This week I had the opportunity to explore various organizations
and communities of practice in my own community. A community of practice develops basically
when a group of people with a common passion or concern work together to
achieve goals that they might not achieve by working alone (Wenger, 1998).
I explored several C
The three organizations that I chose this week:
The Parenting Center: The Parenting Center is just what the name implies,
they provide counseling services, an advice line and classes for parents on
co-parenting, communicating with your child, conflict resolution, parenting
skills and family success. I chose this
organization as an example of a community of practice because of the various
services offered which houses several communities of practice and are an
excellent resource for families. The
service that I am most interested in is parenting and family life education
whose mission is to provide “professionals and family members with the tools, resources
and services to build successful families” (The Parenting Center, 2012). This is an organization that I would get
involved with but I did not find any information in the form of employment only
volunteer opportunities. The volunteer
opportunities include group projects such as cleaning up playgrounds or
organizing the children’s playrooms, joining board committees for the center,
answering the phone or other office duties, marketing assistant, helping with
the parenting advice line or assisting with social media for the Parenting
Center. Other than the desire to help
there are few requirements listed for volunteers but they do provide training
depending on the opportunity you choose.
I actually did fill out the form to volunteer for group projects and
support services.
Alliance for Children: The Alliance for Children is all about child
advocacy, in fact according to the website it was one of the first established
children’s advocacy center programs in Texas and is the only Children’s
Advocacy Center in Tarrant County. This
community of practice works with police departments, Child Protective Services
and the district attorney. Alliance for
Children not only helps the children of abuse heal they train adults to prevent
the abuse through group counseling, Prevent Now which is an education program
to prevent physical and sexual abuse and Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy uses therapy dogs with the counseling program. I chose this organization because of my
desire to become more involved in advocacy for young children. Again this organization offers several opportunities
to get involved and the opportunity I found most interesting was that of Family
Advocate. This program offers group
counseling for youth victims of sexual abuse, group counseling for the
protective parents, bilingual group counseling, court accompaniment, referrals,
liaison between families and partner agencies.
Other programs offered include Therapy Dog, Backpack and Holiday
Assistance. The Family Advocate program
is available to families that do not qualify for continued service through
Child Protective Services but could benefit from additional assistance. This organization also works with volunteers
and provides training in several areas to help the volunteer become a true
advocate. In the case of actual
employment you would apply with the agency that works with Alliance for
Children individually.
Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System: TECPDS is an organization
that “was created to ensure that high quality professional development
opportunities are available statewide to individuals working in early care and
education” (Texas Early Childhood Professional
Development System, n.d.). This is the
organization you would apply to in order to become a registered trainer in
Texas. The job opportunities for this
organization are a little different from a regular job in that you are simply
applying to become a Texas trainer. In
order to qualify as a trainer there are few steps to complete: online orientation, complete application and
submit a training proposal. It is my
desire to become a registered trainer and I have begun the steps needed to do
so by completing the orientation.
The above are just three organizations in my local area in which I could
see myself involved in. They focus on
parent education, advocacy and professional development which are all areas of
focus for me.
References
The Parenting Center. (2012). Retrieved March 15, 2013, from The Parenting Center:
http://theparentingcenter.org/parenting-and-family-life-education/
Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System . (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2013, from n.d.:
http://www.uth.tmc.edu/tececds/
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning as a
social system . Retrieved March 12, 2013, from Systems Thinker :
http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtm l
