Getting to Knouw Your International Contacts Pt 2

The Global Children's Initiative was created as an international liaison for children's health and development. This program focuses on three areas:

• reframing the discourse around child health and development
• supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects
• building leadership capacity in child development research and policy

These three objectives, helped the Global Children’s Initiative build a portfolio of activities in three domains:

• early childhood development
• child mental health
• children in crisis and conflict situations.

The first program effort outside of the United States was in Brazil. In addition "A Good Start"  was created in Chile as an EC program that focuses on  quality early care and education through staff professional development.

This week I listened to Barbra "BJ" Jones on World News Forum radio. BJ founded the Pine Grove school in Maine.  BJ discussed her journey to founding her school. She was not impressed with the public school system and set out to California to find an alternative to traditional education. She responded to an unemployment ad for a teacher in a Montessori School. BJ eventually earned her Montessori certification in London, England. BJ's story and determination is an inner drive that all EC professionals should posses. We should always find ways to challenge ourselves in order to better serve and educate the children, staff, and families that we serve.



http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children’s initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/