The ECD Centre in partnership with Wheelock College
The ECD Centre in partnership with Wheelock College , Boston and is hosting Professor Azzi-Lessing from Wheelock, on the 16th,18th – 22nd September 2017. Prof Lessing is here to co-facilitate a Wheelock Graduate Certificate in Early Childhood Development (0-4 years).
Twenty four members of the ECD Centre Transdisciplinary working group, a multi-stakeholder formation that is constituted by academics from different faculties within UFH, Buffalo City Municipality and Provincial Government representatives , Buffalo City TVET College and NGOs will be participating in the Certificate course .
Professor Lenette Azzi-Lessing’ Biography:
Lenette Azzi-Lessing is the author of Behind from the Start: How America's War on the Poor is Harming Our Most Vulnerable Children (2017, Oxford University Press). She joined the Wheelock faculty in 2006, with more than 25 years' experience as a social worker, administrator, and policy advocate. Her work focuses on improving the wellbeing and life chances of vulnerable, young children and their families, particularly those living in poverty and those involved in the child protective system. Prof. Azzi-Lessing is the founding director of Wheelock's Graduate Certificate Program in Early Childhood Mental Health and is faculty leader of the college's Partnership for Early Childhood Development in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Prof. Azzi-Lessing founded the Rhode Island Centre for Children At-Risk to focus on meeting the needs of highly vulnerable young children and their families. Under her leadership the organization, which was re-named Children's Friend, developed nationally recognized programs serving children and families in Rhode Island's poorest communities. She is a member of the Child Welfare League of America's National Commission on Public Policy. She co-chaired the League's Committee on Prevention, Protection, and Family Preservation for several years and served on the advisory board to the National Centre for In-Home Services for Children and Families. She has also served as an expert witness in federal court on behalf of children abused and neglected in the child protective system.
In 2017, she was named a Fulbright Specialist, to engage in diverse, collaborative projects focused on higher education and training in nations across the globe.Prof. Azzi-Lessing teaches a number of courses in the Master of Social Work program, including Social Policy Practice, Social Work Leadership and Administration, and Early Childhood Mental Health: Practice, Policy and Research. She developed and co-teaches the college's South Africa Service-Learning Course.