Dear Bay Area PLAN Supporters!
Become part of the change needed in our communities. Bay Area PLAN is outreaching to make the Families for Early Success (F4ES) program 100% community funded. We are $4930 away from our $10,000 goal. Make a difference in your community today!
F4ES offers peer based education, skill development and support around navigating the early childhood and k-12 education system, advocacy and early math, reading, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) for children 0-5. We have trained parents whose children attend subsidized childcare programs like Early Head Start, Head Start, OUSD Child Development Centers and Family Day Cares.
In 2008, PLAN developed the Parents Ready for School curriculum to increase the skills and knowledge of parents of color around how to navigate the education systems and be strong advocates for their children’s success. The ultimate goal was that every parent who graduated from the training series would be able to protect their child’s success by becoming an active parent. It worked! This has been expanded to form our program F4ES. In East Oakland, parents are supporting each other to provide early education for their children. Moms who work are trusting neighbors, friends, and family to take care of children under 5 in loving settings. The field of early childhood education calls them informal care providers. As housing prices rise, families begin to work more jobs, and limited slots for childcare are available, more peer based informal care will become the solution for working families.
Participants like Debra (see image) is attending a current series. She noted that she loved the ideas she was learning to help her grandkids learn. As the Bay Area experiences displacement in housing, high turnover of teachers and principals in schools, we are stepping up to offer more support for our community. Parents have reported needing more peer support from grandparents like Debra. Families have reported wanting more accessible times for trainings so that working parents can caregivers can participate.
And the program is evolving to F4ES, to include a Peer Leaders component that will increase parents outreaching and supporting other parents, as well as begin to assess how to connect disconnected committees, task forces and agencies in the early childhood world.
What we will do with your support:
* Provide trainings at 4 locations throughout East Oakland
* Train over 40 working parents, family members and informal care providers
* Train informal care providers who care for at least 100 children
* Put at least 10 informal care providers on the path toward becoming early childhood educators
With as little as $20 you can make a difference today and help us spread the word. You can support with your donation before June 30th. By contributing to PLAN’s F4ES you can be part of making sure this important program is 100% community funded and make it thrive. Donate today!
