Volunteers Train Child Care Providers

Child care providers need ongoing training to provide high quality care for children and Extension has the expertise and a rich history of providing such training. However, shrinking budgets and staff have forced us to look at more creative ways of delivering that training. Using trained volunteers instead of Extension faculty can be a successful and cost-effective way.

Nevada Extension received a $3,500 grant from the state child care licensing bureau to conduct training sessions for child care providers throughout the state. Extension staff carefully selected eight individuals to provide child care workshops in their communities.

Extension specialists with a background in human development and early childhood education developed a training curriculum including a script, visuals, handouts, and all teaching materials used by volunteers. Volunteers were individually trained in the curriculum by Extension specialists.

Volunteers conducted 10 workshops for 162 child care providers over a two-month period. Evaluations showed significant caregiver gains in knowledge of daily curriculum planning, appropriate use of themes, and developmentally appropriate activities for preschool children. Workshop usefulness and effectiveness were also rated highly.

Several factors can make similar programs more successful:

• Selecting high quality volunteers is a must. We chose individuals who had training and experience in child development or early childhood education and who were enthusiastic and committed to the issue of child care. Current caregivers are often interested in training others and can be tremendous resources.

• It's also important to maintain excitement and motivation in volunteers. To increase ownership and enthusiasm, volunteers were able to add their own ideas and adjust the training without changing the core of the curriculum. Volunteers also received ongoing support from local Extension faculty.

• Each volunteer was provided with a job description clearly spelling out responsibilities. Such a description limits the volunteer's role to a task that's manageable. Thus, volunteers can feel a sense of accomplishment after completing the defined job and avoid committing themselves to an obligation without a foreseeable end in sight.

• Finally, high quality, yet easy-to-use, materials make the training easier for volunteers. The training kit we developed contained all the materials volunteers would need, relieving them of having to develop and prepare the materials.

With proper training, materials, and support, volunteers can be effective trainers of child care providers and help us creatively extend Extension's efforts in addressing one of the most critical family issues of the decade.