Head Start History: After 20 years in Head Start, Haase’s knowledge of ChildPlus pays off

For ChildPlus Software Lead Instructor Trish Haase, her love of Head Start is strong. Trish worked in Head Start for over 20 years before coming to ChildPlus.

Before working in Head Start, Trish worked with the Cleveland City Schools Teen Learning Center. She worked with toddlers who were children of teen mothers while the mothers were in school.

“A good friend worked with Family Resource Agency (FRA) as their IT Director and knew I was looking for a job,” Trish said. “He told me about the Family Resource Agency’s Tennessee Head Start Program, which I never heard of prior to this.”

Her friend suggested she go to the office and fill out an application. She was later hired as a secretary and receptionist.

“I’m forever grateful for my friend telling me about the opening with Head Start at FRA,” Trish said. “Not only because working with Head Start opened doors for me that I would never imagine possible, but I wouldn’t have known to have my daughter apply for my grandson, Tanner, to attend when he was three. He is now 22 and will graduate in May with a Chemistry/Biology degree as a pre-med student.” 

Head Start helped Tanner find his love for learning like it has for millions of other children across the country.

While working at FRA, Trish began using ChildPlus Software by entering applications and immunizations. After seeing what ChildPlus Software could do for the agency, she approached the Family Services/ERSEA Coordinator and began showing her all the cool things she could do and was learning how to do with ChildPlus. Trish never took any formal ChildPlus training and basically taught herself how the software worked.

“Ms. Alberta decided that I would be the ChildPlus Specialist and train service area staff members how to enter data into ChildPlus,” Trish said. “I loved training all of the staff on ChildPlus. If you knew me back then, you would know that I was (and still am, but not as bad) an extreme introvert. Getting in front of a group and speaking was/is a real challenge for me.”

Trish worked at Family Resource Agency in Cleveland, Tennessee, from 1996 to 2012. After leaving FRA, with ChildPlus President David McMurrain’s permission, she worked closely with six agencies as an independent ChildPlus Software consultant.

During that time, she also held the position as leader of Region IV ChildPlus User Group.

“I led the Region IV ChildPlus group from the first meeting, which David came to, in Cleveland,” she said. “He helped me establish the group until the Spring 2016 meeting when I said goodbye to the group and they voted a new leader in.”

She was then hired as an instructor for ChildPlus in the Training Department in January 2016.

According to Trish, she loves the fact that ChildPlus allows staff to easily enter the services they offer and give to children, pregnant mothers, parents, guardians, and the entire family.

“When I first started working in Head Start, probably 95-to-98 percent of the work the staff did on a daily basis was not recorded,” she said. “ChildPlus is such a powerful software, now staff are able to ensure their hard work is document.”

“ChildPlus has continuously evolved and improved in the almost 25 years that I have been using it,” Trish said. “It truly gives the agencies using our software an awesome an incredible tool.”