Stats

A little more than half of my job is spent working in the childcare office, where I have begun my new role as "Parent Coordinator." A huge percentage of the funding for our childcare and school programs comes from the Chicago Department of Health and the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and it is specifically granted to SEAC because of the parenting program. The agency runs a program that about 95% of the families are enrolled in, and it involves a message of violence prevention, parenting meetings and workshops, referrals, conferences, and case notes/documentation like you wouldn't believe. Seriously- if you don't believe me come to visit, where I will show you the overwhelming piles of paper everywhere in my office.

If you know me, you know the disorganization makes me want to cry.

It really is a very cool program and it is doing some awesome things for our clients. But I honestly walked into a disaster of a situation. We are talking case notes backlogged from summer of 2010, parent meetings not recorded for months, four different lists of clients who have dropped and added, and two quarterly reports due next week. I worked and worked and worked today, and then went back after school and worked some more. I feel like I finally have a grip on the situation, and it is always good to have an accurate knowledge of the number of clients, right?

We are currently serving 118 families with 175 children. Roughly 60% of them are female headed households. There are 10 families that are ranked "low" income; the rest are "extremely low" income, meaning that they make less than 50% of the federal poverty level. That is, less than $11,000 a YEAR for a family of four. There are three families with adults who have gone to college. There are twenty-seven families with adults who have no formal education whatsoever. We have over 20 ethnic groups represented in our clientele, and parents ranging in age from eighteen to fifty five.

Sometimes I wonder if I am doing good work, important work. Then I look at these stats and I feel pretty okay with my current place in life.

In other (teaching) news, I think I had a breakthrough with one of my students today. He is probably the most difficult in the class- struggles academically, socially, emotionally young... the works. My favorite kind of kid, in other words. I tried going the firm route... no success. I tried the sweet route... not success. Today I just decided to mess around with him. We were talking about where the people in our class were from, and I asked him if his family was from Mexico. He told me they weren't. Now, remember that I spent five hours today looking through files... I could probably name the ethnicity of every child in the program by now, and I KNEW this kid was from Mexico. So I simply said "You're full of crap." He stared at me and then started laughing this incredibly infectious little boy giggle. He latched on and didn't let go for the rest of the day... he's mine. Should I have said the c-word? Probably not... but I made a convert today and I'm not apologizing for it :)