Debra Rodney-Glen At a Today's Family Centre and 'round and about', Debra Rodney-Glen responds to child care needs with a deft touch.

As an Early Childhood Educator with Today’s Family Early Leaning and Child Care, Debra Rodney-Glen wears two hats. Twice a week she’s out in the community working directly with parents and their children. On the other three days, she’s at a Today’s Family Early Learning and Child Care Centre. There, she works directly with children in our pre-school child care programs.

On her days 'round and about', Debra helps deliver the Ontario government's "Healthy Babies — Healthy Children" program in conjunction with Hamilton's Health Department. She visits parents to help them improve parenting skills and cope with various parent-child issues. As needed, she also connects parents to agencies offering services geared to their individual situations.

She often helps immigrants who don't speak much English. Sometimes, their knowledge of parenting and early childhood development isn't up to date — not being aware, for example, of the value of understanding a pre-schooler as an individual and nurturing self esteem from an early age.

"This is very rewarding work," Debra says. "When parents understand these ideas and the benefits for their children, very often the whole family dynamic can change for the better. They start to build helpful relationships, feel more connected to the community and function better as a family."

She cites an example: a young couple spoke only Arabic to their three-year-old son and saw little value in pre-school programs. At Debra's gentle urging, they finally agreed to try a Today's Family Early Learning and Child Care Centre. The boy loved his centre experience, rapidly acquired English and began speaking it at home, too. The parents are delighted at his progress.

Another of Debra's favourite success stories is a single mother of three who has relied upon Today's Family child care for several years while she turns around a difficult situation. Starting as a teen-age mom in high school, she completed Grade 12, went on to finish Mohawk College and is now in her final year at university. Notes Debra, "Without high-quality, centre-based child care - in her case accessed through the Ontario Works Program — I don't think she could have accomplished so much."

At Today's Family, we're proud of professionals like Debra Rodney-Glen who help bring positive change to the lives of individual children and families. Stronger families mean a stronger community as a whole. Thank you, Debra!

Back To Our People