MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
This was an exciting year in our Early Childhood Programs! In September our Early Education and Care Center expanded to serve infants and their families. The generosity of MVYouth has allowed us to increase the number of working families we serve each year. In 2023 MV Community Services supported families who work in education, health care, human services, hospitality, retail, agriculture, construction, transportation, shipping and town government. Access to high quality early childhood programming plays a foundational role in our economy and the health and well-being of our community! In December our Early Education and Care Center was re-accredited through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). NAEYC Accreditation is a rigorous, multi-step process that involves extensive self-reflection and quality improvement to meet the program standards. Our program demonstrated excellence in areas such as Curriculum, Teaching, Health, Community Relationships, Physical Environment, and Leadership and Management. The accreditation is a testament to the dedication of our incredible team of educators! We continued our efforts to build a workforce of early childhood educators in our community. Our Program Director served as a mentor for ACE MV’s Early Childhood Education Cohort, supporting students enrolled in coursework through Cape Cod Community College. This fall we partnered with ACE MV to launch a new Cohort for students enrolled in early childhood coursework in Brazilian Portuguese through Urban College of Boston. We launched our Early Head Start program in 2023, expanding our home-based services to support families with children between 0-3. This program recognizes parents as their child’s first and most important teacher and capitalizes on the learning opportunities in the home and community-based settings. Our Family Center continued to offer evidenced-based parent education workshops and series designed to meet the unique needs of our community. We partnered with the Dukes County House of Correction to offer Nurturing Fathers and the Peer Recovery Support Center to offer Nurturing Families in Recovery.
MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
Our first year in our new Early Childhood Center was truly magical! The thoughtfully designed space has enriched our program in countless ways. Our large, flexible classroom environments have allowed us to increase capacity and plan and implement innovative curriculum that meets the unique needs of all children. The communal spaces have created new opportunities for our parent education and support programs, building vital social connections. The warm and welcoming environment has helped to create a strong sense of community for our children, families and educators. We are so grateful for the essential role that MVYouth played in building the foundation for the future of our early childhood programs!
We continued to explore innovative ways to support our early childhood workforce and attract new educators to the field. We welcomed students from MV Regional High’s School’s ECE Program, providing opportunities for observations and practical experience in the classroom. We also partnered with the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Education and Training and Cape Cod Community College to launch the Early Childhood Education Cohort, which connects new and prospective educators with college coursework and wrap-around supports. It is our hope that this initiative helps to build our ECE workforce across the island!
We are excited to share that we will begin to offer Early Head Start (EHS) services in 2023, targeting families with children birth to three! Our home-based model will build on the learning opportunities in the home environment. During weekly visits, Home Visitors will help parents to identify opportunities to support their child’s development during ordinary experiences that happen each day. Home Visitors and parents will also work together to identify family goals and access the supports needed to achieve them! Our EHS program will complement our well-established Head Start program, which serves families with preschool-age children.
MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
This was a transformative year for our Early Childhood Programs! In October we moved into our new Early Childhood Center. We are so grateful to everyone who helped us reach this incredible milestone. MVYouth’s $1,000,000 award played an integral role in the success of our Capital Campaign and conveyed the importance of the project to our community. The investment made will provide vital supports to families on the island for generations to come!
The Center’s design evolved from a partnership between our educators and the dedicated team at South Mountain Company. The thoughtful and nurturing spaces that were created communicate value and respect to our children, families and staff. The building is high performance in terms of energy, toxicity and durability, minimizing our impact on the island’s ecology. Our new program space will allow us to increase the capacity in our Early Education and Care Center, providing a valuable resource for working families in our community. It has been truly magical to see our new home come to life!
The pandemic has highlighted the essential role that early childhood programs play in the health and well-being of our community. The services provided by our Family Center and our home-based Head Start program continued to evolve in response to Covid-19. We recognize that social connections play a crucial role in strengthening families and developed innovative programming that allowed families to stay connected to us, as well as connect with one another. This spring we opened a new outdoor classroom at our Family Center, allowing us to offer a wide range of programs in a safe and enriching environment.
MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
This year began with great hope and excitement for the future as we broke ground on the new home for our early childhood programs. The thoughtfully designed space will offer a learning environment where children, families and staff feel valued and respected. The $1,000,000 award that we received from MVYouth played a pivotal role in the success of our capital campaign, communicating the foundational role that our programs play in our community. When the pandemic hit the island in March, the lives of the children and families we serve were suddenly turned upside down. Our programs quickly mobilized to identify new and innovative ways to meet families’ needs. The mandated closure of early childhood programs across the state prompted our Early Education and Care Center to apply to become an Exempt Emergency Childcare Program. This allowed us to provide care for essential workers and vulnerable families in our community during a stressful and uncertain time. Our Family Center quickly transitioned to a virtual platform, providing parent/child activities, parent education workshops and parent support groups online. Our home-based Head Start program identified creative ways to stay connected to families, offering remote visits and delivering educational materials to encourage families to play and learn together while at home. We continued to provide individualized supports, connecting families with food, diapers, formula and other essential supplies. We ended the year by launching the Pathway Program, a specialized professional development and financial incentive program. The project is designed to attract and retain teachers who are passionate about their work, committed to ongoing professional growth and reflect the diversity in our community. This initiative will ensure that our teachers have the knowledge, guidance and support needed to offer a high quality program that honors best practices in the field.
MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
This has been a transformative year for our Early Childhood Programs! We completed Phase One of our capital campaign, which will fund the construction of our new home. The building will hold our early education and care program, serve as a gathering place for families enrolled in our Head Start program and provide work and meeting spaces for our teachers, home visitors and leadership team. We are excited to fulfill our dream of creating a safe, respectful and enriching learning environment for our community. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring! We were one of eight organizations in the state to receive a grant through the Attorney General’s Office Trauma-Informed Care for Young Children Grant Program. The program aims to assist children who have experienced childhood trauma stemming from violence, separation from parents and caregivers, and stress due to poverty or related to the opioid crisis. We will utilize the funds to engage in a program-wide training on The Pyramid Model, a framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s healthy social and emotional development. All of our programs evolved to meet the unique needs of our community. Our Family Center collaborated with the YMCA to offer parent/child activities during the winter months when recreational opportunities are limited. We also established a new partnership with the Center for Living and created our first intergenerational program. Our Head Start program was granted a new five-year contract, allowing us to continue to provide home-based supports and services to families in our community.
MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
This was an exciting year for our Early Childhood Programs! We embarked on a capital campaign to fund a new building to house our early education and care program, a gathering place for families participating in our Head Start program and our administrative offices. The $1,000,000 provisional grant that we received from MVYouth propelled our capital campaign forward, allowing our dream to create a safe, respectful and enriching learning environment for our children and families to begin to feel like a reality.
We engaged South Mountain Company to design a space that will allow us to honor best practices in the field of early childhood education and serve island children and families for many generations to come. Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School generously gifted us a plot of land for the project, which means that we can continue to serve our community during the construction process. We have been working with the Town of Oak Bluffs, as well as the MV Commission to ensure that our plans have the approval of all required governing boards. With the endorsement of MVYouth, our capital campaign has been moving steadily forward. Our goal is to be ready to put a shovel in the ground in the fall of 2019!
Our early childhood programs continued to grow and thrive. Our early education and care program was reaccredited by NAEYC, which recognizes high quality early childhood programs. The MV Family Center engaged in new outreach efforts, allowing us to reach 74% more grandparents, 28% more fathers and 145% more bilingual families through our parent education and support programs. Lastly, MV Head Start was granted a federal waiver to design a program to meet the unique needs of our island community.
MVCS - Early Childhood Programs
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT: The provisional grant for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services reserves $1,000,000 to build a new Early Childhood Programs Center, addressing a critical Island need – quality, affordable child care. Pursuant to the terms of a provisional grant, the Trustees agreed to assess the proposal again in six months to review updated estimated costs of construction, gauge the agency’s progress in gaining necessary permits and other government approvals and achieving fundraising goals.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services estimates the new ECP Center will cost $4.28 million to complete. The organization has $1 million committed from private donors in addition to the $1 million now reserved from MVYouth. They are actively seeking the final $2.28 million needed for the project.
South Mountain Company has been retained to create a master plan for the entire MVCS campus, with the Early Childhood Programs Center constituting phase 1. The aging campus is 40 years old and overdue for renovations. The proposed ECP facility will house four classrooms: infant, younger toddler, older toddler and preschool/pre-kindergarten, adding 17 new full-time spots, allowing for a maximum of 65 children to be served daily, a 26% increase from their current capacity.
The Early Childhood Programs currently serve 48 children daily (3 months to 5 years old) in their childcare program; and administer the Head Start program, which provides home-based early intervention services; and the Family Center, a resource center for children and families housed off-campus in the Nathan Mayhew Center, in Vineyard Haven.
The Early Childhood Programs is the only NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) accredited program on MV; the only center-based program offering infant care; the only program with state contracts to provide free & reduced breakfast, snack and lunch programs; the only center-based program open year-round - 52 weeks/year; the only program with income eligible spots; the only program that accepts State funded vouchers; the only program with spots for children with open cases with Department of Children & Families (DCF), state funded childcare to support children in foster care and families in need.