Julie joined the Early Childhood Community Development Centre in September 2000 as its Receptionist/Secretary. Although she had 11 years’ clerical experience under her belt, the organization was her first foray into the non-profit sector. After an initial period of adjustment on her part (when asked by family and friends about her new position, she was heard to remark, “They are a very huggy group of people”), it proved to be a successful shift, and one she has never regretted.
In January 2002 her title changed to that of Administrative Assistant and her responsibilities increased. As well as providing administrative support to the organization and its committees, she began to improve the look of its publications. Having always had a bit of an eye for design, she thoroughly enjoyed updating the ECCDC’s forms, signage, professional development listings, and other publications. This “tinkering” led to her position changing to Publications & Web Administrator from November 2005 to November 2008. Julie is especially proud of her design of the first-ever Esteem magazine and Professional Development Planner, the Quality Child Care Niagara (QCCN) training manuals and accompanying materials, National Child Day card, ECCDC’s Employee Manual and other Policy manuals, Items for Sale flyer, Young Children Priority First PowerPoint set to music for Kiwanis, and re-design of the Awards of Excellence invitation. She also designed the look of both the Child Care Sector’s and Inclusive Child Care Supports committees’ webpages, along with other committee publications and final reports.
In November 2008, with some gentle persuasion from the ECCDC’s Executive Director and its Community Development and Projects Manager, Julie joined the Mentoring Pairs for Child Care (MPCC) project as its Administrative Assistant while continuing to provide administrative support to the ECCDC and its committees. MPCC is a province-wide program that enhances child care quality by matching less experienced child care supervisors with more experienced child care supervisors in their own communities while they work with the Child Care Human Resources Sector Council’s Occupational Standards for Child Care Administrators. Julie is very proud of her work with this important initiative and hopes it will be funded beyond its current end date of March 2011.