Basics
Twice a month, home visitors who are parents themselves,
and reside in the targeted community, visit HIPPY parents in
their home to role play the activity packets. Every other
week, parents attend group meetings with other parents,
HIPPY staff, consultants, and volunteers.
Parents
For the parents in the
program, many of whom have limited formal education and are
hard-pressed by circumstances, HIPPY provides:
- an enhanced sense of their own
abilities;
- the satisfaction of teaching their
own children;
- the excitement of seeing their
children learn;
- an opportunity for fun and
learning with their children;
- the support, guidance, and
friendship of trained paraprofessionals; and
- a bridge to other agencies and
organizations that may help with other concerns.
Some HIPPY parents actually become
employed by the program as parent educators. They visit
homes, role play lessons, provide encouragement to parents,
and receive training and support through weekly staff
meetings with their local coordinator. These positions may
be part-time or full-time.
Curriculum
The HIPPY curriculum is
cognitively based, focusing on language development, problem
solving, and perceptual discrimination skills. There are 30
easy-to-use activity packets for each age of the program.
Activities take as little as 15 minutes a day for the parent
and child to complete. Learning and playing are mingled
throughout HIPPY's structured curriculum as parents
encourage their children to recognize shapes and colors,
tell stories, follow directions, solve logical problems, and
acquire other school readiness skills. Apart from building
on the basic bond between parents and children, parents
learn how to prepare their children for success in school
and beyond.
Florida HIPPY Training
and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Center
The Florida HIPPY Training
and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Center was opened in
1996 and is housed at the University of South Florida in
Tampa. Currently, this state HIPPY office is staffed by
three employees: a State Director, an Assistant State
Director, and an Administrative Assistant. The role of the
state office is to work in collaboration with HIPPY USA's
national office in New York to provide training, technical
support, and guidance to all of the HIPPY programs in the
state of Florida.
Start - Up
HIPPY is not a mail-order
kit. It is a structured home-community model focused on
parent-child centered learning. It may be operated through
existing agencies and organizations that have the space,
fiscal, and personnel support to administer the
program.
Establishing a HIPPY program
means:
- forming a local group of
interested advisors;
- selecting an implementing
agency;
- raising funds;
- working with HIPPY USA and the
Florida HIPPY T&TA Center;
- preparing and submitting an
application;
- training a program coordinator;
and becoming a part of a growing national network of
HIPPY programs.
Some Florida HIPPY programs are funded
from a State Legislative Appropriation and others are funded through
a variety of local, state, or federal sources.
Events, activities,
programs, and facilities of the University of South Florida
are available to all without regard to race, color, marital
status, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age,
Vietnam or disabled veteran status as provided by law and in
accordance with the University's respect for personal
dignity. |