Family Culture and Society Final Thoughts

Starting this course it seemed like it was going to address content that had previously been apart of other courses about culture; however, having to conduct a deep investigation of a particular societial issue changed everything.  Digging deep in to the topic of homeless has changed me.  It has become a passion that I must support and help others to know more about.

I started this project to learn more about homelessness because our state was going to have to write in our state plan for the Child Care Block Grant how we are reaching out to this population as well as provide a description of how we would train the child care workforce to be prepared to meet the needs of these children and families once they started attending the program.  I learned a wealth of information that needs to be included in the training, but I also learned that I had a very stereotypical view of the homeless population.  I had not idea that 1 million children were homeless.

I would be interested in learning more and do some data collection once child care programs begin to enroll homeless child and families to see if it improves the education outcomes for these children.  The research states that experiencing a homeless episode during the early childhood years relates to increase potential for poor academic outcomes.  How do we break the cycle?  How do each of us make a difference in the life of a homeless child?