On one Saturday each month, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., you will find some 70 home child-care providers at Ready to Learn Providence devoting part of their hard-earned weekend to enhance their professional skills. All are members of R2LP’s El Club de Proveedoras de Cuidado Infantil de Rhode Island.
The club, which got started in 2004 with about 25 graduates of R2LP’s HeadsUp! Reading, now provides an important network for 230 Spanish-speaking home child-care providers in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls. The monthly workshops, conducted in Spanish, give the providers a chance to strengthen their skills and to earn hours toward the renewal of their licensing. But equally important, according to participants, is the professional camaraderie they find at these meetings.
All of the club members have completed HeadsUp! Reading, a course in early literacy instruction, and Mind in the Making, a course in early childhood development. Many also have taken R2LP’s Early Literacy Curriculum course. All three courses qualify for college credits.
Most of the six-hour monthly training sessions focus on early literacy instruction, environmental issues, and health. R2LP staff members facilitate the classes in literacy, but outside speakers from Lifespan, Women & Infants, The Providence Center and the Environmental Justice League lead the other sessions. For the final half hour of the day, members have an opportunity to share relevant community news and resources with their colleagues.
The day-long workshops are held ten times a year. For more information, please call Tania Quezada at 401-490-9960 or email her at tquezada@provplan.org.
