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Group 5 Seminar/Workshop Paper

Katherine R Rosinsky

Emily Homer

Pacific Oaks College

HD 303 - The Earliest Years

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Introduction

The following is a transcript of our presentation and is intended to offer a detailed description of

our business model as well as overview of our informational session. Details regarding program

costs and staffing are listed at the end of the paper.

Presentation Transcript

Slide 1: We are approaching this as if we were a caregiver placement agency. This is an

informational workshop to recruit potential caregivers. You are that group. This is intended to

get you to register and be part of our community.

Slide 2: Title Page: We are Katie, Emily, and Rebecca and we founded the C.A.R.E. Agency,

which stands for Compassion, Attachment, Respect, and Empowerment. The goal of our agency

is to provide a high level of care to young children (ages birth to 3) by matching qualified

caregivers with families who share the same values in childcare. This is intended to be a brief

introduction to the instructional workshops that we require our caregivers to complete before

placement. Thank you for joining us.

Slide 3: Philosophy: Our mission is to empower caregivers and parents to respectfully interact

with infants and children, as well as one another. Our philosophy has been inspired by the ideas

of many child development theorists including:

Jean Piaget

Lev Vygotsky

Erik Erikson

Magda Gerber

Urie Bronfenbrener

John Bowlby/Mary Ainsworth

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Our philosophy is that, with a secure foundation provided by their primary caregivers, children

will develop the confidence to be active participants in their own learning and access their

intrinsic curiosity for the world around them.

Slide 4: Who Benefits From Caregiver Workshops? The answer is everyone. One of our

intentions is to build a community around each child. In doing so, we can create a dynamic and

safe environment in which the infant, caregiver, and parent work together in harmony. This is

partly based on Bronfenbrenners Ecological Systems Theory and Bowlbys Attachment

Theory. Additionally, research has shown that children who have healthy early relationships with

their primary caregivers, go on to have a more positive experience at school and later in life.

Slide 5: Many of you have a lot of experience working with infants and children, so these ideas

might seem familiar even if you dont know the names of the theorists. Your own experiences

are valuable and can be combined with the knowledge you will gain from our workshops. Here is

a selection of some of our workshops. (Read from slides.)

Slide 6: Bronfenbrenners visual: In the child development theory workshop will be introducing

you to some of the important theorist in the early childhood development. As we mentioned

earlier, we will be discussing Bronfenbrenner and his ecological systems theory which puts the

child in the center and explains how everything in the childs environment affects the childs

growth and development.

Slide 7: Another theorist we would like to discuss is John Bowlby and his seminal work on early

childhood attachment. His theory states that A childs psychological development dependens on

a safe and functional relationship with a parent or a caregiver. An interesting side note: One of

John Bowlbys deep early attachments was to his nanny who left him when he was four and
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caused him a great sense of loss, probably for shadowing his interest in attachment formation.

This goes to show how important our work is as in- home child caregivers.

Slide 8: Based on the ideas of many child development specialists, namely Magda Gerber, we

believe it is important to involve the child in all caregiving activities. As caregivers, you have

many opportunities to spend quality, one-on-one time with the children, which allows them to

become active participants, rather than passive recipients. Respectfully involving the infants in

the following care activities, fosters an environment of trust and collaboration:

Diapering

Feeding

Dressing

Swadling

Bedtime routines

To help illustrate this we have a little activity planned.

Slide 9: Swaddling and diapering diagram.

Slide 10: Play: Another example of respectful interactions is allowing children the freedom to

play uninterrupted. Additionally, research has shown that play, for the developing infant, is a

valuable element of cognitive, physical, and social/emotional development. When a child is free

to explore his environment, he is learning to make connections and problem solve. Its important

that the infant has a place set up with safe and age appropriate toys and structures so that he can

play without needing assistance. As you will see from the following activity, toys do not need to

be very complicated and ideally, they are open ended.

Slide 11: Another major component of our company's philosophy is we believe in continuity of

care. What that looks like for us is excellent parent-caregiver communication and interaction.
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This might look like daily checkins or simply syncing calendars to ensure everyone is on the

same page. We believe that without open and respectful communication between parents and

caregivers, the child will suffer. One of the ways we make sure this doesnt happen is by offering

personalized strategies for conflict resolution, assisting in negotiating contracts and establishing

expected duties, as well as discussing fair wages.

Slide 12: Were going to pass out some crayons for coloring to help create a soothing

environment. We want to protect our caregivers as well as our families. We want you to know

you are important to us. Our priority is to offer you the tools to be effective childcare providers,

good communicators, and self advocators. You are working in someone's home, but that is no

reason to accept a poor working environment. A childs wellbeing is central to your work as a

caregiver, but personal well being is also important. You cannot care for a child if you are not

taking care of yourself. To help with this, we offer support groups and networking opportunities

because there is nothing worse than feeling isolated in a caregiving environment. As a company,

we will do our utmost to to protect you and nurture you.

Program Staffing: Program is staffed by our core staff (us), plus additional trained specialists

for workshops such as cpr and first aid. For those who wish to specialize, we could offer

subsidised trainings for things like Newborn Care Specialist or RIE Training.

Program Costs: Our program costs include rental of an office space, plus an as needed rental of

a larger training facility; salary for core staff, as well as operating expenses, administrative and

promotional materials, website management, and refreshments for training day; weekly caregiver

support/networking meeting at our office.

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Our payment structure: There is no cost to our trainees, per their signed two year commitment

to the agency. Our fee is based on a commission which is a percentage of the caregivers annual

salary, plus a registration fee from the employer (family).

Employment requirements: Potential recruits must have a minimum of two years experience

working with young children, five references, valid Drivers licence, and submit to a background

check and fingerprinting.

Program schedule: We are a year round placement agency, operating Monday-Friday, 9-5. We

offer in office and phone support to our families and caregivers during that times. We also offer

weekly after hours support groups for our care providers. In addition we hold core trainings

session four times per years for our new recruits, which are two day mandatory workshops for

new recruits. We can facilitate up to 10 caregivers at a time.

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References

Bowlby, J (1907-1990). (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/john-bowlby.html

Hammond, R. A. (2009). Respecting babies: A new look at Magda Gerber's RIE approach.

Washington, DC: Zero to Three.

Jensen, E. (1998). Teaching with the brain in mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision

and Curriculum Development.