Program areas at BCFS
The jvlcdg grant provided educational services to 313 children during the 2022-2023 school year. The locations included victoria isd, waelder isd, yoakum isd, nixon-smiley isd, victoria ehs, cuero hs, edna hs, and port lavaca hs. Partnerships with local libraries were made. The literacy team at the library has a guest reader at the center. The libraries donated backpacks and books to our center locations. Parents were involved with committees and the policy council. Parades in this area are exciting and families participate by creating floats and dressing up. Toys for tots is a big event sponsored in victoria where many of our family specialists helped family's sign-up. The polar express enrollment event took place and was fun for all families and staff involved. Families rounded stations where they were also accepted into our program. The education team set in motion more family engagement by launching ready rosie for parents. Having partnerships with the isd's help prepare our children to be school ready.
During the 2023-2024 academic year the stonewall grant served and enrolled 135 head start children. Additionally, we provide home based services with a current enrollment of 13 children. Johnson city early head start opened its doors on august 21st serving 8 children after being closed for over a year for renovation and conversion from head start to early head start. Bailey bears were distributed on november 3rd, to all head start children. Bailey bears are used by children to help self regulate and are part of trauma informed care. Parent meetings are held each month to ensure we keep the families informed of any upcoming events. We continued our father engagement through take home projects and sponsored an evening for dads to come and carve jack o lanterns with their child (pumpkins for papas) during the month of october. The pumpkins were donated from a local grower. Parents also continued to volunteer and attend policy council meetings through microsoft teams and completed educational activities from their home with their children as part of our family engagement initiative. Parents volunteered reading to their children as we provided books for them to read. We had 143 parent volunteers this school year. We also had a dentist from the community see children who did not have a dental screening to do a cursory dental check and some employees volunteer monthly at the local central food bank.
During the 2022-2023 academic school year, the akw grant continued to serve children. Our early head start program enrolled 56 children in our 3 standalone sites and our head start program continued serving 134 children through our partnerships with floresville and charlotte isd's. Akw secured a partnership with chalotte isd with one classroom of 20 4-years. We wanted to make sure our families continued to feel involved in their child's education by providing monthly parent meetings followed by family engagement activities. During the family engagement activities, families are invited to come to the center and join their child for a creative activity. During this time, families can see what the children have been learning about in the classroom as well. Parents also continued to volunteer and attend policy council meetings via zoom. Teachers continued to send home educational activities daily. This gives parents the opportunity to spend some time with their child at home extending on what they are learning at school. This school year we had 190 parent volunteers. Our akw implemented a parent curriculum called ready rosie. Ready rosie delivers parenting curriculum videos via text. The city of poteet continued to provide volunteers services each month by mowing the yard, paying for water and trash services. Our stand-alone sites continue working with the local community partnerships to provide resources and referrals to our families on a as-needed basis. One of our community partnerships (walmart in karnes city) provided thanksgiving meals to all the families at our karnes city site. Another community partnership (salty slab in stockdale) provided christmas gifts for the children at our stockdale site. The fire department in poteet is another community partnership that provided christmas gifts for the children at our poteet site.
During the 2022-2023 academic year, the
Ehs ccp grant was in its second year
After a virtual/remote start-up.
Enrollment was a total of 120 children
Served. The centers that were open
Were victoria, boerne, edna, cuero, port
Lavaca, and yoakum under this grant.
For the first time cuero, edna, and
Port lavaca were introduced to an early
Head start program. Family engagement
Was thriving at this time. The victoria
Area was a hotspot for families in its
Prime location. The polar express
Enrollment event took place and was
Fun for all families and staff involved.
Families rounded stations where they
Were also accepted into our program.
The education team set in motion more
Family engagement by launching ready
Rosie for parents. Parent workshops were
Held for milestones, home visits, and
Family goals. A hands on heart activity
For parents was a great time to team bui-
Ld and help families build relationships
With each other. The local foodbank
Partnered with us to have backpack
Meals distributed for 30 families in
Each location. Other events included
Spring fling for fathers and national
Night out. Community partnerships
Began with bush's chicken, children's
Discovery museum, tx a&m agrilife
Extension, and c.l. Thomas owner
of speedy stop.