During the beginning phase of the Pueblo Outreach Project, a community assessment was conducted in order to identify the strengths and gaps in early childhood services in the eight northern Indian pueblo communities. The results led to the creation of eight distinct early childhood plans. The results, along with input from tribal leadership, also informed us of the community’s thirst for early childhood education trainings.
After receiving that feedback, an education needs assessment was distributed to the pueblo community members, early childhood staff, administration, and tribal leadership in which they had the opportunity to express low, moderate, or high levels of interest on specific early childhood topics such as guidance versus discipline, nutrition, trauma prevention, etc.
The LANL Foundation has allowed the feedback received from the education needs assessments to guide the topics presented through the yearly Education Training Series. The topics that were of high interest amongst the eight pueblos were prioritized and presented during our first series, which took place from Fall 2020 through Spring 2021. The topics were the following, all of which were presented by Anna Marie Garcia, Vice President of Early Childhood Education for the LANL Foundation:
- “To Know Me Is To Love Me: Normal Childhood Development”
- “Mindful Parenting – Guidance with Love”
- “Helping Your Child Build A Strong Brain”
- “Capacity Building & Leadership Development”
- “Technical Training – Zoom, Google Documents, Google Surveys”
- “Introduction to Grant and Report Writing”
The topics for the Fall 2021 – Spring 2022 Education Training Series were the following:
- “Autism & Early Intervention” – Zoe Migel, Bright Futures LLC
- “Grandparents/Kin Raising Children: To Know Me Is To Love Me” – Anna Marie Garcia, M. Ed.
- “Grandparents/Kin Raising Children: Understanding the Role of Trauma in Child Development” – Anna Marie Garcia, M. Ed.
- “Substance Use Disorder and its Effects on Pregnancy and Newborns” – Dr. Leslie Hayes
- “Grant Writing Workshop – Trust Your Intuition and Authentic Voice” – Sylvan Argo and Whitney Jones
- “Nourishing Our Children From Birth to Young Adulthood” – Diana Gonzales Pacheco, DCN, RDN
We continue to let the community’s education/training needs lead this work, and ensure to seek feedback after every training in order for us as a department to gain insight into ways in which we can improve the training experience and topics to best meet the needs of our families and parents.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact Evelyn Juarez at evelyn@lanlfoundation.org
