Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

My challenge is to aid immigrant families as they enter into their new culture here in the U.S. my main goal is to help them heal from the trauma of what they have endured in their home country as well as what they face coming to a new world. Children are this country's future and all deserve to grow up in a positive environment and this is the area i wish to focus on.

The first agency I looked at was The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants found at  http://refugees.org/field-office/albany/. This agency meets the areas I am looking at meet my challenge. This agency helps those who have been uprooted to rebuild their lives and become self-sufficient. This agency finds jobs, housing, ELL classes, and even has lawyers to help these families. There were a couple of jobs which interested me which was Case Worker or an ESL Teacher. Both of these jobs would require that I gain more education but I would like to encourage a newer job opportunity for the Birth to Four-year old programs.

The Refugee Services program, found at https://otda.ny.gov/programs/bria/programs.asp, seems another place which helps those entering into this country by finding jobs, homes, and other basic needs. This program educates and trains refugees for the work force so they may become self sufficient. I was very excited to find a site to click, Welcome to Our Schools, which helps ease children into the American Public school system. I did not find any information about jobs on this site but there was contact information which I can access which really interests me!

Supporting Refugees in the Capital Region, found at  https://capitalregionrefugees.weebly.com/, also helps with the needs of the immigrant families from housing to health, as well as education. This agency works through the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for job placements.

I chose these three agencies because of the work they do with refugees and immigrants making sure they receive fair treatment and a positive new beginning. I am very disappointed that I found no agency that helps with children below Kindergarten with school readiness or any agency that offered social emotional support for the younger children. This is something I believe is needed in my area and, very likely, the rest of the country. I need to do much more research in ways to advocate for these children and have fact based information to support my position. I work with Head Start already and I do not know that I would need to find employment in one of these agencies to help my cause. I also have 20 years of experience in the struggles I witness in the classroom of the immigrant children and families and I believe this will be a benefit as well.