Developing Mentors and New Partnerships Among Indian Head Start Programs
Jennifer Tollefson y Chavez, Director, Pueblo of Isleta Head Start; Carmen Lieurance, Director, Pueblo of Taos Head Start; and Jim Gage, Director, Southern Ute Child and Family Center
Three years ago, members of the New Mexico/Southern Colorado Indian Head Start Directors' Association, comprising 14 Indian Head Start programs which serve 23 tribes in New Mexico and Southern Colorado, began rapping with problems of turnover among directors and coordinators and lack of quality training for supervisory staff. To solve their supervisory training and staff. To solve their supervisory training and staff development needs, the directors developed a mentoring and capacity building project for directors and supervisors. The association also searched for ways to keep program quality high while giving new supervisory staff time to learn the complexities of Head Start.

The directors were guided in their planning by the following beliefs:
Through a series of planning meetings, the Directors created a strategic 5-year plan. The association then sought and received special funding from Region XI (AIPB) to develop, implement, and replicate a model for State and regional associations to build upon and support mentorship and capacity building.

An element of this mentor/capacity building training project which provides significant motivation for supervisory staff is its inclusion in a statewide effort in New Mexico called Partners In Change. Wheelock College in Boston, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, selected New Mexico as one of four States to participate in a 5-year project to develop a statewide career development lattice for early childhood professionals. This Partners In Change project will result in college credits for workers in early childhood which can be transferred from community colleges to 4-year degree granting institutions. A major emphasis will be placed on non-traditional and competency based course work for college credit, and Baccalaureate and graduate degrees in fields related to Head Start component areas could be the end result. The association believes this to be a very important way for staff to gain legitimacy in the field.

Some benefits from the mentor/capacity building project can already be seen. One is that the 14 Indian Head Start grantees no longer see themselves as programs isolated by geography and vast distances-even though almost 500 miles separate southern grantees from northern grantees- but unified by commonly held beliefs and dreams for the future.

One reason for the unity is Dream Weavers Southwest, a private non-profit corporation which was formed to take the loosely-grouped association members and unite them. As the name suggests, the Dream Weavers directors see themselves as innovators within their programs, valuing each other as artisans and leaders. As weavers for their communities, some are already producing the reality of capacity building and mentorship. Others have just begun to gather the knowledge to envision what the pattern on the loom may look like for their communities.
Another change that has occurred in the way training is viewed is that association training events are now called "advances." There will no longer be "retreats" in this part of Indian country.

The directors are committed to providing individualized, relevant staff development activities of the highest quality, and only the most competent and culturally sensitive trainers and facilitators who make long-term commitments to the project are used. The directors believe that if a high degree of quality is wanted for Head Start have for too long bought into the notion of scarcity, rather than abundance. Children, families, and staff in Head Start deserve the very best. When this belief in all training is advanced, quality programs will be a natural consequence.

-Pueblo of Isleta Head Start, PO Box 579, Isleta Pueblo, NM 87022; Pueblo of Taos Head Start, PO Box 55, Taos, NM 87571; Southern Ute Child and Family Center, PO Box 800, Ignacio, CO 81137.

Back to Top | Back to Table of Contents | Next Page