Dominique Metoyer ECE Community Trainer Workforce Development, Child Care Resource Center

Dominique Metoyer, an ECE Community Coach at Child Care Resource Center (CCRC), discusses her journey from classroom teacher to community coach, emphasizing her passion for working with children aged 0-3. She outlines her role, which includes delivering training sessions on topics like CLASS, SEFEL, and fatherhood engagement. Metoyer highlights the Nurturing Fathers program, a 13-week course designed to foster father-child relationships, noting its success in engaging fathers and promoting emotional growth. She stresses the importance of male role models and the impact of fatherhood programs on family dynamics. Metoyer encourages participants to show up and be present, emphasizing the ripple effect of their actions.

Nurturing Fathers Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYegMvm6ai0
Additional Nurturing Fathers Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbVTsdzTzk0

https://youtu.be/t1o1Zk8uqqY

Early Education and Development webpage:
https://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/index.php/en/ess-2019/early-education-and-development

Music by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay - Where the Light Is

Transcript

Dominique Metoyer CCRC

SPEAKERS

Ana Garcia, Nancy Sherod, Dominique Metoyer

Ana Garcia  00:08

Hello, everyone. This is Anna Garcia and

Nancy Sherod  00:11

Nancy Sherrod, and we want to thank you for tuning in to tomorrow's readiness starts today, a place where we dive into topics and visit with individuals who are supporting San Bernardino County, zero to eight year olds through their community outreach and educational supports, 

Ana Garcia  00:24

today, we are welcoming a boots on the ground, awesome individual who works for our partners at Childcare Resource Center. Thank you so much for being here. Dominique Metoyer,

Dominique M.  00:32

Thank you. Anna Nancy, thank you for having me excited. 

Nancy Sherod  00:36

We are too It's gonna be a fun episode. Everybody, hang on to your hats and glasses, friends,

Dominique M.  00:41

we're missing it, right?

Nancy Sherod  00:43

If you've been a listener for the past year, you'll remember we spent some time with James Moses, Regional Director for CCRC. Remember those acronyms? Everybody? Child Care Resource Center. He shared with us all the great things that they're doing to support families throughout our county, and we're thrilled to bring Dominique here to share with you a closer look at some of the education and opportunities she's providing for those she's supporting that are working with little learners. So Dom, can you take a moment to share with us a little about yourself? What's your current role, and what have you done in the years past that's led you to the work you are doing today?

Dominique M.  01:16

Thank you. Nancy Anna, again. Thank you for having me. Thank you everyone for listening. 

Nancy Sherod  01:21

I know we're excited. This

Dominique M.  01:22

is fun. So as Anna mentioned, my name is Dominique. I work for CCRC, fully out Child Care Resource Center as a ECE community coach. I started off in the field in the classroom. Never expected to work with children at all that. No, that was not my focus. I was in college, and my roommates were like, Hey, we have a children's dinner on campus, and you don't have to cover any of your tattoos or take out any piercings. You can't see me, but it's there, right? And I was thinking, Oh, this could be for me. Okay, so I started off as what they call a Friday friend, and I was only a sub. I only worked on Fridays. Did that first semester, my very first day, this little girl sneezed in my mouth, right? She sneezed directly in my mouth. And I'm thinking, okay, and that little girl and her mother, who ended up being my master teacher, and her and I are still friends to this day. We don't need to say how many years ago. That was because it was like yesterday, right, right. And, I mean, don't get me wrong, I sound like I'm fresh out of college. I'm not. I have been in the field for over 17 years, so I've worked in the classroom. Zero to Three is my absolute jam. I love that age group. It's all about the development. I've worked with preschoolers, but it just seems they tend to get a little more so and so doesn't like me, and it's like they're not going to be your friend later on. Anyway. Don't even worry about it. So zero to three is my favorite. I've been in the classroom, out of the classroom, a home visitor. I've worked with parents. I've worked directly with teachers, site supervisor, and now I get the opportunity to do a lot of direct trainings for our providers in the community as well as one dear to my heart is working with the fathers in our community as well.

Nancy Sherod  03:07

Which we are first we're going to talk about in a few minutes. Sorry. Love our

Dominique M.  03:10

dads, absolutely. All right, so

Nancy Sherod  03:12

tell us, give us a brief overview. What does your average week look like? What are you doing out in the field?

Dominique M.  03:17

Oh, average week. So we are, I'm going to say, blessed enough to actually work from home, which allows for a lot of music to be played in the background while I am working on PowerPoints preparing trainings. But that also does not minimize my work with the community. Rather, it's with our LPC, which is our local planning council, and I get to work with our inclusion as well as leadership, I have other partnerships, working with sbcss, of course, thanks again for having me where, you know, we get to collaborate a lot with trainings that are necessary, things that are needed, whether it's introducing some new environments for class or anything else along those lines. So it's a lot of prep work, and then I get the My favorite part is delivering trainings or working with providers and parents.

Ana Garcia  04:06

Awesome. So dive into some of the topics that and sessions that you cover, you know, with your providers and teachers and parents and and all of the above. Yeah, and if you haven't attended her training, she's awesome. 

Dominique M.  04:18

 I appreciate it. I think Anna is a little biased because we worked together previously, so we've known each other for that's not it, but

Nancy Sherod  04:27

here is exactly what you get when you hang out in a training.

Dominique M.  04:30

Thank you. So let me think some of the different ones I mentioned class. If you're not aware of that, that is a classroom assessment scoring system. That one's more of a formal assessment. We go over several which is social, emotional Foundations for Early Learning, inclusion was another one that I mentioned. I get to work with fathers, which is our nurturing fathers program that runs for 13 weeks trainings also go with leadership of. I'm trying to think it's like a whole catalog, leadership, inclusion, fatherhood, engagement and assessments. I would say we'll probably go along the lines. And then when I'm also asked to attend a conference, I'll be training hopefully again, up in Victor Valley College, Nancy and I were both there last year, and then they've also invited me to do their symposium a couple of times as well.

Nancy Sherod  05:26

So tell us who the audience is that you're typically delivering. So fathers is one of them. You have that group of fathers. Who else do you typically deliver to? 

Dominique M.  05:34

So our providers, and we have such a huge network as you know, San Bernardino County stretches extremely far. But not only that, because we are given the opportunity to work from home, I'm also able to deliver trainings virtually. So with that being said, I've had people attend from San Bernardino County. I've had people San Bernardino. We're in San Bernardino, San Diego County, the other San County in San Diego County. I've had it from up north, not to mention there's some counties that I didn't know existed in California that they'll get on their Oh, yeah, we just saw it was available, so we jump in. It can be people who all know in family, child cares. It can be our center based staff, and that age range stretches. So I always say it's about that zero to eight, because if they own their own family child care, then we have that range of the ages.

Nancy Sherod  06:27

So if I'm a child care listening to the podcast for the first time, or one of the several times I listen to the podcast, because we know you're going to come back to listen to us, right? But if I'm new and I haven't heard of these trainings, how as a child care provider, whether I'm in a, you know, site based program, a home based program, how can I find out more information about what's being offered and what I can attend and learn more about 

Dominique M.  06:51

That is such a good question, because that's usually what it is, right? Where do I go to get this information? Well, as you mentioned, we're Child Care Resource Center, or as our acronym, CCRC, and you can check our website, www.ccrcca.org where you can get a list of all of our updated trainings that are happening. If you are already on our California registry, which hopefully you are, that's where all your hours and units are being housed. You can definitely look for our trainings on there, as well as our newsletter that goes out if you are subscribed to it.

Nancy Sherod  07:22

to it. So teachers, if I have a TK teacher, a preschool teacher, they're all eligible to jump in there and look through workforce registry as well. Absolutely,

Dominique M.  07:31

we encourage it. And if you need help with workforce registry as well, giving us a call, we have my supervisor, Mercedes Williams, who's always helpful, as well as one of our training facilitators and a counterpart of mine, Angelica Preciado, both also able to help along with myself.

Ana Garcia  07:50

So Dominique as a teacher, provider attending your trainings, what are some key strategies for those participating in your session so that they can get the full you know, experience both training experience like, what do they need to bring to the table to when attending your training?

Dominique M.  08:06

Hmm, this one sounds a little weird, but attending my trainings, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I welcome the silence. It doesn't sound like it now, right? Because I'm very excited. Plus, you guys don't know this, but they have all these refreshments here. It's wonderful. They're laughing because they don't but no, really though it's when you come to any one of my trainings, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I say that because if you can get into that place, you're really going to give yourself the opportunity for growth. I ask a lot of questions, I want to know your response. Everybody who attends brings some type of experience. Rather, you've only been doing this for six months, or you've been doing this for 18,19, 20 years, and everything in between, you always have something to bring to the conversation. So knowing that I'm going to ask questions. I'm going to want to respond virtually. We do a lot of so you're going to go into breakout rooms. You're going to meet people. I love when cameras are on, because then otherwise I feel like I'm talking to myself, which I do that already. So if I'm doing these extra hours and it's later, it's it's nice to actually talk to people, but I want to hear from you, right? I try to make it very as you hear now and how you hear us talking. This is what it's like during the training. We're there to connect the I always say teachers are probably the most selfish, because they never like to share, right? They'll have a whole file cabinet with all these little notes and ideas and all these great ideas that they have, but then they don't want to share with anybody. But yet, we teach children to share all the time, so that that's probably one of the biggest come ready to engage, come ready to interact, come ready to share your expertise. And definitely come ready to be uncomfortable and know that you're going to leave with some type of growth or something new. That you didn't come in with, and

Ana Garcia  10:02

I've attended your training, so I know you always create that safe space, and you make them feel comfortable. So I think they're more open to sharing. And you know, with with you having to, like, please share your cameras. Like, I think people are ready once they see you. Like, be you. That's awesome. Yeah, 

Dominique M.  10:20

I appreciate and I and I appreciate you saying that, Anna, because one of the lately, especially with the virtual and, like I said, from being able to reach San Bernardino County and other counties, I'll have some people hop on who I say are my repeat offenders in a very great way, but they'll like, Oh no, well, I saw the training was yours, so I definitely signed up for it, or I told somebody. And when we did your symposium just a couple months ago, one of the ladies like, Okay, I'm sneaking in here, but I told the other people, if they didn't know, I saw your name on the board. So go in there, and as a trainer, that lets me know that not only are you coming in and you appreciate maybe my presentation style, but removing myself from it, you're really gaining something because you're the one taking charge of your learning. So when you show up to a training at six o'clock at night or 530 to 830 and you're there for hours and hours after you've already worked, that doesn't really speak to me as a trainer, but it definitely speaks to you and wanting to to learn more and increase those skills that you already have, 

Nancy Sherod  11:24

and then recognizing you're meeting people where they are, that's what you do. Um, let's talk a little bit. So we have families that listen as well. Let's talk. You have said a few times fatherhood engagement, your fatherhood project, nurturing fathers. I mean, if you could see her grin right now, she's completely grinning. So you can tell this is a passion project. So tell us a little bit more about that 13 weeks, and what you do?

Dominique M.  11:44

Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I have to definitely make sure I give a shout out to my co trainer, Jarren Gadea, yeah. So when you see us together, it's funny, we finish each other's sentences, and this is something that we're very passionate about. And we got lucky to be introduced to this from Juan Solis, who's right out here in San Bernardino County. They have their Inland Empire fatherhood coalition. So he's amazing. We were lucky to be trained by him, and who they call Papa Jeff, uh, and I have to admit, when I first went into this training, I was thinking, Yeah, this isn't for me, right? We're not going to go into my whole backstory with my life, but I was just like, No, these dads, no, this isn't. This is going to be a struggle. I mean, I guess I can deliver, I can facilitate, but I don't know about this. We had our first cohort. It was myself, Jaren and David, who's part of our organization, but he's out in LA County. So this is our cohort. These are our start offs, our OGS, as we call them, and 13 weeks, okay, we can do this. We can figure this out. These men showed up consistently, and this is our you know, this is our first group. We had seven committed fathers who showed up day in and day out, right? It's every week. It's two and a half hours. They are coming directly into work. It's a commitment. Yes, they're coming after work. They're coming tired, they're coming dirty, they're coming exhausted. And so we see this, and we get to know them. We get to know their stories, we get to know their why for them being here. And I have to admit, personally, you know, initially we think, Oh, dads aren't really that interested. Their thought is, I'm going to be a provider. That's what I'm supposed to do. I'm just supposed to provide. But when we hear these men come up with questions that they pose to the group. We create this space where, though we're facilitating it, we're holding it. This is your space. And so after the first day, we hear, Oh, okay, this is a little more serious than what I thought it was going to be. This is, this is going to be deep like it is, because we start off with going back to their relationship with their fathers. It starts with their childhood. They're really doing some reflection. That's not easy. I talked about being comfortable with being uncomfortable. They stepped in and did everything that you would need to do, I guess, or they allowed for the vulnerability they allowed for the conversations? But by week three, we hear, I didn't even know they had something like this for dads, yeah, and usually people ask me, So do they have to be there? No, these are not men who were ordered to be there. They're not here because they did something wrong. They're not here because they're bad fathers. They showed up because an opportunity was presented where this space was for men only. Now, of course, Jaren and I were the only females there, David being a male. But even with that space, they're just like, we appreciate how in. Intentional. You all are even down to your setup. You set up for us. When you order us dinner, you never just order us pizza. And that seems very small, but yeah, it adds up like we know you guys can go out and get a slice of pizza, but you know what? We're gonna make sure that this this night you guys have ribs and macaroni and cheese and because again, coming directly after work and showing up as their authentic selves, showing up in a space where they can ask questions, showing up where they can say, I don't think I know how to be nurturing. I wasn't raised with the Father. I don't know or Well, my father was just the one who was supposed to go to work and provide right? I used to hear like, oh, wait till your dad gets home. And so when we ask those questions, we also ask them, but who's the father? And that's where we start off at the very beginning, and we circle back with it towards the end. So in between, there's a lot of different weeks and themes that we look at right? We're looking at nurturing. We're looking at emotion. We're looking at what do you want to take from your father, what do you want to leave behind? We look at how do you balance? Because that's really big as a parent, mother or father, that's really big. There's a lot that you have going on. What are the things that you used to do that brought you a lot of joy and now, w`hat are those blocks that are preventing you from being able to do that? So we have these fathers. There they go through the different weeks. One of my favorite weeks is week eight, and they actually bring their children in, which is a joy for us and an honor for us, because we've gotten to hear about these children. Yes, we've gotten to hear about them for weeks. They start off introducing and you watch these dads light up when they speak about their children, regardless of what their situation is, they light up speak about their children. And so week eight, they get to plan a whole play day. All we do is hold the space that's cool, and they let us know what food but we make it easy to get pizza, because it's children, right, exactly the ages range. But they bring in snacks, so they'll bring in ice cream sundaes. But with this, they have to read a story with the kids. Somebody puts together an activity that they all do with the kids. Somebody hosts games and the kids just rotate. And it's important, because we talk about family rules. What does that look like? You know, how do we make sure we're being consistent with our rules? But how that also helps to nourish a relationship, because it doesn't mean that you messed up. So now everything is derailed. It's understanding that we have rules and there's consequences. But I'm not doing it in a negative light. I'm doing it because I do love you and I do care, and I want to teach you, and I want to come alongside you. So week eight is great. We get to see all the kids. They're wonderful. We get to meet them. And then we get to week 12, which is the end. This is when the fathers take the time to start writing their commitment speech. This is a speech that they're going to read out in front of everybody. So in front of everybody, check out our YouTube. You can see amazing clips of our dads. Wow. But they put out this, they start writing, as I mentioned, they start writing their commitment statement. This is what's going to be read to their spouse or CO parent if they show up. This is what's going to be read to their children, who they bring for week 13. And so week 13 comes, and we set up this environment. It is graduation. This is a celebration you've put in work. We had dads who were sick in the middle of it, and still were like, Hey, can I zoom in? And then when they came back the next week, they're like, Zoom is not the same. But it worked only because I already had a trust. So they come in, we have it decked out, decked out, table claws, flameless candles. Flameless candles, we're not so many fires. Flameless candles, just this whole environment set up for them. We welcome their spouse or CO parent. Excuse me, as I mentioned, we welcome their children, and they stand up and they read this commitment looking directly at their family. That's awesome. I got chills and yeah, and it's, this is the father that I want to be. This is who I want to be for you. So we got to do that our very first cohort. You know, I get chills because every time we started off, I get chills every time. And I'm not crying today, probably because none of the guys are in front of me. But it's funny because that whole first cohort that we had, the dad's like, you're the only one who has not cried. I was like, I'm holding it in, right? I'm holding this in, keeping it together. I'm keeping it together for y'all, because y'all are crying, so I'm trying to keep it together for you. But it was just such a phenomenal experience, and then to get the opportunity. To do it again with another cohort, with another group of men, and we just got to see so much growth. We learned. And in our second cohort, this probably sticks with me. Two quotes really stick with me, actually, from our first cohort, one of the dads was sharing out with the group, and he said, You know, there's two type of men, one who says I can't, and one who says I can. Both men are correct. And I was just like, yeah, and he goes, and I go with the I can, because I can be better. I can do things different. And I've gotten to hear so much of a story, times where he would send me around a message as an update. Guess what happened? Guess what happened? And so we built those bombs, and then our second cohort, again, different group of men, but still, they come with so much insight. And the routine, or the theme that we continue to hear is, I didn't know there was a place like this for men. I didn't know there was an opportunity for just us men to come together. We're building bonds. We're building these relationships. They go out, they go hiking together, they have barbecues together, they go to their children's birthday parties. Now, right? They've created their own network, and in our second cohort, I think it was our first session, and one of the dads, he goes, Is it okay if I ask a question to the group, please Absolutely. Darren and I are just here facilitating, because this time it's just Darren and I, we're just here facilitating. Go ahead, the floor is yours. And he asked the group, do you ever just feel like a provider and not a father? Oh, ouch. That's a heavy place to be, yeah. And what a brave soul to share that night. And he goes, is that an okay question? By all means, please. And they all thought for a second, I am like a provider. Do I get to do what I would think or encompass as a father? And that started a whole nother Domino. One of the dads, like, I didn't even grow up with the dad, so I don't know what that's supposed to look like. Supposed to look like. I don't want to do this homework. I don't want to do this but especially that young man who came back the next week and he said, I rose to your challenge. Like, what do you mean? And he all the dads start calling me DOM by this time, and they're like, Well, you said, this is our homework. It was our first week, and I remember I was very much like, I don't have a father. I didn't grow up with the Father. I can't even do this homework. I don't know if I want to do this, he said, but I spent all week thinking about it, and I was able to write what I felt that I was missing from not having a father as a child, you're taking the first step, right? And again, it's just a space I get so I'm full of chills, yeah, and I'm full of chills, and I also don't have any coffee or tea, but that's a different story

Nancy Sherod  22:49

We're not going to live that never.

Dominique M.  22:52

But these men show up in a space, and we were provided the opportunity to offer it after our second cohort. We weren't able, unfortunately, to do another 13 week, but we were able to do cafes. And these cafes, we have a lot of our OGS, as we call them. And then we had some other fathers that Jaren had met through some of her parent ones that she does, and she was telling them about it, but some of our dads were in it, and they're like, Oh no, you have to go. If you've never been with Dom and Jaren, like, you need to go. It's a space where none of the wives, because the wives and girlfriends were at that session, none of them get to it and they're whispering it like, real quiet, like, yeah, none of them get to come to this. It's just for us. And in doing that, we got to meet these other fathers. And we hear our OG saying, if they offer this, again, you have to attend this. You have to attend this. And I bring that up to say as it trickles down, because, again, it's a space that was created for the dads. And then just recently, Jared and I hosted one of our cafes, which we called back to school wisdom for dads. And we had a lot of the OG dads who happened. And what we got from that is these are fathers who did this with us, starting almost two years ago. So we got to hear when they're talking about their children, who we first met two years ago, who are now doing this, they're doing that exactly. And the dads are talking about the type of father that they are now making sure that they create a balance, that they know that they're not only the provider that when it's time for a conference or anything like that, that they want to be there, but not only that, where they're finding that each child is their own kind of individual and also not them, so they're taking the time for learning their love languages and like that. Yeah, and one of the dads is just telling us to go, I take each of my kids on a solo day, like we'll go off go out for ice cream, or we'll go hiking, or. There, I've learned to have conversations with them. I've learned to ask, Well, what do you mean by that? Or what would that look like? And setting these rules and understanding that I'm so much more than just a provider, and it's just like, oh. And when they can't, it's amazing. And when they can't make it, they're texting us or messaging us something came up, or I wasn't able to get someone to watch the kids. When is the next one? Please don't forget about me. And another one of our cafes. And Og brought somebody. And I was like, I'm surprised, out of all people, you bought somebody, because this is this group is kind of something special to you. And he goes, Well, I took a while. I kind of interviewed him 

Nancy Sherod  25:40

see if he could bring him into the circle.

Dominique M.  25:43

I have to see if he's worthy, right? I'm like, What do you mean? He goes, well, we'd have a lot of conversations at work. We would talk, and I was just kind of seeing what type of parent he was, or what type of father he was, and goes, because this is such a special space to me that not just anybody can come into here, like we take it serious, trust each other, we share a lot with one another. He goes, and I just felt he's gonna really benefit from this. I was like, wow, he goes, and I told him about you and Jaren, I guess you guys are okay, all right. But I'm really glad that again, he brought him, but it just really has shown us over these years how important it is to understand men's roles in their children's lives. Rather, it's your child or just even have this male role, so maybe it's your nephew. They're like, I don't have any kids. How do they even end up on this podcast? I end up listening to this. I'm just going through my Spotify, right? But when you're really thinking about it, everybody plays a role. We talk about children, we talk about what it looks like when they have their tribe, their circle, and men, I speak to it more now, and I tell the men I learn from them every time I'm with them. And I take everything that they say, because their role is just so important in our children's lives, something as simple as a little boy seeing a male who they have the strong relationship with, or that they have the strong respect for, reading a book can change their Yeah, can change their view of reading. And I especially bring up books, because I'm such a book, right? But we see that, right? They're interested in doing the reading because they saw another man read. So, oh, it can be cool. It's not only a girl thing, right? Um, we see the the spending the time, the having the conversations, and a huge one is even just showing emotion we don't get to see. You know, that's one of the topics that the men talk about. Sometimes I was told I'm not supposed to show emotion, but I hear from these men, and I see just how important their role is within our community, how important their role is with the children. So rather, you're working with children, rather they're in your home, whether you're spending so much time with them, that male role model, it's more powerful than I think any of us tend to think. And men want to be included in what's going on with their children. Men want to know what's happening at school. Men want to have those conversations with teachers, too, and sometimes it's just creating and inviting them into the space.

Nancy Sherod  28:19

So if we have a listener that is like, that sounds like something I'm interested in or intrigued by. Is there a place that they can go to see when the next cafes are? Are cafes open to drop in? 

Dominique M.  28:29

Yes, they are open to drop ins right now again. So because it was one of those that we got to try and implement, and it's not, unfortunately, a permanent fixture at this moment. It's definitely a lot of word of mouth, okay, even just the interest list. Rather, you're emailing me, which I'll give that at the end, because it's a lot of letters. So rather emailing me, rather you're sending an email to Jaren, who's that's probably your even better contact when it comes to that for those cafes, but even beyond, because she does provide a lot of those parent interactions, those parent conferences, those parent training. So she's a great person to reach out to right now for myself and still making sure male engagement is important, even tomorrow, I'm delivering a training on male engagement for providers so they understand what are ways to bring males in? What are ways to invite them? But also seeing the importance again, of having that male connection, inviting them into the space, I would definitely say. And the last time I did this training, I had a lot of providers stay after. Mind you, we're going till eight o'clock at night, but they still want to chit chat, so they stayed after they're like, I have to admit, I've been very biased, and I don't know how to approach the dads, or I didn't think the dads wanted to know, or I didn't know how to set up. But really, you just said something as simple as something needed to be built. To build stuff, they love to see a problem. Product of what they're doing. So, oh, wait, I get to build a stage for graduation for my kids school, and then I get to watch my kid walk across it like that's huge. So 

Nancy Sherod  30:09

I love that. 

Ana Garcia  30:10

That is powerful. Dominique. So tell us why you do what you do, 

Dominique M.  30:13

why I do what I do. I don't know anything else. I genuinely do not know anything else. I thought my path was going to be. I played sports all my life. I thought that was going to be my path, sports, kinesiology, something along those lines. The Children's Center that I first started working at that changed my life. I loved it. I never wanted to leave and like, how come? Nobody told me this is what it could be like to work with kids, right? It's evolved. You know, I started in the classroom. I loved it, and I had my own children. I'm like, Oh, these ones can't send home. These ones. 

Nancy Sherod  30:13

They just keep calling me, yeah, like,

Dominique M.  30:49

 these ones are a little different. I can't handle the mess the way I used to. It's a very different situation. And then as it evolved to working with adults, working with parents, working with families, I got to be a home visitor, and then now training adults or collaborating that wise, because I know the difference that we make in this field, right? So it's huge. We make such a big difference. And that does not negate what parents do, because parents are always going to be their child's first teacher. They're always going to know their child better than anybody. Doesn't matter. We have them for 40 hours, 30 hours out of the week. We learn about them, but ultimately, parents know everything about their child. They're their first teacher. But the impact that we have on not only the children that we serve, but the families that we serve. And there was a time I moved to Texas for a little while, I still got to do very similar to this. And when I came back, I was lucky enough to come back to CCRC, and in between, my dad's like, just go somewhere. Like just go work somewhere. I don't know what it means to just go work somewhere. The passion that I have for the work that we do, the families that I serve, the children, the teachers that I get to train, interact with, coach, whatever it may be, I could not possibly imagine myself being anywhere else, except for here and in this field and doing this work. I know it changes. I know it's going to evolve. It continuously does, but that's the one thing that's a constant, is change. But you can always go with the change. You can always embrace it, and you just continue to scaffold and support those that around you. And I know it. I know it sounds corny, but the children are our future. So what legacy Are we leaving behind? What are we speaking into them? What are we showing them that we want to see once we're gone?

Nancy Sherod  32:56

That's not corny. It's authentic, very authentic. I love that embracing and everything you hear is, yeah, it's real. And if you want to hear more, and you want to hang out with Dom and her friends and all the great things that are happening at CCRC, you're going to want to check out our story notes, because we'll have emails in there. We'll have the YouTube link so you can see the dads and get a few more tears going on. We'll have that piece. But I want to give you a chance. Let's do a call to action. We've got families listening, educators listening, parents, caregivers, anyone that works with little people are listening right now. What's your call to action? You've shared so many pieces today, but if you want to challenge them to go out into the world, to go out with their littles and x, what are you what are you going to challenge them to step up and recognize or do or be or I know that was a big one.

Dominique M.  33:46

That is,

Nancy Sherod  33:47

I know, I know, but I think you have it in you.

33:49

I would say my call to action, honestly, it would have to be show up. It's not easy. It's not easy to show up. It's not easy to show up when you have a lot going on in your own personal life. It's not easy when you're trying to figure out if I can go grocery shopping today, but I need to go into a center, or I need to embrace his family and give my all when you have a lot of your own things for and so showing up and knowing that it goes beyond right in that moment, the way that you show up each day is going to have an effect. And it trickles like a when you throw a pebble in the pond. I just saw the wild robot last night. Yeah, I just saw that. But it really does that part of just showing up and and being there, it seems so simple, but it's hard. It's hard to show up and so really step up, show up and know that. The work that you're doing. Rather you are a parent, rather you are a provider. Rather you do legislation. Everything that you do is going to have an effect. So when you show up, show up loud, show up as yourself, show up authentic, and show up knowing that you were going to make a difference. I love that. That is an excellent call to action.

Dominique M.  34:22

So you just kind of shared some of the topics that you're focusing on. Where do you come up with topics? Where do they come from? Is it like this is what I want to do today. Where is it coming from? Yes, ma'am, in my world, no, actually, we take a lot of feedback. So one of the things when we finish a training, we provide the survey link, or the QR code, which is very new to me, still people, but so we provide the link to the survey, the QR code. And I always tell my participants I read every single survey. I want to know when you're like, her energy is way too high for six to eight, too much, too much, right? She was too much. The examples weren't relevant, whatever it may be. But we also look at that feedback of what topics do you need, right? Is it inclusion? We're seeing a lot of different changes. It could be because of, you know, we, unfortunately, we had COVID for a little while, so things, our world looks a little bit different. So it might be inclusion. It could be, you know, what we just we really want to know more about, how do I build a lesson plan, which sounds really easy, but it's not necessarily easy. So we take that feedback, but also my team, we have a small group. We talk constantly. We are constantly checking in with, hey, what do we need? What are we missing? And then, as well, with you guys, as you know, we connect, hey, some of our sites could really use this. Do you mind doing a training? Do you have time to do this? So it's taking that feedback. It's seeing what are the needs of our ECE workforce, anything that we can do to help them to be competent, anything that we can do to increase the skill set that they already have, what's already in their toolbox. And as we continue to focus on those competencies, the 12 competencies, because, you know, California is extra so we have 12. We're always the guacamole over here, so in doing that as well, that is always going to be our goal. How can we come alongside our providers? How can we support them? And by taking their feedback and really listening to their needs, is top tier for us. 

Nancy Sherod  37:36

Awesome.

Ana Garcia  37:37

Thank you so much for joining us, Dominique, and for sharing your passion and expertise with our listeners today, whether it's through intention of fatherhood, projects, building strategies for male engagement, or creating educational opportunities, every effort makes a difference in shaping the future of our children, and for that, we thank you for your time, for your energy, for things that you bring to the table. You are amazing. Thank you so much. T

Dominique M.  38:00

Thank you so much. We would clink our glasses, but we don't want that noise to be really well. Thank you guys so much for having me.

Nancy Sherod  38:08

We have had a ton of fun

Dominique M.  38:10

This is like an experience where, when you emailed me, I said, yeah, let me come in there and share.

Nancy Sherod  38:19

It's a great time and a great opportunity to share, because we're doing so many great things for early ed with community partners such as yourselves and so many others, and so to be authentic and have a conversation where we get to share the joy and the energy that you bring to it, and that happens on a day to day basis. It's so important. So we appreciate you again, taking the time to come. 

Dominique M.  38:38

And I love what you guys are doing. That. So I hope people are keeping this on. Where get the players? Yeah, I need you guys on apple. 

Nancy Sherod  38:46

Oh, we we are on a few different platforms. You can listen to us on Buzzsprout. You can listen to us on Spotify. You can listen to us on iHeartRadio and Amazon. Um, so stay tuned. You can listen to us on all sorts of places. We appreciate that little moment to plug ourselves

Dominique M.  39:01

Well, it's so funny because you said, I Heart Radio too, right? And I was telling my youngest, and my youngest was like, you're gonna be on a podcast. Your mom is your mom's kind of, you know, she could do some things. And he was like, Don't worry, I have an echo. And if it's a podcast, it will be on iHeartRadio. I said, well, it will also be on Spotify. I'll tell my big brother when I go to school. I'm also let the teachers know, because you usually give them strategies good I appreciate it. Have a lot of great platforms. I love it. A lot of opportunities for people to listen and gain some additional skills, knowledge, and just hear the Greatnesscoming to them

Nancy Sherod  39:41

That's happening all right, well, and with that, that is the end of our first episode for year number two. We hope you're all walking away with some new learning, and you'll join us again next month when we bring you another episode of tomorrow's readiness starts today. 

Dominique M.  39:44

Ohhhh.  they didn't ask me to join in on that. Y'all