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Thursday, June 08, 2000
By Bob Batz Jr., Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It's a long way from a United Nations conference in Beijing to a public housing project in Stowe. But Ohioview Acres resident Jozita Williams and her 19-month-old son, JoMar, have benefited from the international effort to improve the lives of women, via one tiny local program that grew out of it.
Conceived through Peace Links, one of the area groups involved in the international conference, Starting Young is aimed at preventing violence by helping parents in at-risk neighborhoods create peaceful environments for their children up to age 3.
One way Starting Young does this is by having home advocates from its partner, Family Foundations, give parents activities to do with their developing children.
Some of these have been especially helpful to Williams, who was an only child. Doing it on her own, she realized how much about raising children she didn't know.
"Kids will mimic you," she says, moments before JoMar hits the TV to straighten the picture, as he's seen his mom do.
Starting Young helps foster good interactions for children to emulate. For instance, a parent can influence a child to behave by linking that to his favorite toy.
"It helps make you secure in the decisions you're making about your child, because you've been informed," says the 34-year-old Williams, who works as a utility's customer service representative.
One nice result: From hearing her regularly say it to him, one of JoMar's first phrases is "Excuse me." He says "Thank you," too.
Volunteer Elsa Zollars of Bethel Park says it's been exciting to help develop Starting Young. "From this big global issue of peace, what we had to do was funnel it down to where we can make the biggest difference. And it's in the very, very simple things."
Jozita Williams, single mother of 19-month-old JoMar, is part of a small local program called Starting Young that teaches parents and children about how to get along in harmony. (Gabor Degre, Post-Gazette)