Candance McQuillen, Casey Croft and Rachel Wilt, all parents of children enrolled at Blair County Head Start, recently received the Francine Bunch Memorial Award at the Pennsylvania Head Start Association annual spring conference. Candace, Casey and Rachel are all active members of their Parent Committees as well as Policy Council and the Executive Committee. Through their involvement on both the smaller-scale, center-specific levels as well as on the larger-scale, agency-wide level, they have learned a number of valuable skills. They all hold offices on their Parent Committees and on Policy Council. They have gained valuable professional skills such as approving and writing agendas and meeting minutes, understanding treasure’s reports, and writing and approving by-laws. They are able to run meetings efficiently by using Roberts Rules of Order. Two of these women are also liaisons to the Blair County Head Start Board of Directors.
Last September, all three attended the NHSA Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. They took the training seriously, took notes and were able to prepare and deliver documents to several state senators and representatives after the rally on Capitol Hill the following day. Their articulation and advocacy did not end in DC. They brought the information they had learned home to Pennsylvania, and presented a self-written advocacy training for parents at the PHSA Leadership Conference in November, using their skills to help parents across the state advocate for their own community needs. Within the Blair County Head Start program, they plan to continue providing advocacy trainings at Parent Committee Meetings. Our Blair County Head Start parents will also be leading local electoral candidates, as well as parents from pre-school aged programs across the county in an open discussion about pressing issues facing early childhood and human services programs across Blair County.
These three individuals have concretely shown the power of Head Start in action. With the guidance, support and encouragement of Head Start staff, these three women were able to take parent-driven advocacy to a new level. Our heartfelt congratulations to Candace, Casey and Rachel for all of their hard work and dedication!