Watsonville, Calif. – Community Bridges’ is renaming the program devoted to building early social emotional, physical and cognitive development from the “Child Development Division” to the “Early Education Division” or “EED”. After reaching out to agency staff, families, and community stakeholders, the organization’s philanthropic Board of Directors unanimously voted to support the change at its meeting earlier this month.
The move is being made to better differentiate
the services we provide and have offered in our community-based organization
for the past several decades. This will allow families to recognize their
various choices in their child’s early educational experience as well vocalize
our continued alignment of our services with early educational goals across the
state. In 2021, the state of California
announced an expansion to its “Transitional Kindergarten” program to allow all
4-year olds to enroll in TK or TK/K combination classrooms. The changes are
already rolling out in our local school districts and will continue over the
next three years.
“Our program brings in curriculum, assessments, social
emotional development, and play in a nurturing bilingual setting that has
always been targeted to preparing our community’s children for the transition to
elementary school,” said Early Education Division Program Director Lisa Hindman
Holbert. “The name change is meant to better reflect the entire scope of the
work we do with our children and families. We teach. We certainly care for children and we
also want to ensure the community knows that we are an important part of the
infrastructure in children’s education in our county.
The majority of Community Bridges’ EED Teachers are
bilingual/bicultural, and all have a minimum of 12 units of early childhood education
(ECE). They continue pursuing their educational goals, including attaining a
degree in ECE, while also completing professional development annual including participating
in training offered by our County Office of Education, First 5 Santa Cruz
County, and Quality Counts Santa Cruz County and focus on other targeted areas,
such as trauma informed care, inclusion, dual language learners, best practices
in the field. They are trained in developmental assessments and tools to help
created rich curriculum plans and activities, to allow for small group, large
group, and generous free play time. We foster and promote each child’s individual
development, while focusing on the whole child and supporting the families
goals.
“As the state and nation modernizes their thinking about early childhood education, it made sense for Community Bridges to make this small but meaningful change to the program name to demonstrate our long-term commitment to the whole child’s emotional and educational development,” added Community Bridges’ CEO, Raymon Cancino.
ABOUT COMMUNITY BRIDGES
Community Bridges envisions a
thriving community where every person has the opportunity to unleash their full
potential. Together, our family of programs delivers essential services,
provides equitable access to resources, and advocates for health and dignity
across every stage of life. To learn more, please visit www.communitybridges.org.
The Community Bridges family of
programs includes the Child & Adult Care Food Program, Early Education
Division, Women, Infants and Children (WIC), La Manzana Community Resources,
Live Oak Community Resources, Mountain Community Resources, Nueva Vista
Community Resources, Elderday Adult Day Health Care, Lift Line and Meals on
Wheels for Santa Cruz County.
