National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), has an outside link that leads to their state affiliates. Along with NAEYC, these affiliate groups strongly believe in supporting the lives of young children and their families. I live in the state of New Jersey. So, I clicked on my state's affiliates and it lists the local offices of every county in New Jersey. When I tried to click on my county, as well as the other counties in New Jersey, I was unable to get the website to display any of the pages. Because of the website's error, I just focused on the entire state of New Jersey.
I thoroughly searched one particular area of the site, the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children (NJAEYC). On the NJAEYC site, I found links to New Jersey's upcoming events, recent news and local affiliates. This website discusses how important it is to act now for New Jersey's children. Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) is committed to equity and excellence in early care and education for young children in our state. ACNJ firmly believes "if we are to preserve and strengthen funding streams to preparing young children for school success, and support families with access to full day programs to enable them to work, advocacy is critical" (www.njaeyc.org).
From exploring the website, I learned that NAEYC has almost 80,000 members, including over 300 state and local affiliates. One of which includes NJAEYC, which has 4,000 members. NJAEYC's "primary attention is devoted to assuring the provision of high quality early childhood programs through improvements in the professional practice and working conditions in the field of early childhood education, as well as by improving public understanding and support and funding of high quality programs in centers, homes, and schools" (www.njaeyc.org). I realized that I am one of many voices dedicated to advocating and improving the lives of young children and their families.
References
www.naeyc.org/
www.njaeyc.org/
Thanks for sharing! I knew that NAEYC has a lot to offer, but I was not aware of what you shared. I think I will visit the site and look up my state. 80,000 members? That is a very large amount of people who are working together for a great cause! Our children need more programs such as this. Great post, Lolita!
ReplyDeleteHi Lolita,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your great post. This is an organization that I have seen frequently but did not know about its vast resources and size. I can only hope that Arizona has such a large group working together to help the children of this state. From research alone, I know that Arizona has a high drop out rate, poverty is high, and many children are serviced at the schools through federal grants (such as free breakfast and lunch, tutoring, etc.). Some of these programs even go through the summer to help the children of high poverty areas. I look forward to seeing what other professionals are in my area to help these children. Thanks again!