Early Childhood Development Profiles
H.A.P.P.Y. HOMES SEEKS TO PROFEESIONALIZE DAY CARE IN AREA
The founding members of H.A.P.P.Y. Homes, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of care for young children in family day care settings in Trumbull County, are determined to implement emerging state and national standards in their day care homes.
Barb McVicker, Mara Mathy and Mary Beth Bush, the top three officers of the 12-year-old organization, started the group after attending a county-sponsored training program in 1998. The county meetings were mandatory for day care providers who wanted to earn the Child Development Associate credential. All three received their CDA’s in September, 1998.
Each of the women had been caring for children in their homes for years and viewed their work as far more than just babysitting.
During the county CDA program and the often long drives around the state to attend trainings, the women developed an attachment to each other and to the idea of implementing higher standards for Trumbull County day care providers.
When they had completed their CDA program, the women decided that they didn’t want to stop getting together to talk about how to better care for children.
They formed H.A.P.P.Y. Homes, the Helping Association for Professional Providers of Young children, and began monthly meetings to share their knowledge of child care and daycare operations with any interested home daycare providers.
“We met one time per month and discussed such issues as state policy, rates and whatever was working for us that we could share with each other,” Bush said, “Sometimes, we cried on each other’s shoulders.”
Bush said that the organization now has about 35 to 40 active members and has been successful because daycare providers encounter similar situations and challenges.
Mathy said, “It seems sometimes that we all have the same problems and challenges. We have the same children with the same issues and the same lives and the same husbands.”
McVicker said H.A.P.P.Y. Homes gives daycare providers an opportunity to discuss problems as well as best practices.
For several years, H.A.P.P.Y. Homes received funding from The Raymond John Wean Foundation that provided each member with a complete five-day-a week preschool curriculum kit and lesson plans for all of their daycare children. This curriculum helped the ensure the children in their care were learning the necessary early learning concepts needed for kindergarten success.
“It enabled the daycare providers to improve themselves and to pass this knowledge along to the children they were caring for,”McVicker said.
Topics included safety, the environment and exercise with books and activities geared for each age group.
“Our monthly trainings are so important because it forces some of these daycare providers to think about what they are doing and to try to bring up their standards,” McVicker said.
Mathy said this professionalization is extremely important because there are many daycare providers who do not bring much care or professionalism to their work.
Today, with financial assistance from The Raymond John Wean Foundation, H.A.P.P.Y. Homes organization has undergone strategic planning and capacity building and is able to provide the much needed professional development trainings for childcare providers in the Mahoning Valley.
McVicker, president of H.A.P.P.Y. Homes, said she cannot imagine ever doing anything else. Bush and Mathy agree.
In fact, all three said that the greatest part of their job is that they get to enjoy children for the best hours of the day and then send them to their parents.
But Mathy said their work as childcare providers never really ends. “We’re on call 24 hours a day,” she said.
“We spend a lot of time mentoring parents and other providers,” Mathy said.
McVicker said sometimes parents call about problems or other developmental issues. They call and ask how much medicine to give their children.
“Other times, they just need someone to talk to and we’re there for them. Life isn’t so easy for parents these days,” she said. Luckily, the parents in Trumbull County have access to high quality family day care to give their children the best start possible.
Early Childhood Development Profiles