Child Development Centers close to provide staff required quarterly training Published Sept. 23, 2008 By Lawrence R. Crespo Nellis AFB Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- More than 175 day care providers from the Child Development Centers here participated in a day-long training session Sept. 19. Both CDC locations on base closed for the day, allowing staff members to refresh their skills and receive required training. "Air Force instruction requires we provide 24 hours of training to staff members annually. This quarterly training day allows us to meet this requirement and helps us to ensure our staff are prepared for certification and accreditation," said Maynard Florence, CDC director. "The training also meets the standard for the National Association for the Education of Young Children accreditation. We tailor subjects to fit our needs," he said. Staff members broke into small groups and attended lectures such as "Equal Employment Opportunity Diversity," "Child Care as a Business," "Conscious Discipline" and "Language and Literacy." They also received hands-on training on first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, safety and "Make and Take Stories." "The interactive classes provided a dialog and made the staff feel and believe they are professionals," said Barbara Bettens, Family Member Program flight chief. During scheduled training days, the CDC offers alternate child care with 47 available family child care homes. "While we close for training, we still met all the requests of parents for care who could not get off work or make other child care arrangements. We made a total of 46 reservations within our family child care homes," said Lt. Col. Beth Demmons, 99th Services Squadron commander. Nellis CDC is responsible for providing care for more than 500 Department of Defense children, ranging from two months to five years old, on a daily basis. The next staff training day is scheduled for Nov. 10. For more information, contact the CDC at 652-5885.
