Diversity Fellow Project, Chioma Oruh
Improving Early Intervention Services to Accommodate the Literacy Needs of Parents
Improving Early Intervention Services to Accommodate the Literacy Needs of Parents (2365 K) Download
Project Narrative
1. Please describe your activities during your Fellowship experience. Describe your final capstone project(s).
I spent the term of the Diversity Fellowship as part of the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GCCHD) team. My central learning was shaped by earning my Certificate in Early Intervention, which we completed in June 2019. Additionally, I worked with my project supervisors and instructional leaders as part of the Georgetown University Certificate in Early Intervention (GUCEI) faculty. I took and successfully passed eight (8) courses, created a research design, worked with community partners and stakeholders (the Supporting Families Community of Practice with the DC Department on Disability Services), completed a Capstone research project with my research partner, Clarissa Patterson, complete requirements for IRB certification with Georgetown and wrote a blog on federally funded early childhood intervention technical assistance services.
The capstone project entitled “Improving Early Intervention Services to Accommodate the Literacy Needs of Parents” and focuses on the learning about how the District of Columbia’s providers, administrators, early childhood educators, family advocates, and attorneys rate accommodations and provisions made for the parents with low literacy. Although the timing and resources available for this research project did not permit a design allowing us to collect primary data of the experiences of directly impacted families, we were able to host an exploratory focus group at the Support Families Community of Practice meeting in March 2018. This gave us access to get feedback on how we developed our survey design sent out to over 500 professionals in the field. Our findings, shown on the poster board presentation, that professionals in the field surveyed would like to improve upon identifying the need for accommodations for low literacy by reading more about how to support parents with low literacy, participating in professional development training outside of the employer, completing online/distance learning modules, and attending in-service training provided by the employer, among other ways.
2. Who did your project inform, help, influence or impact? (UCEDD, individual, community, state) How?
Starting with the preliminary focus group, engaging with families whose children are now teenagers and adults in the Supporting Families CoP, we got feedback afterward requesting that it was helpful for them to revisit their time navigating the early childhood disabilities system of care. There are real, lived traumas of all families, and particularly for families with intersectional identifies as being a person with a disability, or an English language learner or low income, and raising children with disabilities, their vulnerability to working systems was a key motivator in informing our research questions.
I also learned a lot about collaborative research in working with my partner, who also works directly with families through a Home Visiting program and provides services to parents with disabilities raising young children. It was a gift to have another family advocate to work with me and to bring our lived experiences supporting families, informed our study. Additionally, we are yet to present our research findings to the state office, particularly the Strong Start program and will continue to seek the opportunity to engage them in family-centered values.
3. Why did you choose to work on that project(s)?
The project was decided by the GUCEI faculty and they paired us with our partners. I believe it was a great fit for me and helps to expand my understanding of the challenges faced by parents with disabilities and the detrimental impact of a system of care that does not recognize their agency as parents and support it for the betterment of the children under their care.
4. What did you gain from being a Diversity Fellow?
Being a Diversity Fellow was a truly enriching process and brought me closer with the Georgetown UCEDD team, whom I already tremendously love and respect. I feel incredibly blessed to have this level of investment in my work after learning more about the leadership challenges facing systems changes to address implicit biases that impact service delivery. Additionally, it is also great to get to know the greater AUCD network outside of the Georgetown UCEDD continues to impact me.
5. How will this experience impact your education or career decisions?
Having earned a Certificate in Early Intervention, along with now being a Diversity Fellow alum, I aim to use my newly learned skills and network and to leverage my intellectual capital and elevated understanding of the system of care to pursue adaptive change opportunities. I want to reduce discrimination and oppression of people with disabilities, including our young children, and other vulnerable populations that experience trauma while navigating the system.
6. What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
My immediate future goal is to continue working at the Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) in DC called Advocates for Justice and Education, in which we just were awarded a grant opportunity to organize parents of children birth to three and transitioning to preschool. I co-wrote the grant proposal and made it explicit that our focus would be on organizing families with developmental delays and disabilities, both those receiving Part C services and those transition to preschool receiving Part B-619. Additionally, I have been accepted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison LEND program and will spend year one working remotely from Washington, DC on my research project. The goal is to relocate to Madison in year two – giving myself and my sons with Autism a fresh start. I'm hoping that it all aligns and I’m able to find an employment opportunity by the end of this academic year. I also hope to have a better understanding of the Wisconsin system of care and the reality of raising young black boys with Autism in that environment.
Five years from now is 2024, and while it feels long away, I’ve lived long enough to know that things move so rapidly. My children will be 14 and 12 years old at that time and I will advocate for their secondary transition options. I hope to be a better practitioner of early intervention services and hopefully be in a position where I can more successfully apply my passions for public policy, project development (and execution), training/teaching, researching, and writing. I also aim to help smoothen out the bumps in the road in the transition from Part C to Part B services and really bring children with disabilities as part of the greater disabilities’ community.
7. What recommendations do you have for other fellows?
Networking is key. Balance your passions for this work and whatever brings you into this wonderful world of disability rights and the greater disabilities justice movement. Be kind to yourself and know that true leadership is collaborative. There’s never a need to walk this path alone.