Santa Maria Community Services is pleased to announce it has been awarded $30,000 from the Scripps Howard Foundation toward its Early Childhood Development programs including the Every Child Succeeds and Promoting our Preschoolers programs. Santa Maria provides multiple early childhood services to help children and guardians overcome the barriers that limit their ability to change their circumstances and to find the means toward improved education.
The Every Child Succeeds (ECS) program (developed by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital), offers first-time mothers and their families support to ensure an optimal start for their children. ECS is a collaborative, evidence-based home-visitation program that includes 9 provider agencies whose social workers, child development specialists and nurses provide services for first-time, at-risk mothers on a regular basis from the time of pregnancy until the child’s third birthday and is designed to optimize child development and promote a variety of positive outcomes.
The Promoting Our Preschoolers (POP) program is one of Santa Maria’s family-focused kindergarten-readiness programs that works collaboratively with families, schools, and the community through home-visitation. During home visits, parents receive support, education, and referrals for children and the family. Children receive developmental screens, educational supplies, and participate in home or group-based learning opportunities to increase their success in school and life. The program works jointly with families to help get children ready for kindergarten by building reading, language, and social skills, and seeks to create a seamless transition into school for preschool-age children while ensuring barriers to school readiness are removed.
The Scripps Howard Foundation is the philanthropic arm of The E.W. Scripps Company. In partnership with the company and the Scripps and Howard families, they are dedicated to bringing about a fully informed world by advancing journalism education, improving childhood literacy and giving back to the communities they call home.