Kids First Conference champions child care providers

Kids First Conference

Life for working families wouldn’t be the same without our amazing child care providers in southwest Minnesota. They take such good care of our kids. But the job can feel lonely sometimes, and it can be hard to find training or connect with other providers. That’s where the Kids First Conference comes in. The Kids First Conference is designed to acknowledge and celebrate the dedication of our child care professionals, expressing our sincere appreciation for the care they consistently offer to children and families. This yearly event also provides required training hours for providers.

Sherri Looft is the associate director for Child Care & Nutrition, Inc. (CCNI). Her team plays a key role in organizing the Kids First Conference each year. We asked Sherri to explain why the conference is a must-attend event for child care professionals in southwest Minnesota. Here’s what she shared, along with some comments from child care professionals from around the region:

Child care, and subsequently its workers (in homes and in centers, Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE), Head Start and others), is a profession that is very much needed by many people but is easily overlooked as the essential part of our workforce that they are. This conference is as much about giving back to these child care professionals as it is about the training hours they receive.

With my busy schedule, the conference enables me to get almost all the required training hours needed in one weekend.

Nancy Stredde, First Step Family Daycare

We strive as a committee to ensure providers are given time to connect with each other and to feel that they are very important people – because they are! – in our communities. Family child care providers especially can feel isolated in their work because they often don’t have much interaction with other adults throughout the day or get very little time to confer with other family child care providers for issues they are having and ideas that might be helpful.

We repeatedly hear from providers who look forward to the Kids First Conference annually. We’ve received funding to help keep the cost low for attendees in recent years, and providers express how invaluable it is to them to get multiple hours of training at a reasonable cost to them. Family child care providers have to pay the cost of the training for themselves, and keeping that cost low allows providers to attend who may not be able to otherwise. The Kids First Conference offered 12 hours of training in one location with meals and snacks included, all for a $50 registration fee.

Attending conferences like the Kids First Conference helps educators like myself stay on top of the game. Research is always changing the way we understand young children and how we should approach their care and education.

Carol Rothmeier, Family-Based Child Care Provider

Providers often give us ideas for the topics they would like to be trained on at the next conference. This allows us to ensure we are giving training sessions on the issues they are experiencing, and in turn allows them to provide better care for the children they have each day. For example, child care providers have requested training on how to best support all the children in their care, including those who learn differently or might be facing some challenges. They’ve also expressed interest in strategies for navigating communication with families. This shows the providers are looking for ways to improve their interactions with the kids and families in care, so those children and families benefit from the training provided at the Kids First Conference.

I’m passionate about this conference as I think it’s extremely beneficial to our child care professionals in the Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) region and southwest Minnesota in general.

Sherri Looft, Associate Director, Child Care & Nutrition, Inc.

The beginning keynote speaker was great for me and my group. It allowed us to see that we were possibly nearing burn-out and gave us some strategies on how we could find our Joy again and get back to what we love to do.

Miranda Evenson, Little Eagles Daycare Center