Nifty News
Professional Development
Calendar
Northwestern Counseling and Support Services
Family Center of Northwestern Vermont
60 Lake Street, Suite 100
St. Albans, VT 05478
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Northwestern Counseling and
Support Services
The Family Center of
Northwestern Vermont
60 Lake Street
Suite 100
St. Albans, VT 05478
The Family Center nurtures the
knowledge, growth and
independence of ALL families.
Family and Community Support
Services
Mary Stanley – Team Leader,
CACFP, Referral Specialist
528-5560
Michelle Trayah – Resource
Development Specialist 393-9415
Laurie Hayford-Saborowski –
Children’s Integrated Services
Child Care Coordinator 782-5763
Kathi Goodrich – CC Eligibility (A-Z)
528-5581
Michelle Gagne – Reach Up Case
Manager
Grace Parks- Reach Up Case
Manager
Nifty News is published 3 times a
year through the efforts of the
Family and Community Support
Services Team. It’s available online
at www.ncssinc.org under About Us,
The Family Center.
This Newsletter is funded by the
Agency of Human Services,
Department of Children and
Families, Child Development
Division and partial funding from
the Federal Child Care &
Development Fund.
The Family Center assures equal
employment and services
regardless of race, color, creed,
sex, handicap, national origin or age
in compliance with state and
federal laws and is a United Way
Member Agency.
Professional Development --Please remember to email [email protected] to
register for all classes unless otherwise specified.
If email is unavailable to you, call Margaret at (802)393-6591
to register.
It is important for planning purposes that we know the number
of people attending programs/trainings. It is equally important
that we are able notify you if a program/training has to be
postponed or cancelled.
If for any reason you cannot attend, PLEASE cancel your
attendance once you have registered. Many times other
providers are placed on a waiting list and could attend if you are
not able. Unfortunately, child care is not provided at these
trainings. Children in attendance can be disruptive to attendees
and presenters. Subjects discussed may not always be
appropriate for children to hear. Please find alternative care
for your children when attending trainings. An exception would
be a nursing newborn. Also, we will be reminding you of trainings
and cancellations through email whenever feasible, so check
your email often!
Alert: Life- Threatening Allergies:
Due to the rise in the number of life threatening
peanut and nut allergies, we are asking that you
refrain from bringing peanut or nut products (or
products containing these items) to trainings.
Unfortunately, some allergens can be airborne and
ensuring the safety of all is necessary. Additionally, if
there are other airborne allergies the CCSS team
needs to be aware of, please let us know! Thanks for
your cooperation.
NO
PLEASE
CPR and First Aid:
 For classes contact the American Red Cross at
1-800-660-9130
 Classes are also available through Northwest Technical
Center at 527-6513.
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To Register: Please call Michelle Trayah at 393-9415 or
[email protected]
NETWORK MEETINGS
.
Monthly Network Meetings
1st Thursday of the Month: starting at 6pm
Where: Tami Dodge’s House St Albans.
To Register: Please call Starting Points Leader Tami at 5245694
Why: To Network with Colleagues, Share Ideas and
Resources, talk about current topics and to develop
curriculum.
September 6
Where; BFA Fairfax Elementary Art Room, 6pm to 8pm
To Register: Please call Starting Points leader, Lynn Roberts
at 849-2161
Why: Please join us for an opportunity to connect with other
providers and discuss topics related to child care. Discussion
topics to include training wants and needs, sharing of
handbook and policies for regulation compliance.
October 25
Where: The Abbey, 6pm to 8pm
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader, Tina
Lothian at 285-2188
Why: Networking with Christina from Taxes & More to better
help us prepare for our taxes a little better.
Professional
Development
Tuition: $50.00 tuition is payable to the FGIWIB on the first
night of class
A Huge thank you to the Franklin Grand Isle Workforce
Investment Board for their generous funding support for
this course.
This class is required for all new Licensed Childcare Center
Staff and is highly recommended for newly registered
providers as well as those who are interested in meeting CDA
requirements. This 45 hour course introduces professionals
working with young children and their families to the first
level of skills and knowledge in five areas: child development,
teaching and learning, families and communities, healthy and
safe learning environments, and professionalism and program
organization. The competencies that define this level can be
found on the Northern Lights Core Competencies for early
childhood professionals: Level I. Introduction to Licensing
and Basic Specialized Care Orientation are also requirements
of the class. The class can be challenged at CCV for College
credits.
August 31
Emergency Preparedness
Time and Place: Fairfax Fire Department, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Steve Bessette, Emergency Response Coordinator
for Fairfax
To Register: Call Karen @ 849-6604 to sign up or email
[email protected].
Find out how to respond to natural & man made emergencies,
under the guidance of Steve Bessette, Emergency Response
Coordinator for Fairfax. Providers will be given handouts as
well as ideas such as what to keep on hand, how to respond,
where to go if evacuation is needed.
September 19
Start date of August 29th
Fundamentals of Early Care and Education (45 hour class)
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room 130 Fisher Pond Road
St Albans, VT, Mondays 6 to 9 pm (15 week class with end
date of December 12th; no class on September 5)
Feeding Fare, CACFP
Time and Place: The Abbey, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Deb Grennon
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader, Tina
Lothian at 285-2188
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
Instructor: Lori Cassidy
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This hands-on training provides practical ideas and
nourishment to guide you as you feed the children in your
care. Deb will serve up a delicious book and share ideas for
mealtime. Yes, food will be part of the workshop experience
too. You will go home with a plate full of ideas, appealing to
the palates of your children. This workshop is designed for
childcare professionals including home childcare providers,
childcare center staff, teachers, Head Start home visitors and
Childcare directors. The workshop is focused on activities is
for preschool children, three and four years old. You will
leave with a menu of materials and tasty ideas.
September 21
Strengthening Families Essential Training 1, Introduction
to the Strengthening Families Protective Factor
Framework Adv. Specialized Care
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Michelle Trayah
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
September 28 and October 5
Never Too Early
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Dr. Robin Ploof
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
Registration Limited to 20
This two-part training offered by the Vermont Humanities
Council provides an introduction to reading and sharing books
and conversation with children. “Diversity and important
conversations with children” will be one topic included in the
discussion. In this lively and interactive program, learn the
importance and joy of sharing picture books and stories with
infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Through hands-on
exploration of children’s literature, learn about early literacy
and related developmental issues, and ways to create a
literacy-rich environment. Discover ways to make books come
alive through animated reading, rhymes, and extension
activities that encourage language development. During the
training you will receive books and ideas that will assist you to
begin a conversation with young children on the topic of
diversity
The goal of this training is to introduce the Strengthening
Families framework in theory and practice.
October 4
September 22
Art as Discovery for the Young Child, Level II
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 6pm to 8pm
Instructors: John Cipora and Ann Traverso-Moore,
Springfield College
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
This workshop is an expanded hands-on learning event for
exploring ways to encourage creativity, build
confidence, expand vocabulary, and provide opportunity for
collaborative play.
Medication Administration Hands on Training (3 hours
face to face, 2 hours on-line before class)
Time and Place: The Abbey, 6pm to 9pm
Instructor: Kary Towne
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader, Tina
Lothian at 285-2188
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
The State of Vermont Department of Health, Maternal Child
Health Division offers a two-part
Medication Administration Training for child care program
staff. Participants must complete
Part A and B to get professional development credits. (5)
Part A is taken online and has 3 modules with 5 quizzes. You
must pass each module with a
score of 80% or better in order to take the face to face group
session – Part B. The new quiz
software allows the participant to know immediately how
he/she did and prints a certificate for
each module completed.
Content of Part A includes, learning about the 5 Rights of
Medication Administration; How to
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Receive Information, Preparing to Give Medication,
Administering Medication; asthma,
anaphylaxis and reporting medication errors, including forms
and what to look for.
Part B allows participants to try what they learned in Part
A.
October 6
Growing Up Wild
Time and Place: BFA Fairfax Elementary School, Art Room
(161), 6pm to 9pm
Instructor: Alison Thomas, Vermont Fish and Wildlife
Department
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader Lynn
Roberts at 849-2161
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
Growing Up WILD is an early childhood education program
that builds on children’s sense of wonder about nature and
invites them to explore wildlife and the world around them.
Through a wide range of activities and experiences, Growing
Up WILD provides an early foundation for developing
positive impressions about the natural world and lifelong
social and emotional skills. Growing up WILD is a multiaward winning program having received the 2009 Family
Choice Award and the 2011 Renewable Natural Resource
Excellence in Journalism Award. Participants will receive the
activity guide, Growing up WILD: Exploring Nature with
Young Children. This activity guide is written especially for
early childhood educators of children 3 – 7 and features 27
field tested, hands on, nature based, readymade thematic units
and over 400 experiences. There is a minimum of 10
participants to hold this workshop.
October 8
Books Come to Life
Time and Place: BFA Fairfax Elementary, 9 am to 11:30 am
Instructors:
Rachel O’Donald and Laurie Flaherty from
Active Brain, Active Body
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader Lynn
Roberts at 849-2161
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
Participants will learn and perform the BrainDance and the
sixteen Elements of Dance while also exploring elements of
Drama such as, Sound, Voice, Language, Character, Senses,
Setting, Sequence, and Storytelling. We use classic and
improvisational stories to develop emergent literacy skills
along with important locomotor and nonlocomotor movement
skills. The BrainDance is based on fundamental movement
patterns that help to wire the central nervous system. The
BrainDance helps students and teachers become more focused,
energized, and ready to learn. Studying the Elements of Drama
helps children develop stronger communication and
movement skills while providing a creative, fun and engaging
kinesthetic lesson which reinforces concepts of early literacy,
social studies, math, and science. The curriculum helps build
cognitive, physical, social, and emotional skills.
October 10
Patterns Repeat
Time and Place: The Abbey, Networking from 5:30pm to
6pm, training from 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Deb Grennon
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader, Tina
Lothian at 285-2188
Registration limited to 30
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
This practical training will inspire you to find patterns in
nature. Nature is filled with fun patterns. Discovering
patterns can be one of a child’s first steps in science, math and
even social studies. Nature in Vermont and picture books are
filled with fun patterns; Deb will use both of these to inform
our time together. This workshop is designed for childcare
professionals including home childcare providers, childcare
center staff, teachers, Head Start home visitors and Childcare
directors. The workshop is focused on activities is for
preschool children, three and four years old. Vermont is the
perfect place for children to collect, sort and discover patterns.
Join us and go home with some nice materials and a repertoire
of ideas.
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Participants may be eligible to sign Specialized Care
Agreement Part 3 after completion of this training.
October 11
Act 166, Budgeting, Part 2
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Cindy Daniels
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
Registration limited to 6
This opportunity is brought to you with the generous
support of the Vermont Community Loan Fund and
Vermont Birth to Five.
Providers can learn “hands on” how to prepare their Publicly
Funded Prekindergarten budget and set their pricing for their
partnership for the upcoming year.
Providers are asked to bring their laptop and their 2015
business tax form (Schedule C and Schedule SE, 1120S or
990.
October 17 and 24
Basic Specialized Care Orientation
Time and Place: Family Center Mable Room, 6 to 9 pm
Instructor: Laurie Hayford-Saborowski
To register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or e-mail
her at [email protected]
Before the class, participants need to take the on-line
mandatory reporting training and bring the certificate of
completion to Laurie at the first class. The link is:
https://goto.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1087433
The purpose of this curriculum is to promote high quality
child care for children and youth who are in the specialized
care system. The quality of relationships formed between
providers, parents and children is instrumental in determining
how successful children’s development will be. Information
covered throughout the two nights include: Child and Youth
Development, Understanding and Responding to Children’s
temperament and Behavior, Understanding and Responding to
Abuse and Neglect-Protective and Risk factors, Understanding
the effects of Trauma, Establishing relationships with
Families, Roles and Responsibilities of Specialized Services
Providers, Family Services Role system, policies and
resources and caring for children with special health needs.
October 22
Discover My Plate, CCFAP
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 9 am to 1pm
Instructor: Starting Points Network Leaders
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader,
Lynn Roberts at 849-2161
A light breakfast will be served and lunch will be provided
as part of the learning opportunity.
Registration limited to 30.
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
Discover My Plate is an exciting educational journey through
the world of nutrition and health – developed under the US
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Team Nutrition
initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to support Federal
Child Nutrition programs by providing “train the trainer”
opportunities to bring nutrition education to children through
their caregivers to encourage healthy eating and physical
activity. Participants will learn about Team Nutrition and how
to fit Discover My Plate into your curriculum
October 26
Water Changes
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Deb Grennon
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader,
Tami Dodge at 524-5694
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
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funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
This hands-on workshop will inspire child and adult water
play. We will use the beautiful Red Clover nominee- Water is
Water by Miranda Paul. The workshop is intended for
childcare providers caring for preschool children, three and
four years old. Every season of the year, children love playing
with water. Vermont is the perfect place to perfect play with
water inside or out. Go home with some nice materials and a
bucket full of ideas to use right away. Participants for this
workshop are typically childcare professionals including home
childcare providers, childcare center staff, Head Start home
visitors, Childcare directors.
October 27
This hands-on training provides practical ideas and
nourishment to guide you as you feed the children in your
care. Deb will serve up a delicious book and share ideas for
mealtime. Yes, food will be part of the workshop experience
too. You will go home with a plate full of ideas, appealing to
the palates of your children. This workshop is designed for
childcare professionals including home childcare providers,
childcare center staff, teachers, Head Start home visitors and
Childcare directors. The workshop is focused on activities is
for preschool children, three and four years old. You will
leave with a menu of materials and tasty ideas.
Strengthening Families Essential Training 2, Sharing
Leadership: Partnering with Parents, Adv. Specialized Care
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Michelle Trayah
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
The goal of this training is to learn strategies to develop parent
leadership in order to strengthen families, promote optimal
child development and prevent child abuse and neglect.
November 16 and December 7
November 9
Strengthening Families Essential Training 3, Responsible
Adults/Safe Children Adv. Specialized Care
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Michelle Trayah
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
The goal of this training is to understand the statistics, the
consequences, and the magnitude of child sexual abuse and
the everyday responsibilities and opportunities adults have for
preventing it, in order to strengthen families and improve the
quality of child care.
Supporting Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Training
for Childcare Providers, Adv. Specialized Care, CDA # 3, 4,
7, 8
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, 6pm to 9pm
Instructor: Tricia Long, Director of Resilience Beyond
Incarceration
To Register: Call Starting Points Network Leader Tami
Dodge at 524-5694
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
November 10
Feeding Fare, CACFP
Time and Place: The Abbey, 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Deb Grennon
To Register: Please call Starting Points Network Leader,
Tami Dodge at 524-5694
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
Children of incarcerated parents are in every child care
program and school district in America. Nationally, one child
in 28 has an incarcerated parent. In Vermont, that number is
much higher-one in 17. Over the course of a year, 6,000
children in Vermont experience parental incarceration; they go
to bed at night missing their mom or dad in prison. Sometimes
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these children are known to their teachers, caregivers and
counselors; more often they are not.
The goal of this training is to commit to using the
Strengthening Families Protective Factor framework in order
to support parents, prevent child abuse and neglect, and
improve the quality of child care.
Notably most schools, child care programs, and social service
agencies do not have resources specifically designed to
address the concerns of children with an incarcerated parent.
Sadly, when prisoners serve time, so do their children. Too
often, the support necessary to reduce the harmful and lifelong effects of parental incarceration is lacking.
This training will provide staff in child care and educational
settings with information and activities designed to increase
their capacity to respond to the needs of these children, their
caregivers, and their incarcerated parents. Participants will be
empowered to build a supportive climate in their classrooms to
help children process grief, release shame, establish caring
relationships, and build healthy self-esteem.
November 30
CPR Re-Certification
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room, starts at 6pm
Instructor: Josh Dishaw
To Register: Call Starting Points Network Leader, Tami
Dodge at 524-5694
The fee for the class is $49.00 and can be paid to the
instructor the night of class
This opportunity is brought to you by The Starting Points
leaders of Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. Starting Points is
funded by the Vermont Child Development Division and
Vermont Birth to Five.
December 8
Strengthening Families Essential Training 4, Committing
to Strengthening Families Adv. Specialized Care
Time and Place: NCSS Mable Room 6pm to 8pm
Instructor: Michelle Trayah
To Register: Please call Margaret Maley at 393-6591 or
[email protected]
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