Handout 12: Program Changes
Instructions: Read one story from the handout. Discuss solutions to the problem in the story. Then complete the "Benchmarks" page of the handout.
Story 1: West Side Head Start
For the past nine years, West Side Head Start has leased a church basement to house its home-based program. The lease is now about to expire. The program needs to look for a better space that can be used for monthly social activities, for the home educators' offices, and for storage of materials.
The director knows that a decision must be made right away. She does not want the home-based program to lose any service time because of the move. She puts together a search team that includes parents and staff members. This team looks at the program's needs assessment. It gathers ideas from parents, staff, and com munity members. It also visits several sites.
One site is an unused building four miles from the current location. The space is large and Head Start will have it all to itself. The rent is lower than the program now pays. The cost to bus children once a month for social activities will be no more than the difference between the old rent and the new lower rent.
Another site is an unused wing of the local elementary school. It is within the commumty served by the program. However, the rent is slightly higher than what the program now pays, and the space is much smaller. It would be hard to hold parent and child activities at this location.
The search team surveys the parents of children who will be in the home-based program next year. It learns that parents feel their children would be safer if they stayed within a few blocks of their homes instead of traveling to a new building by bus.
Story 2: Quality Connections Head Start
The Quality Connections Head Start wants to get more male family members involved. A planning group has been formed to look at this issue and suggest targeted male involvement activities.
The group begins by looking at where the program already has links to men in the community. Some of the men from Head Start families work at factories and other businesses in the community that partner with the program. However, the planning group feels that it is also important to reach out to other male family members. These would include men who are working on their own, unemployed, looking for work, or taking care of children at home.
The committee is aware that many men see the parent involvement program as a "women's thing." They also realize that while fathers in the community are deal ing with many of the same issues that affect mothers, men may deal with these issues differently than women do. The challenge the committee faces is to find a solution that will meet the specific needs of men in their program.
A single father on the planning group has an idea for an ongoing series of semi nars for men with children. The goal would be to discuss and plan family activi ties at the center. An uncle of two children in the program who belongs to a community group called Significant Male Mentors suggests a conference on "significant men and the future of our children." The planning group is consid ering both proposals.
Benchmarks
- When a decision is made, how will the team know it has made a good decision?
- What is the decision that was made by the group?
- What are three things you would expect to see happen or change if this is a good decision?
The items you have listed above are benchmarks. They are measures to help groups evaluate decisions. Post them on chart paper.
- What can you expect to happen or change if this is not a good decision?
- How long would it take for you to see that the decision is working or not?
- How should the group monitor progress?