New Haven CT- Cheryl Burack, Executive Director of Family Centered Services of CT has been selected to represent the CT Coalition for Child Development Education (CCCDE) at the 15th World Congress of…

[Susan D'Orvilliers]

New Haven CT- Cheryl Burack, Executive Director of Family Centered Services of CT has been selected to represent the CT Coalition for Child Development Education (CCCDE) at the 15^th World Congress of the World Association for Mental Health in Prague, Czech Republic to be held May 29-June 2, 2016.   Burack will be giving a Poster Presentation and discussion on behalf of the group and co-authors, Robert Margolies, Ph.D. and Janet Pozmantier, M.S.W. 

 

The mission of the CCCDE is to provide all Connecticut high school students with prerequisite knowledge to prepare for the early care of human beings.  A long term vision is to build child development centers in high schools, where teacher and community day care is present, providing a community service as well as teaching platform for educational activities. In her role as a member of the steering committee of CCCDE, Burack has advanced its mission and philosophy that parenting is life’s most important endeavor, and is the underpinning or our entire social structure and function. Eighty to ninety percent of youth will become future parents. Yet there are few educational requirements that prepare future parents with information concerning child development, infant mental health, and parenting preparedness. Scientific understanding in the latter areas has been burgeoning and is readily available for educational dissemination. The group is helping to address this issue in its pilot teaching programs.

 

Burack, a leader in the area of child welfare, has served as Executive Director of Family Centered Services of CT for over 27 years. Family CT is a private nonprofit community-based organization dedicated to ending child abuse, neglect and victimization across the life span.

 

Founded in 2001 the CT Coalition has successfully lobbied for child development to be included in the state curriculum as an elective. The Coalition has held state wide forums at the Capitol, testified before the Education Committee and the Task Force on the Achievement Gap and worked to include the issue in the State Early Childhood Plan called, Ready by Five: Fine by Nine. With funding from the Graustein Memorial Foundation and the Napier Foundation, the Coalition has developed a dynamic child development course now available without charge to middle and high schools in the Connecticut. For more information about the CT Coalition for Child Development Education visit: http://ct-coalition-for-child-development-education.org .  For information about Family Centered Services of CT, visit www.familyct.org.