Mildenhall brings USAFE U.K. child, youth programs together

  • Published
  • By By Staff Sgt. Micaiah Anthony
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  While aircraft are being fixed, fueled, launched, refueled, gathering intel and sent to deliver munitions to their target, two centers are charged with the important responsibility of caring for the Airmen who accomplish those missions’ greatest assets.

Throughout the work week, Airmen and their spouses entrust their children to child development centers and youth centers on bases across the U.K. To ensure the children receive the best care possible, Team Mildenhall’s CDC and Youth Center organized and hosted the 2016 Child and Youth Programs Training Conference for the U.K. Sept. 10, 2016.

“Every caregiver has to have 24 hours of training per year and the training they receive here at the conference alone will give them six hours,” said Nick Batey, RAF Mildenhall’s CDC assistant director. “Having the conference is important because our caregivers need to know what they can and can’t place into the rooms. Keeping the children safe and helping them improve, grow and develop is very important.”

According to Batey, typically childcare providers from RAF Mildenhall would have to go on temporary duty for a training conference. However, holding the conference in country allows for units to save money.

“Basically, the only expense to the caregiver’s bases are their hourly rates and maybe transportation if they decided to cover that, so it’s a very low cost for a quarter of their year’s training in one go,” Batey added.

Approximately 130 childcare providers, cooks, managers and administrators chose from 27 different classes during the conference. Classes such as budgeting and finance, how to talk to parents, bullying and resiliency, active shooter training, toilet training and infant nutrition were all available.

“The training conducted today ultimately helps the children because their caregivers gain more knowledge,” said Kelsey Putney, RAF Mildenhall CDC supervisor. “They are able to apply the developmental appropriate practices and have a better understanding of the regulations.”

Although participants went to the same conference, each person took away something different.

“The team building was very helpful,” said Vita Taylor, RAF Croughton CDC lead operations clerk. “Working with children can be a challenge, but we have to learn how to work together. If we all work together we all can teach the children how to progress in life.”

Participants were even able to choose which classes they wanted to take.

“Most of my session were about behaviors, schedules and what we can do to calm children down,” said Megan Von Lange, RAF Croughton CDC preschool room lead teacher. “I found most of the classes I signed up for really helpful!”

To ensure the correct training was provided to the right people, all participants had certificates to take with them to all of their training sessions. Once the session was completed instructors would mark the certificate with a stamp or sticker.

“At the end we collected all the certificates and gave them to their base trainers to put in their personal files,” Putney added. “That way when they do go to another job or switch to another base they have it documented and receive credit for the training.”

Putney and Batey attributed the success of the conference to Christina Morris, RAF Mildenhall CDC acting director and the staff.

“If it wasn’t for Chrissy we wouldn’t have had a conference this year,” Batey said.

Putney also credited the event to Morris.

“Christina Morris is a very ambitious person,” Putney added. “She wanted to take on that role and she knew that we have a lot of support with our amazing caregivers and staff over here. It wasn’t a hard decision to have the volunteers and to provide the hours that it took to get the conference together.”

For most units training can be conducted during the duty day or normal duty hours but for those in the childcare industry they have to be a bit more creative.

“In the CDC, we can’t just get out of the classroom to do training. Everyone has training days on base, but we can’t do that because we are taking care of all the kids. Our only other option is night and weekend training,” said Morris. “The idea was to come together with all the bases so we can get all the mandatory training done and make it fun, but at the same time focus on professionalism and learning the importance of professional development. I have to give credit to my staff without them none of this would have happened.”

At the end of the conference the main takeaway was simple.

“A lot of the centers are set up completely different than ours,” Batey stated. “They may have things that are better and they may have things that aren’t as good, but if we can pick two or three things and take them back to our programs, that alone is a big deal and a big help to the children.”