and genetics as possible reasons. He recognizes diligence and hard work as factors. But ultimately the solution is...EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION! Being read to and having parents regularly speaking to their young child are simple ideas that work. He cites research demonstrating that the average child of professional parents have heard 30 million words spoken by age 3, compared to a child who was raised "on welfare" (therefore the parent is presumed to be low income) has heard only 10 million words.
HIPPY gives parents words, so their child does not enter school with a 20 million word disadvantage.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Argentina HIPPY
I had the fantastic opportunity to be part of the founding of HIPPY Argentina. This program is the newest international site and has some unique aspects I’d like to share. The sponsoring organization is AMIA—the most important and largest Jewish community organization in Argentina, a country that is said to have the third largest Jewish population after Israel and the US. Their services are vast, ranging from social services, religious education training, elder care, employment services and cultural exchange among others. Their history unfortunately includes a tragically brutal bombing in 1994 in which 85 casualties died. My daily visit to AMIA had me approaching what is currently the most fortified building in Argentina, moreso even than the “Casa Rosada” where the Argentine president’s offices are, yet planted in the middle of a bustling textile and warehouse district. I had been pre-cleared (my name was given in advance to security) and given the go-ahead to walk through a door the thickness of a bank vault, then a metal detector and through another bank-vault like door. Once inside I walked up a flight of stairs and into busy maze of the Department of Social Services of AMIA. There, HIPPY falls within the area of social services provided to young Jewish families. Other programs include food distribution, counseling and childcare. HIPPY will be working within this structure to provide school readiness and parent education to low income Jews in various areas of greater Buenos Aires. This in itself makes it unique, as the first program outside of Israel to focus on services to Jewish families. I spent three days training the home visitors and coordinator and then another two days in meetings with the team of social workers and other leaders in the community. Before leaving I had the opportunity to share the HIPPY story with officials from the City of Buenos Aires in the hope that at a future date HIPPY services could be expanded into other communities. I was inordinately pleased to be given this opportunity to start HIPPY in Argentina because I’ve periodically visited since early childhood since my Aunt and later my grandmother moved to Buenos Aires. It was such a treat to be able to see family again and also to have a chance to share what I’ve learned in HIPPY with one of the communities of my heart.
For more pictures of the training, see our flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hippyprogram/Thursday, June 18, 2009
National HIPPY Evaluation Summit
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Houston HIPPY Hosts
Last Friday at Brookline Elementary, the Parent Engagement Department’s Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program, in collaboration with the Houston Women's Center and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) kick off an eight week workshop series for HIPPY parents. The purpose of this project is to inform parents about Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse prevention. Parents from the East, North and South regions of HISD are participating. In support of the HIPPY goal to empower parents to become leaders in the community, this preventive education will enable HIPPY parents to lead others and to disseminate information to prevent abuse at home and in the community. In the last of two sessions, parents will be working on a special project to present to the community by creating a visual symbol that will deliver of the message and advise the community about the importance of being informed and proactive in the prevention of violence. Participating parents will became part of the “Primary Prevention” team with Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA).
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Strong Families Needed in View of Economic Crisis
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Shapes and colors
* shapes
* colors
* pattern / sequencing
* counting
* vocabulary
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
El Paso HIPPY on the Horizon
View of Downtown from Wyler Aerial Tramway State Park, El Paso, Texas
Originally uploaded by MikeL-911
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
HIPPY*VISTA Team
Our long planned for and much awaited HIPPY*VISTA initiative is coming into full swing! New VISTA members Luis Rocha, Cherri Dehart and Amanda Sims went to Preservice Orientation in Albuquerque and then started as VISTA members at their sites on Monday February 16th. They have hit the ground running, with meetings at their sites, getting to know their host organizations and settling in to their new assignment. Luis Rocha will be working statewide, supporting the overall development and expansion of HIPPY in Texas, he is placed here in our office (Texas HIPPY Center, UNT). Cherri Dehart is working to bring HIPPY to the Maypearl / Venus / Grandview areas, and is located at Lorene S. Kirkpatrick Elementary School in Maypearl. Amanda Sims is housed on campus at the University of North Texas in Denton, and is focused on bringing HIPPY back to the Denton area. I think the most excited member of the HIPPY*VISTA team is Sarah Thorne, who started as a member back in August, and finally has colleagues to work with! Follow the challenges and victories of our newest team on the HIPPY*VISTA blog: http://texashippyvista.blogspot.com/
Our program was highlighted in a recent Dallas Morning News article on news that President Obama signed the Serve America Act into law:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042209dnmetamericorps.3b8d308.html
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
NEWSFLASH HIPPY!
http://www.univision.com/content/videoplayer.jhtml?cid=1906425
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Where are they now?
Joe G. who was a coordinator in Irving HIPPY, is now a teacher at Everman ISD--first grade I think! He's still big into kickboxing but goes easy on the kids!
Alicia Yaliweisei, was a Dallas HIPPY coordinator and is now assistant principal in a Dallas elementary school
Gina E. who was a coordinator in Dallas HIPPY, then moved to Grand Prairie and started HIPPY there is now an assistant principal in Eisenhower Elem, GPISD. She still has HIPPY in her heart, and in her school.
Irma V. who was a Dallas HIPPY Coordinator and retired several years ago is still working along with her husband Roberto in education. They mentor teachers, consult on projects, are active in their church. We are happy to welcome Irma back to HIPPY as an advisor in the Dallas HIPPY Board of Friends!
Melanie W.M., Austin HIPPY Coordinator, now works for another Austin non profit organization that works with parents of young children. She and her family recent downsized to a smaller house in Austin in a new development where houses were built to be very energy efficient and green.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Effects of HIPPY on Pre K Students
Part of our internal collaborations within the University of North Texas includes providing graduate students with the opportunity to conduct evaluation on the HIPPY program. Recently Veronica Martinez-Cantu, completed her Master's Thesis in Sociology, December 2007. She completed an independent study with Dr. Angela Nievar of UNT College of Education, and now works at Dallas ISD in the Research and Evaluation Department.
Together with Dr. Angela Nievar, Veronica completed an evaluation of HIPPY children in Pre-K. They have been accepted to present findings to the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference. Below are some excerpts of their findings:
"Early childhood intervention programs in this study are significant predictors of reading scores for low-income bilingual students. More specifically, participation in the HIPPY program predicted significantly higher reading scores; there were no effects for students who participated only in prekindergarten. This may suggest that the parental involvement curriculum in HIPPY programs helps bilingual students to overcome the barriers they face when ecological factors are in place, supporting the theory of developmental contextualism (Lerner, 1991)."
and
"It was of particular interest that prekindergarten alone was not an effective intervention for this group. The HIPPY program predicted higher scores on TAKS reading when combined with prekindergarten. A test of the HIPPY program, including students who were only in HIPPY and in both groups, was also significant."
It makes so much sense to me that HIPPY children in Pre-K do even better than their peers. That first year of school is such a huge transition for children. If they enter school well prepared, with parents who clearly understand their role and how to support their child's education, they are able to fully benefit from high quality classroom experiences. The evidence is clear...children need both quality pre-school classroom experience AND support at home!
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Laredo HIPPY Closing
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Take Home Information
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
DARTing Around
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Challenge of History--Welcome New HIPPY USA Executive Director
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
A Principal Shares
Thursday, February 26, 2009
UTD Center for Children and Families
I have had UT Dallas on my mind a lot lately. My daughter Hannah is a senior in High School, and while she hasn't made her final decision, she's seriously considering UT Dallas. You know how it is when you are considering buying a certain car you suddenly start seeing it everywhere! That's how UTD has been for me lately, with good reason! UT Dallas has just opened the Center for Children and Families, http://ccf.utdallas.edu/. The center is part of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. I had the pleasure of meeting staff member Emily Touchstone over the phone the other day. It sounds like they have hit the ground running! Their inaugural initiative is the Spring 2009 Lecture Series: "Helping Children Succeed". They are going to be addressing some topics that you usually have to pay good money for at a conference, things such as social aggression among children and helping families cope with chronic illness. They are a great addition to the professional community here in North Texas...and would make a great place for a young college student who might be studying special education to do an internship with :)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Texas Teaching Fellows
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Coordinator Spotlight - Esme
Esmeralda Rodriguez is new to HIPPY but has years of experience in the field of parent education. After the founding coordinator, Gina Esparza, was promoted and left HIPPY we were lucky to have HIPPY transferred into Esmeralda’s Parent Involvement Department at Grand Prairie ISD. I had a chance to get to know Esme in Little Rock when she attended the New Coordinator Preservice, and then again when we were assigned to the same cabin during the Kick Off (you really get to know someone when you see each other first thing in the morning before you get your game face on!). I recently had a chance to ask her the following questions:
What brought you to the field of parent education?
I was interested in providing prevention assistance and community resources to the students and families in order for them to be academically successful and make informed decisions that would benefit the student and the families.
What is your philosophy when it comes to involving parents?
All parents need be valued and given respect. We need to provide them a variety of opportunities to share their talents and gifts at our campuses.
Could you share a HIPPY success story from Grand Prairie?
Florina Montenegro had her sons Washington and Irving in our HIPPY program. Florina was shy and quiet. Her involvement with HIPPY has helped her to be one of our best parent volunteers at the Parent Involvement Center. She has learned to be very involved with the teachers of her children. She is awesome and is trying to continue to learn English to help her kids in school. She attends our parent workshops consistently.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Pre K Now
For more information on the PreK now movement: http://www.preknow.org/
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Coordinator Spotlight - Yolanda
Each of our coordinators brings special talents and gifts to our team. I'd like to share Yolanda's HIPPY story! When Yolanda and I first met it was her first week on the job as a Home Instructor in Fort Worth HIPPY. She had been recruited as a parent in the program, and quickly became interested in the position of home instructor. As a former teacher in New Jersey, Yolanda wasn't our typical parent nor home visitor in that she already had her degree, but she was at a crossroads in her life and as a member of the target community in Fort Worth she was elegible for the position. She quickly took to the HIPPY philosophy and by the next year she accepted the position of HIPPY coordinator when it came open! Over the next few years Yolanda grew and expanded the Fort Worth HIPPY program, doubling it in size. Again, she was ready for a change but didn't want to leave HIPPY. When she heard of an opening in Dallas HIPPY she seized the opportunity and was accepted for the position. Once she settled in Yolanda decided to use her AmeriCorps education award she earned while a home instructor and enrolled in college again to work on her MSW degree. With her positive attitude, motivation and sense of humor she has served as an inspiration to parents, home visitors and other coordinators in Dallas, Fort Worth and beyond! She's always ready to help out with trainings and presentations, she is insightful and is one of our strongest HIPPY Cheerleaders!
In her own words, when asked what HIPPY has meant to her, "HIPPY is the most fulfilling job I have ever had. Over the years with HIPPY I have had the pleasure of meeting such a wide variety of magnificent people such as Hilary Clinton and Dr. Ruth to name a few. I have also had the pleasure of developing wonderful relationships with my colleagues and the families we serve. HIPPY has been and continues to be a blessing to my family and me."