Providers Request Training
Eugenia R. Hanlon and Mary L. Hughes

Problem:
Child Care Resource and Referral in working with child care provider in the Carroll and Audubon county area identified that relationships with parents were a constant strain. A program on “Working with Parents” was requested. Providers stated these issues with parents: bringing sick children, children who bite or have temper tantrums or other discipline issues, late payments, not honoring the provider’s taking days off for training or dr.’s appointments, etc. were of concern. Child Care Resource and Referral requested that this same topic be covered at multiple sites into counties that crossed into another family life field specialist’s area.

Response:
Mary prepared a two-hour training, sharing training outline, handouts, articles, etc. with Eugenia Hanlon, including some pictures of families, as drawn by children that I have gathered through my years of teaching early childhood. (This material was used to define “family” through the children’s eyes, and to help expand the providers’ visions of how we can work with families who have children in child care.) Eugenia stated that the material I provided helped her see this “concept in new and fresh ways, and that the training handouts/materials were well-received by the providers at her site.” Eugenia was then able to utilize the training outline and modify it slightly to meet her audience’s needs.

Because this topic can often lead to ‘griping and complaining’ rather than constructive efforts at building better relationships with families, we taught a problem-solving process to the providers. We worked through each of the challenges that the providers described on-site, and each provider left the training with constructive solutions to their challenges.

Impact:
Between the two sites, 46 providers attended the training; several of the Audubon providers admitted they were ‘skeptical’ about attending because they suspected they would be “lectured to.”

Ten of the 11 attending this training in Audubon turned in written evaluations, while 34/35 at Eugenia’s site returned the evaluations. All rated these two points as 4’s, on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the highest score:

• “the climate of openness and encouragement to share questions, ideas, and comments,”
• “the materials and activities usefulness.”

Proposed action steps from the Audubon site included:

• 7 of 10 will change their philosophy toward parents,
• 6 of 10 will improve business practices,
• 8 of 10 plan to improve their communication with parents.

34 providers at Eugenia’s site reported:

• learning a new idea or concept,
• while 26 reported that “I plan to implement one idea/concept from the training within the next month.

Specific comments from providers include: “I will be more patient with parents;” “ I received good answers to my questions and the training was very informative and interesting” (x2); “this was one of the best training sessions I have ever attended – I would like more sessions with her.”

Contacts:

Eugenia Hanlon Family Life Field Specialist Box 233 521 4th St. Rockwell City Iowa 50579 Phone 712-297-8611; Fax 712-297-7011 E-mail ehanlon@iastate.edu

Mary Hughes Family Life Field Specialist 3501 Harry Langdon Blvd Council Bluffs, IA 51503-7837 Phone 712-366-7070; Fax 712-366-7024 Email mhughes@iastate.edu

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