February CECMP Newsletter!

A message from CECMP Director, Neva Bandelow

Greetings!

I hope this month brings you time to enjoy what matters to you most! As we move into the second month of 2023, my vision is for us to continue to collaborate in partnership; as we implement supports that create lasting impact for our children, families, educators (including faculty), coordinators and mentors across the State of California.

I am pleased to announce that the CECMP is fully staffed with the addition of Jo Nacola who joined our team as the Senior Administrative Assistant. Jo brings a wealth of knowledge, including a depth of experience focused on equity and social justice, and is highly skilled in providing program support. He will be responsible for much of our “behind the scenes” administrative work, including the coordination of some of the CECMP communications with you.

As Director, I am very interested in becoming more involved with your community partners, specifically First 5’s, Local Planning Councils, Resource and Referral agencies and the County Offices of Education in your regions/cities/towns.

As shared in the January Coordinator meeting, we are excited about the collaboration efforts and grants made possible by leveraging in Alameda County. I am eager to discover what community partnerships could bring to the mentor program in our counties. To do so, I need your help in making these connections. “Warm” email introductions are much appreciated so that I can strengthen our CEMCP opportunities.

Finally, we are excited to offer three regional Institutes this year and one Advanced Director Mentor Institute (ADMI) this Spring. February 25-26, we will be in Palm Desert for our Institute, March’s Institute will be March 25-26 in Sacramento, and our ADMI will be held all day March 24th, We will conclude with a Redding Institute on April 15-16th. Please be on the lookout for more in depth communication regarding topics and logistics.

I am looking forward to this new calendar year and wish all of you the best in 2023.

Warmly,

Neva

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WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

Shasta College Introduces

New ECE Lab Director!

Shasta College ECE Lab is excited to introduce their new Lab Director, and Director Mentor,

Beverly Mullally Charsha!

Beverley has been a Director for over 22 years and has a strong background in social constructivist schools.

Welcome to the CECMP Community, Beverly!

CECMP Pride!

We LOVE hearing stories from our CECMP participants! In December Merced College celebrated their Mentors at their ECE Banquet! Each Mentor was gifted a CECMP sweatshirt and t-shirt from CECMP Coordinator, April Heft.

Interested in purchasing your own CECMP Sweatshirt and

T-Shirt? Visit our website to learn how to order yours!

Sizes are limited and will be provided

on a first come, first served basis. Order soon!

Click below for an order form!

ORDER HERE!

2023 CECMP Regional Institutes:

SAVE THE DATES

Southern California Region

February 25th-26th

Palm Desert

Central California

Region

March 25th - 26th

Sacramento

Northern California

Region

April 15th -16th

Redding

Registration for our Central and Northern Regional Institutes will be released soon!

The March Institute will also incorporate an Advanced Director Mentor Institute as an additional day.

CECMP Application Workgroup

We put out a call for CECMP participants to join us in an application workgroup, which will meet Dec-May to reflect, review, brainstorm and draft a new application, application process and address issues of selection committee process. 33 people expressed interest in participating in the workgroup on the application.

Of those 33 people, 16 people completed our pre workgroup demographic survey, demonstrating these demographics:

15 of 16 were women.
10 of 16 were white
11 out of 16 were over 55.
3 out of 16 were born outside of USA
15 of 15 identified English as primary language
0 identified as LGBTQ+

Given this lack of diversity we have outreached to 25 BIPOC ECE/Education organizations inviting them to join us for an informational session on CECMP to frame the context of the application workgroup and inviting them to join us.

The next workgroups will be held on

February 13th, 9:00am-10.30am and

February 15th, 6:00pm-7:30pm

When Neva and Brooke presented at NAEYC’s Annual Conference on White Saviorism and invited the participants to reflect on CECMP’s demographics the questions and feedback were centered around how CECMP leadership was going to specifically outreach, invite and involve BIPOC ECE folks to help us think about our outreach, application, and selection process; so this is what we are doing. We would love to invite more to join us.

If you are interested, you can indicate so through this survey. So far, we held two different days/times in December for our first session and 11 people attended the morning session, while 6 people attended the evening session. We hope for more to join in Jan/Feb!

JOIN US BY CLICKING HERE!

Looking for some more Learning?

CECMP Mentor Teachers do not reflect the CA ECE Workforce demographics nor CA ECE Community College student demographics. As CECMP takes action to address this, we recommend this article/video of a panel which highlights the latest [2019] research on teacher diversity, including a forthcoming report by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and The Education Trust on focus group research with teachers of color (Advancing Equity Position Statement). Panelists will discuss best practices and policy solutions.