Child Development Center just keeps getting better

  • Published
  • By Lee Anne Hensley
  • Hilltop Times Staff Writer
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The 75th Force Support Squadron Child Development Center has been receiving well-deserved recognition from Air Force evaluation agencies the past few weeks.

On Jan. 30, the LeMay Team evaluators recognized two 75th FSS flights and two individual activities at Hill Air Force Base that they deemed as "outstanding," one of them being the Airmen and Family Services Flight, of which the Child Development Center is part of, along with Family Child Care, Youth Program and the Airman and Family Readiness Center.

The AFSF received an Award for Excellence in Customer Care from the LeMay A1 Award Evaluation Team for "team efforts showing they care about people and the job that they do," said Eli Whitman, 75th FSS Marketing director. "Their caring, professional attitude makes them a valuable asset to the organization and to the U.S. Air Force."

The LeMay Team was here because the 75th FSS was recently honored as "Best in Command" at the Air Force Materiel Command level for 2008, placing Team Hill in the running for the Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay Award, which recognizes the best FSS in the Air Force.

This honor came in the wake of the center's Air Force Materiel Command-level award as "Best Child Development Center," announced on Jan. 15. The award is the center's third in the past five years.

Child Development Center Director Nancy Adams-Leonard knows exactly why the center has been recognized as "best in command" several years running. "It's because the staff is so phenomenal," she explains. "They are professional, committed to teaching young children and accomplishing the mission."

Among the reasons Adams-Leonard lists in response to why her center receives so much recognition are the center's consistent dedication to providing quality child care, which to them are the basics, and the staff's commitment to giving back to the community.

In the long list she provided to the Air Force evaluation team outlining the center's activities, Adams-Leonard noted how the center's children and staff collected warm clothing for local military veterans at local centers and the children created cards for each veteran and hand-delivered them.

The center also teamed up with Barnes and Noble bookstore to highlight a local children's book author/illustrator and to encourage literacy in the home. The proceeds of the books sold at the organized book signing event were donated to other local childcare centers to fund their literacy programs.

Just because the Child Development Center received high decorations, it does not mean it can relax its standards, with a pending accreditation visit sometime before March 31.

In fact, the center has faced a quadrupling of the standards they normally have to meet for accreditation by the National Association for Education of Young Children. In addition, it faces an an annual unannounced inspection by the Department of Defense sometime this year.

"Our accreditation body has recently revamped the accreditation system, increasing the number of criteria from 100 to 400 criteria we have to meet," Adams-Leonard said.

The increase in criteria required the staff to dedicate more training time to learn how to meet the new requirements. Although the center has this new task added to their plate, it apparently has not affected its quality of service. In the midst of offering the community service and other services beyond the basic custodial child care, the CDC staff has been preparing for this reaccreditation for the past year.

"Readiness for accreditation takes more than a year and a half," Adams-Leonard said. "It's not something you can pull together in a few months. It's not easy."

Even if the staff makes it look that way.