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.