“What’s better than preparing your child for what they need to know in this world? We can help pave their futures from an early age. No matter what they want to be when they grow up, we have an opportunity to help them develop character, trust, values and — most of all — we teach them how to build and not destroy,” shared Teresa Garcia.
Ms. Garcia was a special guest at the first-ever Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition’s Providers Advancing School Outcomes (PASO) Family, Friend, and Neighbor training graduation at Johnson Rec Center in Globeville Elyria-Swansea. Eleven women completed this Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) training which will help them become childcare providers in their Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhood.
“Many people made this happen. We couldn’t have done this without the help of Mile High United Way and PNC Bank,” said Lorena Garcia, Executive Director of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC).
“It’s time for us to go out and put into practice what we’ve learned. We need to keep moving forward. It’s all going to be worth it,” said Yamili Delgadillo Casillas, one of the graduates.
Before the women donned their gowns and threw their caps in the air to celebrate the momentous occasion, they put on a skit they designed and produced for their family and friends in the audience.
They wanted to demonstrate everything they had learned from the training. Each woman dressed up and had a specific part. The skit was set in a classroom where two young girls were having a disagreement. It went like this:
Laura and Paula were in Early Childhood Education. Laura came from a home where she learned about guilt. Paula came from a home where she learned about anger. While they were playing with Paula’s doll, Laura accidentally dropped the doll and it broke. Paula got mad and her negative feelings told her to hit Laura. She told those feelings to ‘stop.’ Laura got sad and her negative feelings told her that it was all her fault. She also told those feelings to ‘stop.’ New, positive, feelings came up for Laura and told her to say sorry. She accepted those feelings and apologized to Paula. Positive feelings also came up for Paula and told her to forgive Laura. She accepted those feelings and the two girls remained friends.
The eleven FFN graduates created this skit to demonstrate what they had learned in their training and how it’s okay for children to experience both positive and negative feelings – it’s how they handle those feelings moving forward that matters. And these women now have the tools to navigate these situations as well as so much more. They are choosing to stand up for early childhood education and become childcare providers so parents have options to choose from.
After the skit was finished, diplomas were handed out and families celebrated. These eleven women achieved something amazing. They are now educators and can help shape and develop future generations of children to be the best possible people they can be.
