Sharing Web Resources Week 6

            When I followed some of the outside links for Harlem Children’s Zone it lead me to the Harlem Children’s Zone College Success Office.  This office assists the students who have graduated from high school to enroll in appropriate colleges.  It not only assists them in getting in the colleges it also helps them throughout their college years (http://www.hcz.org).  Statistics from the Harlem Children’s Zone shows that over 642 of the students who attended the after school programs enrolled in college (http://www.hcz.org). 

            In my search the one area that I have admired the most is the Early Childhood programs and how they recognized the importance of the first three years of a child’s life and how critical it is to their development (http://www.hcz.org).  They have three fantastic programs for early childhood education.  The first one is the Baby College.  This program has workshops for expected parents and those that may be raising children up to age three (3) (http://www.hcz.org).  This is a way for expected parents to gain knowledge about parenting before their babies are born.  All of these services are free of charge to all communities (http://www.hcz.org). 

            The second program is the Three Year Old Journey.  This program assists parents on Saturday’s for several months.  It focuses on child development, language building skills, and parenting skills (http://www.hcz.org).  The third program is the Harlem Gems.  This program is designed to prepare pre-kindergarteners for kindergarten.  The classes teach English, Spanish, and French.  This program includes 3 sites which serve 200 children.  It seems to me that the HCZ places a lot of focus on the Early Childhood programs because they know that the returns will be worth every effort they put forth to educate the children. 

            I applied for the newsletter but I have not received any correspondence back from the HCZ.  Each time I have checked the newsletter sign-in I get a message that states that it takes 2-3 business days for the process to be completed.  I am still hopeful.  The website does contain information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education because it provides education, social-services, and community building programs to children and their families.  The three barriers that we have discussed in this week’s assignment Awareness, Accessibility, and Responsiveness are barriers that the HCZ are eliminating on a daily basis.

            Each time I view the Harlem Children’s Zone website I gain new knowledge as it pertains to the early childhood field.  This week I was overwhelmed when I read about Harlem’s Single Stop program.  This program brings about awareness concerning people, securing benefits, access to legal guidance, and even domestic violence.  These sessions are one-on-one sessions (http://www.hcz.org). 

Reference

http://www.hcz.org