Early Excellence and Beyond
It’s double the giggles and double the grins, but also double the worries about child care if you’re blessed with twins, like Joni Gilmore. A single mom who works part-time as a certified nursing assistant, Joni’s load is lighter because her 4-year-old boys attend the Early Excellence Program of Denver, located in the Cole neighborhood.
Early Excellence provides high quality (it has a 4-Star Qualistar rating) preschool education to children from two to five years old, with the goal of cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically preparing children to achieve academic success in kindergarten and beyond.
Most of the children, like Damari and Damarion Gilmore, are identified as “at risk” because of the economic circumstances of their families. Thirty percent of the children are native Spanish speakers at home.
That’s why Early Excellence also goes beyond serving only the young children that attend the early childhood education program. It also provides job development and social networks for the parents so that they can achieve self-sufficiency.
“If you have a faltering family, it’s nearly impossible for the child to succeed in school,” says Early Excellence executive director Jennifer Luke. “But if you can educate the family and help support the parent to be successful in their own career, the child also benefits.”
Early Excellence works with Denver Human Services to offer parents on TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) volunteer opportunities, on-the-job training to become an early education teacher, and even help with job placement. Luke estimates her program has helped as many as 25 parents.
One of Early Excellence’s current teachers, Ivan Rodriguez, became interested in teaching when his own son attended Early Excellence. While he had a bachelor’s degree in business management, Rodriguez had to take classes to certify him to work in early education. Then he went on to get his master’s degree in elementary education. He is one of 10 teachers at the program, which serves 80 children in five classrooms.
“Our goal is to have them prepared for kindergarten,” said Rodriguez. “We give children a head start. By the time they get to kindergarten, they know their letters, numbers and colors. They know how to play with others and how to follow instructions.”
Early Excellence’s goal of “kindergarten-readiness” mirrors the aim of The Piton Foundation. “Research backs the wisdom of early brain development and of investing in the very early years of a child’s life,” said Terry Minger, president and CEO of The Piton Foundation.
Early Excellence also offers a variety of opportunities for parents to get involved in activities with their children. There are monthly potluck dinners, field trips to the zoo and museums, and tickets to the theater and ballet.
Early Excellence also arranges for dental services, vision screenings, and immunizations for the children.
Despite the well documented success of the program in helping both children and families, Early Excellence, like many early childhood programs, is struggling in these difficult economic times. Some centers have even shut down.
Early Excellence depends primarily on funding through the Colorado Child Assistance Program (CCAP) and the Denver Preschool Program, both of which have severely cut back their support. CCAP has cut its reimbursement rate by 10-15%, affecting about 15 of the 80 families at Early Excellence. And the waiting list for families to get on CCAP is now about two years.
The Denver Preschool Program, which provides tuition assistance for about 87% of the almost 70 four-year-olds in the program, now pays less than half of the cost of tuition, and only pays for nine months of schooling instead of a full year.
It’s hard on the program, which is determinedly seeking new sources of funding, but Luke worries more about the children and families.
“I feel like we keep re-wounding our most vulnerable families,” says Luke. She explains that the children often have to go back into traditional care, with older brothers and sisters, or neighbors or friends providing the care. “And with the children not able to attend the summer program, parents sometimes have to quit their jobs and the children are losing three months of quality education and some of the gains we’ve made in getting them school ready.”
But Luke is committed to keeping the doors to Early Excellence open. “We know that children who graduate from our program, graduate at or well-above grade level and are ready for kindergarten and beyond. We also know that our families have a dramatically higher increase in positive parenting skills.”
It’s a problem that keeps Luke and her staff up at night.
But thinking of the twins, Damari and Damarion, she pauses “With four arms to hug me, it repays all my trouble.”
To learn more about Early Excellence Program of Denver, go to eepdenver.org
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