Every year the Illinois Head Start Association gathers professionals and parents from across the state of Illinois to attend our Annual Conference. The conference provides innovative training, wonderful professional development opportunities and an excellent forum for exploring best practices. These training opportunities allow Directors, Staff and Parents to get the most current approaches to materials in their respective areas at an affordable cost. Join us in Bloomington-Normal on March 27th - 29th for our 2019 Annual Training Conference that houses our Component Meetings, IHSA Business Meeting, Directors Forum, Awards Luncheon, Exhibitors, and the BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND the NOT TO BE MISSED....$2.00 Per Child Golden Sparkling Dinner!

The 2019 IHSA Annual Conference will begin on Wednesday, March 27th at 1:00pm and conclude on Friday, March 29th at Noon. Pre-Conference Meetings will be held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. This is the conference NOT TO MISS! 

FAN (Facilitating Attuned Interactions) Training

March 25th: 1:00-5:00pm

March 26th: 9:00am-4:30pm

March 27th: 8:30am—12:00pm

Erikson trains and consults with organizations that want to learn our approach to building better relationships with parents. This approach is called Facilitating Attuned Interactions, which we refer to as FAN. FAN’s ultimate goal is strengthening the provider-parent relationship, resulting in parents who are attuned to their children and ready to try new ways of relating to them. 

Check back soon for more information and registration!!

Family Engagement and School Readiness: How Family Engagement Contributes to Young Children’s School Readiness

March 26th: 1-5:00pm

March 27th 8:30-12:00pm

The purpose of this workshop is to address how family engagement contributes to children’s school readiness. Workshop participants will:  *Understand how Head Start and Early Head start programs can work together across systems and service areas to promote children’s family engagement and children’s learning and development. *Recognize how parents and care givers nurture the capacities children will need to be ready to attend school. *Know that children whose parents are engaged with their education have better academic outcomes. *Be able to promote school readiness in a systematic, integrated and comprehensive way that focuses on family engagement that helps families prepare their children to thrive and learn in school. Presented by Ericka Williams,  Manager of Family and Child Support  Services, Catholic Charities of Joliet & Michele Jolivette, Senior Consultant, Jolivette Consultants

Check back soon for more information and registration!!

HOTEL INFORMATION:

BLOOMINGTON NORMAL MARRIOTT HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTER

201 BROADWAY

NORMAL, ILLINOIS 61761

THE CONFERENCE SLEEPING ROOM BLOCK AT THE MARRIOTT HAS EXPIRED & THE HOTEL IS SOLD OUT! 

If you still need sleeping rooms, here are some hotels close by!

Hyatt Place (right across the street) -  (309) 454-9288

Courtyard by Marriott Bloomington Normal - (309) 862-1166

Hampton Inn & Suites Bloomington-Normal - (309) 452-8900

Opening Keynote Speaker

Jonathan Edison 

Growing up in an environment that was a prescription for failure, young John John—his grandmother’s affectionate nickname for him—faced many hardships.  After exposing him to drugs and violence, his mother was removed from the household by the Department of Social Services when he was five years old. Two years later Jonathan’s father left to start a new family on another side of town. Then, his grandmother Cloraine that took on the challenge of raising him died of cancer when he was 14.

Now homeless, Jonathan was forced to take up residence in his aunt’s basement. To afford the $50.00 a month in rent and his portion of the electric bill, he worked a full-time job as a dishwasher/bus boy at Chili’s Grill and Bar in the evenings and on weekends. He graduated from high school with a 1.63 grade point average and completed his first year of college with a 0.82 GPA before dropping out completely.

Instead of becoming another statistic, Jonathan found the courage he needed within himself to rise above adversity. He enrolled in remedial classes at Wayne County Community College. In 1993, Jonathan graduated with an associate’s degree as a part of the Urban Teacher Program. In 1995 Jonathan continued his education at Wayne State University, earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in only 3 semesters. During college, Jonathan worked as a bus attendant, waiter, gas station attendant and often slept in his car so that he could hold down his jobs and attend classes. CONTINUE READING ABOUT JONATHAN HERE

Closing Keynote Speaker: 

 Sonia Manzano:  "Maria" From Sesame Street

Actress & Author  

             You probably know her as Maria on Sesame Street. She has spent most of her life cavorting with Muppets! Manzano was raised in the South Bronx where her involvement in the arts was inspired by teachers who encouraged her to audition for the High School of Performing Arts. She was accepted there and began her career as an actress. A scholarship took her to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and in her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show Godspell. Within a year, Manzano joined the production of Sesame Street, where she eventually began writing scripts for the series. She was thrilled to help write the story line for “Maria’s” marriage and birth of “Maria’s” baby, played for a while by Manzano’s real-life daughter Gabriela. READ MORE ABOUT SONIA MANZANO HERE.