Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

At least three local or state organizations or communities of practice that appealed to you, and explain why you chose them

The three local/ state communities of practice that I have chosen are;

1. Childcare Network (CCN); I live and work in Washtenaw County of Michigan and I do appreciate everything that CCN is doing for the early childhood arena in this county, and also the state. They provide different resources as well as trainings for the educators and families, among many other services. “Child Care Network/Washtenaw Regional 4C is dedicated to working with communities to develop quality care for children that is safe, accessible and affordable. CCN has been providing services to families and early childhood professionals since 1977” (CCN, 2011).

2. Washtenaw Community Collaboration is community of practice that provide different opportunities for the different organizations to work together to make our community a better one. “The Community Collaborative of Washtenaw County (CCWC) is a group of key community stakeholders representing government, human services, nonprofits, and community-based organizations addressing issues and implementing strategies to enhance the health and well-being of the Washtenaw County Community” (Washtenaw County, 2011). 

3. United way is another organization that takes care of the needs of disadvantaged families as well as the needs of the communities across. “Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, when people are healthy” (United way, 2011).

These the web sites that I checked out regarding these organizations;

http://www.childcarenetwork.org/dnn/default.aspx

http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/departments/community_collaborative

http://worldwide.unitedway.org/pages/what-is-united-way

Job opportunities (currently available or not) that interest you

Even though I do not have any intention to leave my occupation, I checked for the job opportunities in these organizations and I could not find any. With the budget crisis occurring across the board, most of these organizations have totally tightened their belts. They have basically put out announcements saying no hiring that job opportunities.

Skills and experience that you would need to competently fulfill each of these roles

Ability in grant writing, communication and collaboration abilities, organizing conducting presentations and community events, as well as organizing fundraisers are the major components that I have seen in regard to these communities in practice. I do believe most of the early childhood professionals have some experiences in these events as well. Being an active member of the community is also a very important skill that everyone needs in order to be part of these organizations.

The concept has been adopted most readily by people in business because of the recognition that knowledge is a critical asset that needs to be managed strategically. Initial efforts at managing knowledge had focused on information systems with disappointing results. Communities of practice provided a new approach, which focused on people and on the social structures that enable them to learn with and from each other. Today, there is hardly any organization of a reasonable size that does not have some form communities-of-practice initiative. A number of characteristics explain this rush of interest in communities of practice as a vehicle for developing strategic capabilities in organizations:

• Communities of practice enable practitioners to take collective responsibility for managing the knowledge they need, recognizing that, given the proper structure, they are in the best position to do this.
• Communities among practitioners create a direct link between learning and performance, because the same people participate in communities of practice and in teams and business units.
• Practitioners can address the tacit and dynamic aspects of knowledge creation and sharing, as well as the more explicit aspects.
• Communities are not limited by formal structures: they create connections among people across organizational and geographic boundaries (Wenger, 2006).

Reference: Wenger, E (2006) Communities of practice. Retrieved from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/