The Impact of the YWCA CCR&R Business Success Institute on One Local Child Care Program

The following was written by Gina Gilbert, the Administrator at Little Sprouts Academy in Toledo and a recent graduate of the YWCA CCR&R’s Business Success Institute.  Gina is pictured in the photo above with the rest of the Business Institute graduates from the center-based program group. A complete list of graduates is located at the end of this post.

The Business Institute has afforded me as a Director of an early childhood education program the opportunity to look at myself and my program objectively and note where concessions have been given and what my program’s strengths and weaknesses truly are. It has been deeply moving to connect with others in the field of E.C.E., as well as to be able to listen to others who are professionals revolving around the field, to gain new perspectives and force self-reflection upon myself as a leader and my program as a whole.

The area I have chosen to discuss as my project is encouraging increased family involvement and buy-in. This is an area which is vital to the success of any business, but especially so to a small, privately owned childcare venture. In years past, buy-in on the part of parents was exceptionally easy to obtain, and families seemed to be involved from the onset of their child’s journey at the childcare center. However, in the last decade, I have personally noted a marked decrease in both buy-in and parental involvement. It seems that over the past ten years, with the advent of new and increasingly accessible technology, some parents are leaning toward tablets as “babysitters” at home and in the car, allowing the iPad to replace time for bedtime stories read by dad or discussions in the car on the way home from the center with mom – so much so that at Little Sprouts Academy, we have enacted a “no cell phone” policy in which parents are prohibited from being on a cellular phone or device while picking up or dropping off. Often, parents would rather continue a discussion on their phone or complete an email than greet their child with open arms.

I have identified several areas in which Little Sprouts Academy (hereafter referred to as LSA) can change policy or offer more training in order to encourage a better family/center interaction. First of all, we will focus on the staff itself. Offering training in how to build relationships with parents is key, as it is not just the Director or management that parents interact with on a daily basis. I have discovered that discussing tone of voice, customary greeting, and body language are paramount to a good relationship being knitted between staff and parents.

Secondly, we will begin to foster better relationships with parents in how we encourage interaction with them. Interaction will be much more fluid and positive if encouraged by new and different activities. For instance, we have turned on the messaging feature in our Brightwheel application. This gives parents an additional means of contacting staff throughout the day and allows them to message staff at the time they have a question, comment, or concern. In a text-based world, this is much easier for some parents to think about communicating with staff. They are also encouraged then to not just respond to the negative (i.e., “Johnny has an incident report from today”) but the everyday positives as well – for example, a picture of Johnny participating in our Mini Motions dance class, or a video of him spelling his name for the first time.

Another way we will encourage positive interactions with family is that we will have special mini-events, often by surprise. For instance, we will host random “coffee mornings” in which a staff member will be on payroll for 2 hours to simply greet parents and offer them fresh hot coffee or tea when they come in to drop off their child. I will be fielding ideas for other similar mini-events at an upcoming staff meeting.

Third, I want parents at LSA to always feel they have additional resources available to them. They should always look at the center as a community resource which is invaluable to them in rearing their child and preparing them for kindergarten. To this end, we will start providing more frequent tips, flyers, hand-outs, and the like on a myriad of topics, from health, nutrition, screen time, etc. These will go home as memos attached to backpacks from time to time and also be available long-term in a parent resource book available at all times at the front lobby welcome table. Many of these resources are ideas which I have obtained from the Early Learning Resources Ohio website, which houses a goldmine of reputable information for providers and parents.

In addition, parents need to be groomed into being productive elementary school parents. To this end, staff at LSA will begin making comments on weekly folders sent home, or weekly observations in the notes section of each child’s Brightwheel profile (which is viewable only by the child’s parents for confidentiality reasons). These comments will be positive in nature. Negative comments which may be necessary (for instance, reporting on an unwanted behavior) will be disclosed in the “cookie sandwich” format: that is, a positive comment, then the negative one sandwiched in the middle, and another positive, so that anything that could be perceived as “negative” information will be surrounded by positive “bookends.”

Lastly, I have long toyed with the idea of a LSA newsletter. Although parents are increasingly digital, I feel that a newsletter, even quarterly, if carefully drawn up, will lead to more buy-in of the program from the start and lead to an even more professional air about LSA. The latest newsletter could be handed out to prospective parents and LSA’s mission and what makes us stand out will be on every issue, as will contact info and information regarding how to apply for admission.

I personally feel that without the Business Institute, I would have taken much longer to come to these decisions, and they are all decisions that will benefit the center for years to come. They will help build our reputation even higher and help us to achieve our goals of increased parental involvement and buy-in.

 

Business Success Institute Graduates

Cheryl Amborski – East Toledo Family Center

Stephanie Arce – Rainbow Promise Child Care and Preschool

Kashaundra Besteda – My First Days Daycare and Learning Center

Susan Brown – The Dorise-Brown Fitness and Learning Academy

Dondra Coleman – Learning Ladder Child Care

Domanica Ede – Safe Haven Family Child Care

Faith Fabian – Wee Care Learning Center

Carmen Gibson – Ms. Mariah’s Day Care

Gina Gilbert – Little Sprouts Academy

Amy Glysz – Defiance YMCA

Kristeen Hill – Type B FCC Provider

Sherrie Holcomb – Around the Clock

Linda Malone – Around the Clock

Payge Mays – Type B FCC Provider

Suzette Mays – Tpe B FCC Provider

Brandi Meyer – Sunbeams Preschool

Donna Schroyer-Riesen – Little Miracles Montessori

Rhonda Thomas – Type B FCC Provider

 

For more information about the Business Success Institute, click here!