News From ACT in the Communities December/January Highlights

Hello! We are proud of the progress we have made with the ACT Against Violence program. Thanks to the support, commitment, and hard work on the part of many people, the ACT National Training program has reached more than 500 professionals and thousands of parents and teachers of young children all over the country. The following are highlights from ACT in the communities and those who make it a reality!

Annie Spiegelman is a First Assistant Director in the Director's Guild of America, a writer who is generously donating a portion of proceeds from her book "Growing Seasons" to ACT. She is a mother and lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay area.

Hi !

With all the tragedy going on in the world, I wanted to share this one uplifting moment that I experienced today. I was at my son Jack's school giving a 15 minute talk about Martin Luther King Jr. to his 2nd grade class. His teacher is great and the kids were sharp, asking really good questions. I've never seen his class so quiet, focused and interested in a discussion. At the end of the talk, I played the first five minutes of the famous "I Have A Dream" speech on a small tape player I had brought in. Actually hearing MLK's beautiful spoken words just blew the kid's minds!

At recess, when I was leaving the playground, six kids, not from Jack's class, but his grade, ran over to give me our usual mushy hugs goodbye. They asked what was in my hand, and I said it was a tape player with MLK. They wanted to hear it. So I sat them down at a picnic table in the freezing playground and played the beginning of the speech for them. Within seconds, about twenty-five kids of all ages were surrounding me, attentively listening, cheering and clapping along with the thousands of 1963 Washington DC protesters. It got so loud and crowded that the yard supervisor came over thinking there was a problem. Then she saw what we were doing and she stood with us listening and smiling too. Then she had security remove me from the school property. Just kidding.
It was an amazing moment.

Annie Spiegelman

ACT in Toledo, Ohio!

Recently, Michele Knox, Ph.D. of Toledo, Ohio received a grant from Target Stores to provide training to caregivers of young children in Northwest Ohio. The trainings will take place at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo. They will be free and open to the public. Dr. Knox also recently published a brochure entitled, "They're Driving Me Crazy." The brochure was developed for parents of young children. It explains methods for coping with young children's behavior and gives reasons not to spank or hit children. The copyright is waived, so it can be copied and printed by anyone who is interested. It is available at the website www.stophitting.org (click on Spank Out Day USA). Dr. Knox has also written an article on spanking and corporal punishment of children, entitled, "Ending Physical Punishment of Children: A Call to Action," which will be posted on the ACT website and submitted to professional and public print media sources. She recently joined the Ohio Psychological Association's early childhood mental health intervention initiative. For further information on any of these activities, contact Michele Knox by Email.

Bill Ganza
Chief Learning Officer
Professional Training and Consulting
Stone Mountain, GA

ACT Messages Used in Trainings

Over the past year I have included the ACT materials and messages in many workshops that I present on Child Guidance and Child Abuse. The most interesting debate is always on spanking and I think that this debate opens people up to the violence in our society and around us. Over the past year I have touched the lives of many families and many
early childhood teachers in both workshops for teachers and workshops for parents.

I conducted a one-day session for Region IV head start for teachers, administrators and parents. Over 50 people attended this session. In August I presented a 4-hour class on child abuse and used the ACT materials to over 200 head start teachers in my county and the seven surrounding counties in Georgia. Last October I presented the ACT message and the materials to social support staff working with children (Resource Coordinators and Family Service Workers) and families in both Head Start and Pre-kindergarten in Georgia. I conducted three sessions and had many requests for more information on ACT and the materials that are use. Over 100 participants heard the message.

This year I will be presenting these materials to both GAYC – the Georgia Association on Young Children and NAEYC - the National Association for the Education of Young Children. It is my hope that over this next year to touch the livers of more teachers and families and help reduce the violence that children see and feel.

Jamilah R. Jor’dan, Ph.D.
President

Partnership for Quality Child Care to partner with The Pillars Community Services to provide ACT Training

The Partnership for Quality Child Care is a public private early care and education initiative launched in 1999 to provide accreditation facilitation support services to center-based and family child care providers in the city of Chicago. Annually, the Partnership reaches over 13,000 children and over 1,500 teaching staff in Chicago’s diverse communities.

The Pillars Community Services is a community based social service agency that provides assistance in the areas of mental health, substance abuse treatment and prevention, sexual assault, counseling, domestic violence, early childhood education and after school care as well as parenting skills workshops.

The collaboration is made possible by a grant awarded by the Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation to the American Psychological Association to provide ACT training in two locations—the Chicago metropolitan area and Hartford, CT. Pillars was selected to be the Chicago site.

Using a “train the trainer” model the Partnership has identified and will invite a cohort of center-based and family childcare providers to participate in ACT Against Violence training. The majority of providers are staff of multi-site agencies served by the Partnership. The training will be provided by Deborah J. Shamlin, a certified ACT facilitator. She is also a Family Violence Prevention Educator.

Additional support for this collaboration will be provided by Ernestine Carr Thomas, M.Ed., Accreditation Facilitation Manager for the Partnership, Jamilah R. Jor’dan, Ph.D., President of the Partnership and John W. Shustitzky, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of The Pillars. Drs. Jor’dan and Shustitzky are both certified ACT facilitators. The partnership provides opportunities for both organizations to be agents of change by making information about early violence prevention accessible to individuals who impact the lives of children and families.

Kara J. Woodworth
Humboldt Domestic Violence Services
Humboldt County, California

ACT in Humboldt County

I work for Humboldt Domestic Violence Services as the Children's Services Coordinator.

I recently began developing curriculum for our safe house. The case manager and I conduct two parent meetings per resident stay. We focus on discipline styles and use some of the ACT handouts and examples. We also talk a lot about owning feelings, so the Anger Management worksheets and info have been helpful. The parents are also amazed over the TV Violence fact.

I presented a thirty-minute ACT training at our All staff meeting.

When working with clients I now make sure that every one, including myself, has something to do with their hands during a session.

Also, I often explain the difference between reacting and responding. This technique has worked so well for me, I enjoy sharing it with others.