Profile of a Volunteer

I have elected to do a friend of my who volunteers not only in early childhood but also for other  organizations. Her current efforts are for Alzheimer. Her father passed away from Alzheimer which had a big affect on her life. She now participates in many events and is an awesome advocate. She has a team for the Walk to End Alzheimer event. She is always advocating on Facebook on other local events. When ever there is a big holiday or event she is always asking for pop bottle returns. She even offers to go pick them up. She then donates that money for their team which goes to the Walk to End Alzheimer event. She is a great advocate and is not afraid to get the word out their about the horrible disease. 

I feel her efforts have impacted many people. Since she has it on Facebook she is reaching many people. I see many people donating pop bottles to her. The team that she organizes is a big team. She has definitely made people aware of Alzheimer. 

A vital message that I have taken away from her efforts is to just keep advocating. She is not afraid to keep posting things on her Facebook. The more you advocate, even if it repeating your self, the more you will get the word out there. 

Using Social Media to Get Connected

I have been using social media for a long time now. I have been using social media since MySpace. It then went to Facebook and now I am using blogs. I feel that if using social media the correct way it can be very helpful. If using social media the wrong way it can lead to be very damaging.  

I feel that all social media tools can lead to effective advocacy. Sometimes social media is the best way to get the word out there. I feel if advocates use social media the correct way they can reach most of the nation. Most people have a Facebook account, with using Facebook to advocated, the message can be continued to circulate all around the web. 

There are different ways that you can use social media to advocate. If you are using a blog I would write how my advocacy project is going. I would write the data and how it has changed since I started working on the advocacy project. I then would also encourage people to join my efforts. If I was using Facebook I would just post a little picture with a saying on it. Just posting that, people would like and share the message making it so all their friends could see it. For example if I shared a picture over 500 people would see the picture. Looking at one of my friends that is always on Facebook she has over 1000 friends that would see the picture. That is 1,500 people that would see the post and that is just with two people liking the status. 

What would you do if you were using social media to promote your efforts?

Advocacy Messages

One message that is inspiring advocacy message "It can wait". This message was created for those who text and drive. There are many accidents, some are fatal, all because someone is texting and not paying attention to the road. I feel this works to some point. I feel it needs to be out in public more. There are still many accidents that happen because everyone thinks it they are fine texting and driving. I think a big thing that helps is putting a picture of a car with "It can wait". 

A second message that is inspiring is "Take a Stand, Lend a Hand". This message is to stop teen bullying. Though it is inspiring in am not sure if it helps. You always hear about stories of teens being bullied. As a teen it is hard to stand up and lend a hand because you may become bullied. Though if you step up you could save a life. 

A third message is "It shouldn't hurt to be a child". This message if for people to help stop child abuse. I feel this message works for the right crowd. 

 

My Own Capacity

• Which issues impacting young children and their families and/or the field of early childhood fuel your passion?

 

The biggest issue that fuels me to be an early childhood professional is that not many people think preschool is a big deal. They think that their child is ready for kindergarten because they know their ABC's. I want to get the word our their that it is very important for a child to go to preschool. Another issue is there are not many people into early childhood. Its my passion and I want to be there for the children. I am so excited where I am at I get to train high schools students and now I am going to start having college students in my classroom. I cannot wait to share my knowledge to students who may possible have the same passion as me. 

• What special skills do you have that will contribute to your advocacy efforts? How will you incorporate these skills into your work?

I feel that I have the skill of patience. I will incorporate this in my work because you have to have patience in order to get anywhere. Things are not going to happen right away. 

• What resources do you have at your disposal that can benefit your advocacy work?

I cannot think of any resources that I have right off hand besides other professionals in my community.

• What knowledge, skills, dispositions, and/or talents do you possess that will contribute to your advocacy work?

I also am very outgoing, People are more likely to listen to someone who is outgoing rather then someone is monotone. 

• In what ways do you hope to grow in order to be a more effective advocate?

I hope to grow in many ways, There is not one subject that I need to increase my knowledge on. I am always looking for conferences to attend because I know that those will all help me to become a better early childhood professional. 

My Role as an advocate

A big push of what motivated me to advocate for very young children is working in the field. There are to many times where children get pushed aside. People do not think that they matter at that age. It irritated me when people say Head Start is not a good program. I then thought nothing would change if I did not stand up for what I believe in. 

Many of you on my last blog as what kind of fundraisers would I do or have I done. I have not done a fundraiser for early childhood yet. One of the biggest fundraisers I helped put on was a dinner. We raised $4000 for a man who lost his house in a fire and then 10 days later lost his leg in a freak accident.  The big thing about this fundraiser was we had a lot of community support. His local church got involved, we had many donations of food, we also had many business donate items for a silent auction. We offered free delivery of the dinners which we were able to delivery to hospital staff. The paper and radio stations advertise the event. None of this would have happen unless you went out and asked. 

Another thing I have done was did a food drive for one of my families. I had teachers bring me food and donate money. I then went to a local dollar store and I was talking to the cashier about what I am doing. I was just making small talk with her as a check out. The next thing I knew is she cancelled my ordered went in her purse and gave me money. She said you are not done shopping yet go back and get more food. The main lesson for this is don't be afraid to ask or even just talk to people about it. They will normally do something for you. 

You need to acknowledge those efforts at both levels. The governor not even the mayor had no idea about the family that could not put food on the table. Same with the man that was in a accident they didn't know about it. Though with all the efforts we did the officials of his city ended up showing up and buying dinner. 

All that it takes to be a community leader on early childhood issues is the passion. You have to have a heart and know how to touch others people so they can help out too. Both of these events above had a story. Don't be afraid to tell people the stories. It will touch their heart and they will help you. 

The resources that it takes to be a state leader is also the passion. You also need your community support. Once you have community support they can help you be a state leader. 

The tactics that I use is getting into their heart. People are not as cold heart-ed as many people think they are. If you touch them they will help you. They will also spread the word. For the dinner we had we had many people who were not even from the community come to dinner. They saw it on Facebook they heard from friends, they heard on the radio and felt it was the right thing to do. 

The advice I would give is never give up. 

Personal Advocacy Reflection

When I was in high school I had a friend that had cancer. He was two years older then me but was very close. He was like family. He has been battling cancer since he was 7 years old. There were so many advocates for him. There were always people fighting to cure cancer. He always had people putting on fundraisers for him and his family. He was only suppose to live 2 years after he was diagnosed. He ended up living until he was 18 years old. During high school his one goal was to walk on graduation day. He achieved that goal. The school had it so he was the last one to receive his diploma. The whole entire audience gave him a standing ovation. Many of them crying because they knew it was his goal. In the fall of his senior year we did not think he was going to make it. He had tumors in 5 different spots of his body. He is a fighter and kicked those tumors out of him. After he graduated high school his next goal was to attend college. He achieved that goal. He attended college for one month until his cancer took a turn for the worse. He ended up not being able to fight the cancer anymore. He passed away on November. With him, his family, the doctors and many friends advocating for him has helped he live a very long life. More then any doctor told him he would live.

 

I have hosted fundraisers for other people. I would love to have a fundraiser for those in early childhood. I feel that is going to be my next step. To raise money for those programs who need the extra help.

Hey everyone! We are almost done with this journey. It is very exciting to see that in 17 weeks we will have our graduate degree. For this blog we were not given something to write about so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Cheryl. I am from Michigan. I have been teaching preschool for 4 years now. I knew for a very long time that I wanted to be a teacher because I love children so much. I love to hang out with family. I have 3 brothers, two sisters and then a bunch of in-laws. I am expecting my first child in November. Everyone says I have good planning because we graduate at the end of October and I am due November 7th. I am excited to meet my little girl. So when I am not working and doing homework and I working on stuff for her arrival. 

Have a great Fourth of July weekend! Can't wait to get to know you all more.