I Want to Start a Movement: Words Matter — Grateful

My blogs will be centered around one word each week for the next five weeks. The idea is to see the power language has to set or stay on a course of goodness in our thoughts and actions. I hope you enjoy the words and discuss them at work and home. I hope they refresh you and help you enjoy the gifts of a non-material nature that we exchange by being together at work, at home, or in the communities.

Recently, we received a kind note from someone our Child Care Support SWIFT program worked with. They told us about how grateful they were to us for the work that we did for them.

Her letter reads:

Hi,
Recently, we asked KenCrest’s Child Care SWIFT Support program for help with a 2-year-old in our program. I wanted to write a review because of the excellent service that has been provided to us! I just heard about your services in October of 2023. The Early Interventionist who helped us, Adrienne, has come to us three times now and is helping us work with the teachers, the family, and the student. Not only has she given us new tools to use in the classroom to help this child so that they can remain in our program, but she has been a resource of information that is unmatched by any County services I have seen in all my 39 years working with children.

The Swift program is what Early Education needs NOW in every Early Learning Center and Childcare! In two weeks, we are already seeing progress, and Adrienne got my teachers on board with new ways to handle not only the child with special needs but also the other children and opened the teacher’s eyes to new ways of doing things in the classroom that helps with universal design of daily routines and curriculums.

Adrienne has provided these early educators the feedback and praise to keep going and inspired them to continue. She has helped a young mother by providing much-needed medical, social/emotional, and financial resources that cover all the bases needed. She has gone above and beyond the scope of professional therapists sent to help the children in our center. And cares about the children, loves them, and wants to see them succeed; it has never been a 10-minute session with notes for the rest of the scheduled hour. She coaches and models the techniques for the teachers to set them up for success. Our teachers were tired, frustrated, and not motivated to help this child because they didn’t have the inspiration and tools to help. Now they do!

When someone cares about children and is enthusiastic/loves what they do daily, it not only shows but rubs off on others. We all remember that teacher who inspired us in grade school; this is what that feels like to all our staff. We feel blessed to finally have help that is appropriate, timely, and in keeping with today’s growth and development of children and the workforce in childcare across our state and probably the country.

We need this program in PA and everywhere!!

After reading this letter, we all just paused. It was a great way to start celebrating the holiday season, a time dedicated to sharing and giving thanks. So, let’s stick with that theme. The first word is grateful.