International Contacts

This week, I listened to a pod cast from World Forum Radio (http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/) 

 Susan Lyon was intrigued by a small child’s conception of the word “city”, and began pondering how children think. She initiated the Innovative Teacher Project, and began working with the Presidio Child Care Center and the San Francisco public schools.  She is now working with an Italian architect to rehab a San Francisco structure into the first Italian immersion preschool. Susan worked with children with disabilities. She shared her insights on how children see the world and how much of her inspiration comes from children. She brought the exhibit the 100 languages of children to Northern California. She also started the innovative teacher project where teachers present their schools and discuss initiatives for teachers. 

I was unable to contact Susan. I visited Harvard University’s “Global Children’s website(http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/).  I was able to learn some important information about the Global Children’s Initiative.  There three-fold focus was 1. Reframing the discourse around child health and development, 2. Supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration project and 3.Building leadership capacity in child development research and policy.  I also learned that their focus concentrated on three different areas: 1. Development in early childhood, 2.Child mental health, and 3. Conflict solutions for children in crisis.