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Fall Findings by Jahla Brown, DCYF ESIT Partnership & Collaboration Specialist
"Forgiving is not forgetting. Forgiving is remembering without pain."
-Celia Cruz, Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century
Top 8 Reasons Why and How We Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
By Emily Key, Education Programs Manager, and Adrián Aldaba, Associate to the Director and Programs, Smithsonian Latino Center
Every year across America communities gather together to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is observed September 15 to October 15. Starting in July, Smithsonian educators receive phone calls and emails inquiring about resources that will help showcase these communities and their contributions to American society. So this year, we decided to answer those burning questions about why and how we should celebrate this month:
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“As an indigenous person, I am not a costume, and you are not me. You go home and remove your costume of choice. These truths we cannot ‘take off’ at the end of the night. It is who we are, and we cannot change that. I am me. There is no costume to remove.”
-Ana Cuddington, SCC’s American Indian Director and member of the Akimel O'otham tribe, Gila River Indian Community
Orange Shirt Day, September 30. To Honor the survivors and to remember the little ones that did not make it from the Indian residential schools.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
In 2015, the Orange Shirt Society was formed to create awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of Indian Residential Schools with the purpose of supporting Indian Residential School Reconciliation and promoting the truth that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.
Each week, DCYF ESIT Tribal Program Consultant, Brian Frisina, provides a key topic to help us get to know our Tribal Nation Partners better.
This week’s term is:
Cultural Appropriation at Halloween: My Culture Is Not a Costume
Award-winning young Pomo activist Jayden Lim, of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center's Tribal Youth Ambassadors program, will illuminate the hidden history of California and how she has had to grapple with stereotypes and historical trauma to find her identity as a Native youth (watch time 6:07):
A Halloween costume can be removed when the night is over. But someone’s culture is something that can’t ever be taken off.
That’s how Ana Cuddington explains it. Cuddington, who is the student services Manager at Scottsdale Community College and a member of the Akimel O'otham tribe Gila River Indian Community, is raising awareness for SCC’s poster campaign “My Culture is Not a Costume.”
Read the full article, 'My Culture is Not a Costume': How a college in Arizona is addressing Halloween stereotypes:
Sources
- Image: Apalachee Indians of the Talimali Band, Announcements, © 2024.
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Orange Shirt Society, About Us, © Orange Shirt Society / Orange Shirt Day.
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'My Culture is Not a Costume': How a college in Arizona is addressing Halloween stereotypes, by Shanti Lerner, Arizona Republic, Oct. 22, 2021, © 2024 azcentral.com.
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Jayden Lim – My Culture Is Not a Costume, Bioneers, published November 15, 2018.
The DCYF ESIT Workforce Development team recently held two focus group sessions for educators and paraeducators who provide Special Instruction (SI) on Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs). During these sessions, attendees were able to share their experiences through discussion and polls. We would like to extend an invitation for all educators who were unable to attend, to add your voice via an Insight Survey. The survey has the same questions as the live focus group. The gathering of this important information about our ESIT educator workforce will inform the creation of their ESIT Credentials. So please stay tuned for more discussions. If you provide special instruction on IFSPs, please take a few minutes and share your insights.
The survey will remain open through Friday, September 27:
Please feel free to pass this survey along to anyone you know who fits the criteria.
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“ESIT services are so beautiful in the way that we can individualize services for families. As an FRC, I enjoy that I get to be flexible to really meet a family where they are at. I am a creative person, and this job gives me the opportunity to exercise my creativity as I work with families to individualize supports that best fit their needs.”
-Mattea Beeson
Mattea Beeson graduated from Fairhaven College with a self-designed major titled Human Rights, Health and International Justice. She started working as an FRC at Whatcom Center for Early Learning in Bellingham, WA in 2022. She says “The Mission of Early Supports for Infants and Toddlers fits perfectly with my belief in health as a human right and I love supporting this for the youngest members of my community.”
Mattea was nominated for demonstrating excellence in ESIT Principle 4: The early intervention process, from initial contact to transition, must be responsive, flexible and individualized to reflect the child’s and family’s priorities, learning styles and cultural beliefs.”
“Mattea entered our agency with a personal background of working with families experiencing trauma in our community and abroad. She went through the training to become a certified Cherish provider and currently supports a number of children and families who are in the foster care system. The families that Mattea is a team member with me for include a child who had in-utero drug exposure and lives in a multigenerational household, a child whose dad died suddenly when she was 18 months old and recently became diagnosed with ASD, and another child who has a disabled parent providing the primary caregiving for him. Mattea has worked to bring resources to each of these families; to keep the communication going between all of the family members involved in the care and to provide that support in the way the family has expressed a need to receive it." -Anonymous, from the Nomination
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The ESIT state leadership team plans to highlight individual providers or ESIT provider agencies that are demonstrating one or more of the Seven Key Principles in their work in a new section of the ESIT Weekly titled Key Principles in Action. This new section will help us recognize the high-quality agencies and efforts of individual providers across the ESIT statewide system. Nominators will remain anonymous (though we may contact you for more details about your nomination).
Submit Your Nomination!
To make a nomination, please complete the form linked below:
You are invited to ESIT's upcoming October State Interagency Coordinating Council (SICC) Meeting, which will be held via zoom!
Wed., October 16
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Draft agenda & Meeting link TBA.
For Review
The draft July meeting minutes and updated meeting materials packet have been posted to ESIT's SICC Meetings page for review. If edits are needed to the draft July meeting minutes or materials, please email Will Moncrease Jr.
SICC Direct List
If you would like your email added to the SICC direct email list to receive the agenda and meeting materials in advance of upcoming SICC meetings, email Will Moncrease Jr., with the subject: Add me to SICC DL.
Questions?
Please contact DCYF ESIT Partnership & Collaboration Manager, Will Moncrease, Jr., at will.moncrease@dcyf.wa.gov.
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The Access to Child Online Records Network (ACORN) training environment was not accessible from Wed., September 25 – Thurs., September 26, and an updated dataset has been migrated into the ACORN database. When you log into ACORN training on Fri., September 27, you will see updated caseloads as of June 1. We will also migrate new user accounts created, between March 5 and June 1, into ACORN at this time. Lastly, PCG will release the fixes for bugs identified during our webinars and testing into ACORN training during this migration.
For questions, please contact ESIT Data Systems and Analysis Manager, Kim Hopkins, at kim.hopkins@dcyf.wa.gov.
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The Family Outcomes Surveys will be distributed to families beginning Wed., August 28.
We have contracted with WSU for another year and their team will be sending the surveys and facilitating data collection and analysis. The team at WSU will follow the process outlined below:
WSU Data Collection Process
Data collection
- First questionnaire with incentive | August 28
- Email reminder 1 | Sept. 3
- Postcard reminder | Sept. 9
- Email reminder 2 | Sept. 12
- Replacement questionnaire | Sept. 24
- Email reminder 3 | Sept. 27
- Telephone contacts | Oct. 7 – Nov. 8
Data collection will close on November 8 and we will present preliminary information during the January SICC Annual Performance Report Meeting. If you have questions about the ESIT Family Survey, please contact ESIT Data Systems and Analysis Manager, Kim Hopkins, at kim.hopkins@dcyf.wa.gov.
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Emergency Broadband Benefit Funds Available
The WA Office of Broadband has funds available to assist families with internet costs. More details on this benefit and how to apply are located here.
Discounted Internet Service Available to Low-Income Households
The federal Affordable Connectivity Program offers eligible households a high-speed internet plan for no more than $30 per month. More details on this program and how to apply are located here.
Digital Navigation Toolkit Available
Digital Health Navigators are individuals who address the whole digital inclusion process - connectivity, devices, and digital skills - to support community members and provide access to healthcare. The National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers (NCTRC) has released a new toolkit that provides helpful resource links relating to digital navigation.
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