From the Desk of the NYSPEP Coordinator - 2013 In Review

NYSPEP is an amazing collaborative of volunteer members who recognize the importance and positive impact of nurturing parenting upon children’s social-emotional development across the lifespan. In 2013 we partnered with the Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC), NYS Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (OASAS), and Healthy Families New York (HFNY) Training and Development Team to offer our audiences valuable trainings.

We’ve also adjusted our internal structure. We discovered the Executive Committee and Steering Committee were largely redundant. We've maintained our Steering Committee, which meets monthly by conference call and twice annually in person. We dissolved the Executive Committee but maintained its core of active Steering Committee members in the Capital District. Now known as the A-team, this group is committed to meet bi-weekly in person and by conference call. Other Steering Committee members join, as they are able.

NYSPEP supports parenting educators and related professionals who serve parents and primary caregivers of children. You may have heard of our Parenting Educator Credential, annual Strong Roots Last A Lifetime training institutes, or professional development webinars. Did you know? There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes…

TRAININGS, CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS & WEBINARS 

I was surprised upon tallying year-end numbers to discover how many events NYSPEP was involved in. NYSPEP hosted twenty (20) events including webinars, training institutes, member meetings, and live orientations. We tabled and attended an additional nine (9) professional conferences and workshops for a total of twenty-nine (29) events in 2013!

NEW PARENT KIT & COMMUNITY CAFÉS

Our New Parent Kit, a project with leadership from the NYS Council on Children and Families, is now in the design and illustration phase. NYSPEP also formally adopted the parent-led Community Café initiative with leadership from the NYS Office of Children and Family Services / Children and Family Trust Fund.

WEBSITE & BROCHURE REDESIGN 

Earlier this year, we officially transitioned to www.nyspep.org. We’re currently updating some of the layout, navigation, and content on our website. We also redesigned our brochure, which is available on our website.

NYSPEP PARENTING EDUCATOR CREDENTIAL & VETTING 

Over fifty-five (55) applicants have been awarded the Credential, which was vetted by professionals in academia. We rolled out Tier III with Tier IV slated to open in June 2014.

MAINTAINING CONNECTIONS 

NYSPEP continued its involvement with Dads Take Your Child To School (DTYCTS) and Stronger Families NY Coalition. NYSPEP is one of the sponsors for the Young Child Expo & Conference in 2014.

EXPANDING OUR REACH 

NYSPEP, pediatrician Dr. Howard King, and other key supporters are currently exploring connections between pediatricians and parenting educators. We also met with Radio Disney, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for the Education Pipeline (SUNY Admin), the SUNY Teacher & Leader Education Network Coordinator at State University of New York, and the Director of Kinship Care Navigator – to name a few. Additionally, NYSPEP connected with Warren County Department of Social Services and the New York County Office of the District Attorney representing New York City’s collaborative Polo Rangel Initiative.

PARENTING MATERIALS 

NYSPEP distributed materials at all our events and provided cases of Parent Tip Magnets for DTYCTS Day 2013. Additional NYSPEP materials were distributed through partners such as Prevent Child Abuse New York’s Parent Helpline.

MARKETING RESEARCH & CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 

We recently surveyed key informants to discover how NYSPEP is perceived and what representatives from key systems want and need. We reviewed the data from that survey. Our Professional Development workgroup will incorporate some of the feedback into a field survey for January 2014 that will assist with developing our upcoming Strong Roots training institutes.

COMMUNICATIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA 

NYSPEP membership is now at 2,000 - double the number since I came on board last year! We produced twenty-five (25) outbound NYSPEP eNews and announcements. We introduced the Member Spotlight feature on our blog, which generated a lot of positive responses. We responded to forty (40) inquiries submitted through our website’s Contact Us form. There have been about one hundred (100) additional emails and phone calls that we’ve responded to.

LOOKING AHEAD 2014 

Resources (funding and volunteers) are crucial to what NYSPEP can accomplish. NYSPEP is never short on ideas, goals, or visions, but we don’t always have enough resources to carry these as far or as fast as we’d like to. Although we’ve chipped away at this, more work is needed. We also hope to build regional teams of NYSPEP volunteers.

Our membership is growing. We hope to implement an annual member survey to discover what members want and need. I also enjoy reaching out, meeting new people, and introducing people to each other. I look forward to getting out of the cubicle, making new connections, and expanding our membership.

NYSPEP recently received three inquiries from bi-lingual parenting educators asking if the Credential is offered en Español. The answer is ‘not yet’. Translations require additional resources. We look forward to when we are able to embrace bi-lingual and eventually multi-lingual support for the professionals we support and the families they serve.

Finally, based on the success of our Member Spotlights, I’m planning a new feature series on our blog to provide glimpses of NYSPEP behind-the-scenes and keep our members informed of all the various threads that knit NYSPEP together.

As NYSPEP is a true collaborative, our workgroups, Steering Committee, and other members will have additional ideas about what they’d like to see NYSPEP accomplish in 2014 and beyond.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED 

NYSPEP is comprised of volunteers who are passionate about parenting education and families, as well as the fields that serve and support children and families. Individuals volunteer to achieve various aspects of a project through small teams that meet by conference calls. A core group of Steering Committee members in the Capital District meet face-to-face bi-weekly to weave these fibers together.

Individuals can volunteer for a workgroup such as Credential or Professional Development or commit to a particular initiative such as the pediatrician project. Volunteers who can assist with a single task such as presenting a training webinar, previewing a facility for Strong Roots events, or assisting NYSPEP to expand connections or make in-roads with cross systems are appreciated.

Angelina M. Hart, NYSPEP Coordinator

We’re always looking for volunteers or interns in the Capital District who can type and spell accurately, have good grammar, and are familiar with basic html to assist with our eNews, blog, social media channels, and entering data into the database. If you're interested in volunteering or interning in our office, please email your resume with cover letter to nyspep@nyspep.org. To find out more ways you can get involved with NYSPEP, please call 518-445-1273 and ask for the NYSPEP Coordinator.

NYSPEP Member Spotlight: Susan E. Perkins

Ms. Susan E. Perkins serves as Co-chair of the NYSPEP Steering Committee and is actively involved in several NYSPEP initiatives behind-the-scenes. She is the Senior Policy Analyst for the New York State Council on Children and Families. She has represented the Council as a principle member of the New York State Parenting Education Partnership (NYSPEP) since its inception in 2006. At the Council, she works closely with the staff of the Head Start Collaboration Project, the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) initiative, and the Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) on early childhood, parenting and family literacy issues across the state.

In 2009, Susan was appointed Young Child Wellness Expert, the state project manager, for NY Project LAUNCH, a SAMHSA initiative to improve the systems that serve young children and address their physical, emotional, social, cognitive and behavioral growth. Prior to joining the Council, Susan was an Even Start Family Literacy coordinator for seven years and an adult educator, specializing in child and family development/parenting education, for Cornell Cooperative Extension for seven years.

Susan holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University, is a member of the Association for the Education of Young Children and serves on the board of the NYS Family Engagement Coalition, formerly the Parental Information & Resource Center (PIRC), Cornell University’s Parenting Work Team and is an honorary board member of Literacy Volunteers-Rensselaer County.