On February 4th, the Childcare Literacy and Professional Development Initiative kicked off the Camden City Directors’ Academy by engaging 17 local child care center directors and assistant directors in the first of a series of 12 seminars provided through June. The Camden City Directors’ Academy aims to clarify the role of early childhood education program directors and to enhance their leadership skills in planning, developing, managing, directing, monitoring, and evaluating their centers based on developmentally appropriate practices and quality standards for child care. RU-CCCS provides 48 hours of interactive and reflective thinking training, and requires each participant to develop a professional portfolio that will include specific action plans to enhance areas of weakness, as well as support to continual growth in areas of strength. Seminars focus on leadership skills, performance appraisal, marketing and public relations, staff management and professional development.

Lou Warren-Groomes, M.Ed., leads participants through a variety of instructional methods such as hands-on experiences, reading assignments, small and large group discussions, role-plays, reflective practice, audio-visual materials, handouts, written assignments, and small lectures.
Lou is a member of the Childcare Literacy and Professional Development Planning Team, an instructor for the initiative’s Child Development Associate Program, and an independent early care and education consultant with over 25 years of experience in adult learning principles.

The Camden City Directors’ Academy was implemented as a result of the evaluation of the 2003-2004 Child Development Associate (CDA) Program of the Childcare Literacy and Professional Development Initiative. Dialog among RUCCCS staff, Camden city directors, CDA instructors, and CDA candidates revealed a need to further enhance early childhood education professional development by empowering local child care center directors to support their staff in the pursuit of a CDA credential and to encourage staff to implement in the classroom the best practices learned through the CDA process.

Child care centers represented in this cohort of the Camden City Directors’ Academy include: Bernice Miller Day Care, Broadway Family Center, Good Shepherd Academy, El Centro Day Care, Kings Kids Child Development Center, Labar Day Care, Martin Luther King Child Development Center, Partners In Parenting, Respond Child Development Centers, Rock of Ages, St. John’s Day Care, Trinity Episcopal, YMCA, and Your Future Academy. The Camden City Directors’ Academy fulfills the state requirements of completion of Directors’ Academy by directors of Abbott-contracted child care centers, and directors of licensed centers who have not earned a bachelor’s degree and serve more than 30 children. The Camden City Directors’ Academy is made possible through the generous support of: the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

For more information about the Camden City Directors’ Academy, please contact Angela Connor-Morris or Rebecca Heritage at (856) 225-6739.

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