Success StoryChildcare workers continue building on their educational knowlegde



Childcare workers continue building on their educational knowlegde

Author: Dianne Hayward

Planning Unit: Cumberland County CES

Major Program: Nutrition and Food Systems General

Outcome: Initial Outcome

A lack of trained /or skilled staff for childcare assistant positions in Cumberland County, led to a shortage of qualified applicants . People were applying for the positions with very little knowledge or experience except that they were already parents of young children or emerging adults with an interest in family services employment. This led to a facility hiring these workers and partnering with the University of Kentucky extension service for training on the" healthy choices for everybody" Curriculum . while they were working. Outcomes / Impacts The program had been implemented at another facility with limited success. The facility made it voluntary to participate. The participants were given pre and post surveys. Participants were given 30 minutes of instruction at the facility and then took home a bag of education materials on different topics which covered making healthy choices on food access with diet quality, resource management , food safety, budgeting, physical activities, we included extra units on feeding young children, fussy eaters and these were all well received. One of the assistants was working and pregnant with her 2nd child and still managed to finish the program. Being motivated to improve their skills was very evident with this group of 10 participants all finished the program with 100% improvement in at least one area of the behavior classifications. The group showed 100% improvement in diet quality, and food resource management , 80% improvement in physical activity and Food Safety areas. This program is not the complete answer but it shows how we can work with people with the drive to continue to improve their knowledge and education.






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