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

My "real" friend Sophana Kim and I, we met the old fashioned way, at work 20 years ago


I recently joined Facebook--will you be my friend? So far we people can join our group (HIPPY Texas) and donate to our cause (School Readiness and Parent Involvment). There's something vaguely strange about the mish mash of information I learn everyday about such a vast spectrum of friends, family, co-workers and contacts! For example, I learn when my friend Lisa Markley will be playing live at a local venue, and then learn what the AmeriCorps Alums are up to, followed by my colleague's post on a quiz she took which rates how latino she is (47% which is surprising since she's Mexican). I'm going to hang in there for a while and see if I can figure this thing out. I'm still holding out on twitter, linked in, myspace...by the time I figure facebook out, something else will be taking over! Meanwhile, I'll see you on Facebook...