Latest / Look Who's Talking / Stevie Rogers - Day at the Capitol

Transcript

Stevie Rogers - Day at the Capitol · Look Who's Talking

• 0:00
  You are listening to Look Who's Talking, a podcast for Head Start parents where we talk
• 0:22
  about everything Head Start. I am Cameron Minter, I am your co-host and Jessica Coffey
• 0:30
  is our host. How you doing today Jessica? Good afternoon everyone. I'm doing pretty
• 0:34
  good Cam, how are you? It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood. It's a rainy day in the
• 0:39
  neighborhood. Hey but it's still wonderful because we're above ground and we yet to see
• 0:43
  another day. That's true. That's a good thing right? Yeah see. It's your motivation Monday
• 0:49
  so it's not Monday. It is so not Monday. It's so not Monday. It's not Monday. Yeah so what's
• 0:56
  been going on with you? Let's talk about this cell phone outage. That's what's been going
• 1:02
  on. I know right? It's really got me thinking though. What about? Ways of communicating
• 1:08
  when we have a terrorist attack and they take out our cell phones. I think the cell phone
• 1:14
  outage was a terrorist attack. And it may yet to be explained. You gotta think about that.
• 1:20
  That's two different or at least two or three different mobile places being affected. So
• 1:32
  if one was affected that's one thing but if both are affected then that's something else.
• 1:39
  Yeah I don't know but all I know is my phone did not ring like off the hook. Right he thought
• 1:47
  he was in peace. I was like oh what's going on? But then I was fine. I was fine. I was
• 1:55
  like yes I'm disconnected. That's good. But as soon as I tried to call someone and I forgot
• 2:02
  that I didn't have I was like oh no. Right. Someone help. Right. Right. I haven't been
• 2:08
  trusted my wife. What if something happens and I'm supposed to call 911? No but you can.
• 2:11
  But you know what that was on the Today Show today. What? About cell phone outages and
• 2:19
  there were emergency situations where people were trying to call 911 and they couldn't
• 2:24
  get through. So I haven't checked. Our phones are still down right? No. Oh you're back up.
• 2:30
  I'm back up. I'm back up too. It no longer says SOS. Right. And I'm happy about that.
• 2:37
  But that's something to think about. But you know what? I was good with people not calling
• 2:42
  me. But as soon as I couldn't get a hold of someone I'm like oh this is awful. This is
• 2:49
  awful. This is terrible. So we'll see what the news says about the why and how could
• 2:57
  this happen. I mean if one of them went down there's one thing but two major ones. But
• 3:02
  you know what I think this is a good question. Do you have do people how I want to know the
• 3:09
  percentage of people who still have landlines. Oh. You know. I got rid of mine because I
• 3:15
  was paying that bill and that's the phone that when it rings no one answers. Yeah. Because
• 3:20
  you know what I'm saying. But in situations like this. You need a landline. Landline is
• 3:25
  a good good good option. Good option. I was I was I needed to get a hold of one of our
• 3:34
  grant writers Carol Howell and I could not call her and then my teams was messed up.
• 3:42
  I was like you mean to tell me I'm supposed to walk down stairs. I said I'm not having
• 3:51
  it. But you know what when we were when we were younger we didn't have all these luxuries
• 3:55
  at least I did. And we saw people at school in the next day. You know that's when we saw
• 4:00
  them again. We were we had some disconnect from folks. Right. People have way too much
• 4:06
  access to you know what are we to connect it. Yeah. I think we are weak to connect it
• 4:12
  with with people with one another. You know absolutely. That's something to ask. That's
• 4:17
  something to ask. But right now I want to know what is your coffee break. That was anti
• 4:28
  dramatic because I forgot to cut the volume back. We're going to do that again. What is
• 4:34
  your coffee break. It sounds so much better when it works. All right. So today for my
• 4:45
  coffee break I found this quote and it says be proud of how you've been handling the these
• 4:53
  past months. The silent battles you fought the moments that humbled you. Wipe the tears
• 5:00
  from your eyes and patch yourself on the back. Celebrate your strength. And that is basically
• 5:08
  saying through through the bad through the sad you still have reason to celebrate. That's
• 5:14
  right. That's right. You made it. You made it. You know what the sometimes the goal of
• 5:22
  the day or the win for the day is I made it. That's it. You know and that's enough. That
• 5:28
  is really enough. Because when you're going through the storm sometimes you think you're
• 5:32
  not going to make it right. You look at where you are currently make decisions based off
• 5:37
  of where you are currently. Right. I tell people all the time you're going through the
• 5:42
  storm. You're not stationary. So don't make decisions based on the circumstances that
• 5:47
  you're going through right now. You're going through the storm and at some point you're
• 5:51
  going to be able to look back and see where you came from. All right. You might even look
• 5:55
  back and laugh. Exactly. Right. Right. I felt bad that day for what. I meant to take you
• 6:02
  out. But you still here. How about that. That's a good. That's a good one. That's a good one.
• 6:09
  There is strength in weakness. Come on. You John preach over. OK. Look we have a new segment
• 6:16
  in the show today. We are encouraging our head start parents to actually get involved
• 6:22
  in the show. So there will be a text alert going out to all our head start parents to
• 6:28
  listen to the show to be eligible for a drawing and a prize. Yes. And this new segment is
• 6:36
  called with the process. Oh if you if you're so bold to want to do that. New show. New segment
• 6:44
  called what. Head start highlight word of the day. That what what. Head start highlight
• 6:52
  word of the day. What is the head start highlight word of the day. Today's head start highlight
• 6:59
  word is advocate. So those who hear the word advocate. In this show you just need to contact
• 7:13
  the information that has gone out on your tweet or your text alert and follow through
• 7:20
  with that and be able to. OK no tweets. That's right. So what is the prize. So the prize
• 7:27
  this episode would be a gas card. Fifty dollar gas card. Come on. I need that. I'm texting.
• 7:39
  I'm texting into. Dang. I'm not in the system. You're not. However if you want to have a
• 7:45
  child and enroll them in our program you too may be eligible to win a gas card. Look there.
• 7:52
  We're doing all kinds of things. So we have an exciting show today. Who do we have on
• 7:58
  today. Today I'm excited because we have one of our policy council members who is also
• 8:10
  a parent to three. She's she's a boy mom. Come on. A boy mom. We have Miss Stevie Rogers
• 8:19
  with us today. Welcome to the show. Welcome. How are you all today. We're doing all right.
• 8:30
  We try to keep it a little loose on this show. So welcome to the show. We're glad to have
• 8:36
  you and we're just going to talk some good things with you about some of the things that
• 8:40
  you do. Yeah. So we and you know the reason for this show is you know part of our word
• 8:48
  of the day Stevie has had the chance to advocate for our program which was a great time down
• 8:57
  in Frankfurt. Yes. We had the community action of Kentucky or all community actions around
• 9:04
  Kentucky go to the legislative. Yeah. Have a legislative breakfast. And Miss Stevie went
• 9:12
  with us and she got to talk to a few legislators. So how was that experience for you. I worked
• 9:20
  myself up because when you hear a legislator. Yeah. Yeah. It makes you nervous but it was
• 9:27
  like talking to you all right now. They were both of the representatives the representatives
• 9:32
  spoke to the senator. They were very welcoming. It was like sitting down and having a conversation
• 9:36
  with you all. And I feel like that they really heard us and. Yeah. What what we want to know
• 9:45
  too is your experience not just on that day but the reason why you were selected to go
• 9:52
  and represent Community Action Council. So our legislative breakfast allows us to actually
• 10:00
  spend some time with some of the legislators and tell them about our services and our programs
• 10:05
  and why it started is so important. And I follow Stevie and Jessica to their meetings
• 10:13
  and Stevie's testimony was really really impressive. Yeah. So but yeah let us know what is your
• 10:21
  experience with this. So I have three boys. My older two are 10 and 9 and we didn't do
• 10:29
  any type of head start or preschool with them. I had been at home with them since my stroke
• 10:34
  in 2016 and I you know I felt like if I was home I didn't need to send a daycare head
• 10:42
  start. I felt selfish for being at home all day and then sending them. I thought it was
• 10:48
  daycare and then I didn't know any you know and I felt like I was selfish taking a spot
• 10:53
  away from someone else and sending my kids to be babysat by other people when I was sitting
• 11:00
  at home. So I didn't do it with my other two and when my youngest came of age I was like
• 11:06
  I'm going to send him because I wasn't able to teach him the way I was when my older two
• 11:11
  were that age because of cognitive deficits left over from my stroke. So I sent him and
• 11:18
  the difference I saw in him the things he was learning his social skills all of that
• 11:26
  were so much better than my older twos were. There's stuff that we cannot teach our kids
• 11:34
  at home no matter how good our intentions are and I just noticed a huge difference in
• 11:41
  Atticus versus his brothers when they were that age. They're sponges. They're sponges
• 11:46
  and Atticus was in the right environment to pick up all the right stuff that he needed.
• 11:53
  He's so much more prepared for kindergarten next year and I'll have to stress it. The
• 11:58
  teachers communicate with me daily on this is where he's at this is where we need to
• 12:03
  be can you hey I'm sending home some flashcards tonight can you work on them with him. So
• 12:08
  it's targeted on what I'm working on Atticus with because time's limited especially when
• 12:13
  you have multiple kids. So they'll say this is specifically what he's struggling with
• 12:18
  can you work on him with a little bit. So it's just been an amazing experience. And
• 12:23
  I noticed too that with multiple kids in the household you're not not the only teacher
• 12:31
  in the house the brothers and sisters are teaching. Oh yes. You know what I'm saying.
• 12:35
  So the younger ones they to me they grow up quicker because they're having so many touches
• 12:42
  of influence. They definitely learn he definitely learns some stuff from Big Brothers that he
• 12:47
  doesn't need to be learning. It's a daily struggle. I know that's right. I know that's
• 12:52
  right. But so your experience with Head Start has been really positive is that correct.
• 12:57
  Definitely. If I could give anybody any type of advice as a matter of fact I was talking
• 13:02
  to someone on one of the mom forums today on Facebook about how important it is whether
• 13:07
  it's Head Start or preschool or what whatever type of early education it is I feel like
• 13:13
  it's kind of swept under the rug. Everyone's all about kindergarten readiness and kids
• 13:18
  need to start kindergarten at this age and birthday cutoffs and all of that. And I'm
• 13:23
  like what about zero to five. You know where is our focus on that because children don't
• 13:30
  start learning at five. They start learning at birth. And I feel like and that's another
• 13:36
  reason I want to go to the Capitol. I feel like a lot of the legislators and lawmakers
• 13:40
  and people that are over funding and whether it's state or federal level they don't realize
• 13:46
  that we've got five years of wasted time here that we could put into molding. These are
• 13:53
  this is our future. Yeah. And we've got five years that we're missing out on molding because
• 13:59
  it doesn't. There are some parents that don't care and don't care about teaching their kids
• 14:04
  but then you've got parents that do care but don't have all the tools necessary to do it.
• 14:09
  Right. I just feel like it's a it's overlooked a lot and a lot of people don't realize. I
• 14:15
  was one I was one person that didn't realize until I put Atticus into the program. I'm
• 14:21
  like whoa look at the possibilities. You know look and look what they're doing with him.
• 14:27
  Right. I love that. I love her story because you know she had adversity with having a stroke
• 14:35
  and you were young. I was 30. Yeah. Wow. And then you know having children and then you
• 14:43
  know a lot of times when when families have multiple children with that last one they
• 14:50
  they're like oh I know what I'm doing by now. Definitely not. It's all new. Well we are
• 14:59
  going to take a quick commercial break. We will be back after this.
• 15:12
  This past year has highlighted the strength of Community Action Council. Every day our
• 15:17
  staff works together to help families recover from this crisis. We're educating children
• 15:22
  at home and in person helping parents who lost their jobs and helping households avoid
• 15:27
  eviction. Our work at Community Action Council has never been more important than it is right
• 15:32
  now. So why not join us. We have employment opportunities requiring a range of skills
• 15:37
  from entry level to advance. Apply online at commaction.org. Community Action Council
• 15:44
  operates the low income home energy assistance crisis program during the coldest winter months
• 15:50
  to help qualifying households with a home heating emergency. Some examples are a utility
• 15:55
  disconnect notice or having an eviction notice if utilities are included in monthly rent.
• 16:01
  LIHEAP crisis appointments are available now on a first come first serve basis. Funding
• 16:06
  is intended to cover the minimum needed to resolve the heating crisis and cannot exceed
• 16:10
  $400 for gas or electricity. Qualifying households can reapply during the program period as long
• 16:17
  as funding is available until they reach the $400 maximum benefit. A full list of eligibility
• 16:23
  criteria along with a convenient way to schedule an appointment is available on our website
• 16:28
  comaction.org by clicking the utility assistance scheduler button or by calling 859-300-6960.
• 16:39
  This past year has highlighted the strength of Community Action Council. Every day our
• 16:44
  staff works together to help families recover from this crisis. We're educating children
• 16:49
  at home and in person, helping parents who lost their jobs, and helping households avoid
• 16:54
  eviction. Our work at Community Action Council has never been more important than it is right
• 16:59
  now so why not join us? We have employment opportunities requiring a range of skills
• 17:04
  from entry level to advanced. Apply online at commaction.org. Community Action Council's
• 17:11
  prep academies have openings in their early head start program for children ages six weeks
• 17:16
  to three years old. Spaces are filling up so now is the time to apply for the upcoming
• 17:20
  school year. Every child who enrolls receives a full scholarship for the entire school year.
• 17:25
  To get connected and ensure your young child gets a head start on their education, call
• 17:28
  Community Action Council at 859-233-4600. You can also find Community Action Council
• 17:34
  online at commaction.org. That's commaction.org.
• 18:03
  You are listening to Look Who's Talking and we are here today with one of our policy council
• 18:08
  members, Miss Stevie Rogers, who is also a parent. And we had been talking about Stevie's
• 18:15
  experience of just head start and being able to advocate for her child and her family.
• 18:23
  So you had mentioned just like some of the statistics about the first basically five
• 18:34
  years, zero to five. And you know, a lot of the development for a child or a person in
• 18:41
  general are that zero to five. I want to see or ask you like, could you see the difference
• 18:49
  within your kids in that zero to five development? I know they're different ages, but what are
• 18:55
  some of the things that you identified? Oh, I never thought about this until my child
• 19:01
  was in head start. Well, we started out with the home based program,
• 19:06
  which is another program that you all offer. I was kind of on the fan side. I don't want
• 19:10
  to, I'm at home anyways, I don't want to send them to a center all day. So I was like, let's
• 19:14
  just do home based. So we had a teacher come into our home and she kind of would watch
• 19:23
  and observe how I interact with Atticus and she would say, when he's doing this, try doing
• 19:30
  this. So she was giving me tools. She was only there for a little bit every week, but
• 19:34
  she was giving me tools for the rest of the week. When this, when he does this, try this
• 19:39
  or when you want him to do this, try this. So the structure even in the home environment
• 19:48
  was different. I didn't have those tools when my older two, I was just winging it. You know,
• 19:52
  if they did something, I would, I just react it. But his teacher, Hannah Reagan, we love
• 19:58
  her. She was like, when this happens, try this and do you need tools to do this? And
• 20:06
  it's a whole family approach too. It's not just about Atticus. Like she helped us with
• 20:12
  any issues we had in the family. I had an older kid that was learning to read and we
• 20:17
  were on Sight Words and Hannah was like, I'm going to get you some labels so you can label
• 20:21
  everything in your house. It'll help Atticus and your older son. It's just a whole family
• 20:26
  approach. But I noticed a difference in Atticus more along the lines of me noticing the milestones.
• 20:35
  When you're a parent and you're in the trenches, you kind of just winging it, going with it,
• 20:40
  just follow the flow. And so Hannah pointed out milestones that Atticus was going through
• 20:48
  or would be going through. And I guess I noticed them more because I had someone saying he's
• 20:54
  going to do this or he should be doing it this age.
• 20:58
  And helping you identify milestones. Because, you know, besides when a baby starts crawling
• 21:05
  or walking or saying mama or dada, those are the milestones we think about, you know, off
• 21:12
  the top of our head. But everything else is kind of like, oh, I didn't realize that was
• 21:20
  a milestone, you know? Or even if you did, you kind of forgot. Like I had two older kids
• 21:25
  that went through those milestones too or similar. And by the time Atticus, there's
• 21:31
  only a four years age difference. But even still, I was like, oh, I forgot that they
• 21:36
  did that. And so the biggest thing about, you know, early head start and head start
• 21:43
  is recognizing those milestones and helping you if there's if one of the milestones comes
• 21:50
  up and you don't think it's what it should be, you have someone to talk to that can offer
• 21:56
  advice or tools or any of that. So that's been, I think, the major difference, you know?
• 22:05
  One of the things that we pride ourselves on is head start doesn't stop at the front
• 22:10
  door. It goes all the way through the home. And so there's opportunities for I mean, you
• 22:16
  can bring your child to get your child enrolled in head start and end up, you know, receiving
• 22:22
  some help on your electric bill or being able to get a job in our CDL program, you know,
• 22:29
  different things to help the family is one of the things that we pride ourselves on at
• 22:34
  Community Action. Yeah, that's great. You all know that education's not just inside
• 22:38
  the four walls of the school, you know, it's at home too. Right, exactly. First learn,
• 22:42
  first teachers. And you know, we try to encourage, you know, whether in our centers or within
• 22:47
  the home based model, like the classroom is wherever you are. So if you're moving or going
• 22:55
  throughout the day and end up outside or you're in the car driving to the grocery store or
• 23:01
  you're in the grocery store, those are always opportunities for your child to learn, for
• 23:08
  you to learn more about your child. And that's what we definitely want to encourage, like
• 23:13
  the relationship between parents, because I remember my parents, they're lovely. They
• 23:20
  did a great job. Let me say that. However, we ate dinner together, but outside of that,
• 23:29
  we were all in our rooms, watching TV or, you know, and my parent, both my parents worked,
• 23:37
  they went to work, we ate as a family, then we all did our separate things and it did
• 23:44
  not encourage conversation. So I remember at the dinner table, my parents talking about
• 23:51
  their days, but my sister and I, we just ate. No! We're ready to, let's get it over with.
• 23:57
  Let's go look at TV. I got to do this homework. Right, can I be excused? But I love the fact
• 24:04
  that Head Start is teaching children and parents to have conversations at an early age. So
• 24:12
  I also want to bring it to, what motivated you to enroll your child into Head Start?
• 24:21
  I recognized my own limitations and I knew that I could not do it at home. When my older
• 24:32
  two were his age, it was pre-stroke, pre-pancreatic cancer, all of that. So I was able to teach
• 24:39
  them things at home. I was relatively, I had some college, I was able to teach them. I
• 24:44
  had the patience to teach my older two. But Atticus came after all of that and when it
• 24:50
  came time for him to be meeting all these milestones, I knew that I couldn't do it.
• 24:54
  I knew that I needed help and that's when I enrolled him in the home base so that I
• 25:01
  could have one of your old staff members come into the home and help me teach him. And then
• 25:06
  it kind of just progressed toward, he loved Hannah, he aged out of the early Head Start
• 25:11
  and I'm like, well let's send you to the center. And it's been amazing. So I'm listening and
• 25:21
  you said a stroke and pancreatic cancer. Yes. How would you encourage a Head Start parent
• 25:30
  or early Head Start parent in home base or center base to keep going, keep being motivated?
• 25:38
  How did you do all of that? My kids. And I am fully aware that there are a lot of people
• 25:43
  in this world alive today only because their kids are. Because I'm one of them. I wanted
• 25:48
  to give up after the stroke. The pancreatic thing, it was pre-cancer, my pancreas, I had
• 25:55
  to have a massive surgery for that. I didn't heal well from it. But it was a lot easier
• 26:03
  to, but then when I had the stroke and I couldn't control my emotions, it was in my left frontal
• 26:07
  lobe, in the emotional center. I couldn't control my emotions. I couldn't form thoughts
• 26:12
  into sentences. The right side of my body was paralyzed for a bit. But I remember being
• 26:20
  in the hospital and they'd come in for physical therapy. I don't want to go away. I don't
• 26:24
  want to go for like three days. And finally, I saw a picture of my babies on my phone.
• 26:31
  I had two at the time. Atticus wasn't here yet, but I had two and I'm like, I've got
• 26:35
  two. They're at home. They're young. They need their mommy. I was their primary caregiver.
• 26:42
  And they're at home. They don't know where mommy's at. I've got to get up out of this
• 26:46
  bed. So I got up out of the bed and I did my physical therapy. We're getting movement
• 26:51
  and strength on my right side and went to speech therapy. But it's all, it's been them.
• 26:57
  You've got, they don't have anybody else, you know? And nobody's going to advocate for
• 27:02
  them like you are. So, you know, you've got to keep going for them.
• 27:08
  That's wonderful.
• 27:09
  That's encouraging. And that is something that we all need to know. We all need to hear
• 27:14
  that. I mean, we talked before with the statement of the day, you know, just being able to be
• 27:20
  encouraged about where you are, but you're going through the storm. If you stop in the
• 27:25
  middle of the storm, then you won't see the results of going through. So kudos to you.
• 27:32
  I mean, that's a lot to go through. But even in that mindset, you was like, my kids need
• 27:42
  more than I can give them. So instead of me keeping them here, I'm going to go outside
• 27:47
  and I'm going to get some help. And that's what's so important is to realize when you
• 27:52
  need some help. And the help is available. And so, yeah, there's so many different programs
• 27:58
  that are available here at Community Action Council. And we're encouraged by, you know,
• 28:05
  your testimony, your statements, and how it's advocating for others. You know, so even in
• 28:13
  the process of bringing your child through Head Start, you have found another platform
• 28:19
  to say, hey, this is important enough for other people to be noticing, you know.
• 28:25
  Right. Atticus is my last baby. I cannot have any more, but I'm going to keep advocating
• 28:29
  for everybody else's babies because this is so important.
• 28:32
  That's great. That is awesome. And, you know, your testimony is powerful. I mean, when you
• 28:39
  were speaking, everyone was listening because you not only were you delivering a great testimony,
• 28:45
  you delivered it passionately. Yeah. Yeah. And we can tell that this means something
• 28:50
  to you. So I think that was one of our best legislative meetings. Yeah. Yeah. When you
• 28:58
  know, you had a personal testimony and not only did you just speak so passionately about
• 29:07
  the program, you spoke passionately about the entire agency and just, you know, the
• 29:15
  opportunity that you have. And, you know, sometimes some of our parents don't know just what all
• 29:22
  we have only because they sometimes don't get involved. So how would you encourage someone
• 29:28
  to get involved within the program? First thing is check your text because you
• 29:34
  all send out the text notifications quite a bit. And I think sometimes those go to email
• 29:39
  to you. I don't know. My email stays swamped. But check those out because you all always
• 29:43
  send and there's all kinds of opportunities and events that, you know, to be on the that's
• 29:49
  how I got involved in the Let's Talk program. You all did that a couple of years ago. But
• 29:56
  I got and I did that and that was amazing. But watch those texts, reach out. Jessica's
• 30:02
  super easy to talk to everybody at the agency is if you have a question, reach out to him,
• 30:06
  reach out to your parent policy council rep. If you're having issues or want to look into
• 30:12
  ways that you can get more involved, utilize your policy council parent reps. Just it's
• 30:20
  an amazing organization. Get involved with the stuff they're doing.
• 30:27
  You heard her. She said, look at those text messages. So you should have received the
• 30:31
  text message and apply to be in the drawing for the head start. Highlight word of the
• 30:41
  day, which is advocate advocate. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for being our
• 30:47
  guests. Thank you. Come back. You have been listening to look who's talking. Tell your
• 30:53
  friends. See you when we see.