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First, for a visual representation of our most recent program year, we hope you will enjoy our 2023-2024 Highlights Video: Off to a Fresh Start!
Our organization is driven to improve our childcare and early childhood education, including how we engage with families, partner with the community, and so much more, all for the benefit of families. We have a focus on improving the facilities, recruiting more staff to support more families, and ensuring that we’re providing a secure and safe place for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
One of the reasons we’re a key leader in this space is because of our desire to strategically grow and improve, operating in a goal-driven and mission-driven environment, and having people, across the organization, who have a heart for service. Recently many stakeholders – Board members, parents, and staff – gathered to reflect on our goals and progress. This annual self-assessment is an opportunity to incorporate the diverse voices of our organization, ensure accountability with our operations, and remain mission-driven, putting the readiness of young children of agricultural families first.
Some areas where we excelled over this past program year include:
Our children will be healthy and prepared to learn
Our teams provided intensive training to our Health Services Specialists, who then provided intensive on-the-job training to Family Health Coordinators.
We focused on safety and oversight of health services.
Our staff were trained on and embraced the “I Am Moving, I Am Learning” Head Start initiative.
Established comprehensive, culturally responsive curriculum
We increased STEAM in campuses.
All preschool classrooms have a minimum of one Hatch desktop computer and/or tablet to support technology with children.
Approaches to learning improved, indicating that 90% of children will engage in learning according to their developmental age.
School readiness goals, according to developmental age
For Social Emotional Development, we have worked to have 90% of children develop and strengthen their social and emotional well-being.
In Language & Literacy Development, we strive to have 80% of children use and understand one or more languages and demonstrate understanding of basic early literacy concepts.
With Cognition development, we see that 80% of children will demonstrate understanding of the basic concepts of mathematics, solve problems, gather and organize information about the world around them.
By prioritizing Perceptual, Motor and Physical Development, we see that 90% of children will possess good overall health and physical development.
Training & education progress
100% of the campuses offered interested families information on educational programs available for their children, and 100% of parents with children transitioning to kindergarten received the information and support they needed for a smooth transition.
Six regions offered family services with opportunities for a variety of Parenting Education.
74% of families that participated in Adult and Parent Education opportunities reported making changes based on what they learned. This is a 13% increase since 2023 progress!
100% of families reported making gains in all seven Family Engagement Outcomes. Family Well-Being, Positive Parent-Child Relationship, and Family and Lifelong Educators.
Financial & management systems and infrastructure deliver high quality services
ECMHSP achieved 104% of funded enrollment with 2,897 children enrolled and 41 campuses have earned NAEYC accreditation – that's 95% of our locations! As a result, we’ve secured expansion funds for additional slots to support our families.
We recognize that access to child care and early childhood education is a barrier. As such, we have prioritized caring, safe transportation services to ensure our families’ precious little ones can make it safely to and from our campuses. An increasing number of children have been transported, and the vehicle fleet has been updated, with seven new leased microbuses and 15 new buses in operation.
We have increased teacher pay to attract and retain qualified staff. We now offer a $17 an hour minimum wage!
Our Operations team has established and is now supporting four Family Child Care Home partnerships.
Develop and expand a strong network of Partnerships
The Foundation for Farmworkers, our sister nonprofit, raised unrestricted funds to support three special initiatives at ECMHSP: (i) family emergency financial assistance; (ii) pro bono immigration services for DACA recipients; and (iii) need-based educational grants to ECMHSP parents.
Enhancing visibility and credibility has been a significant focus, resulting in measurable growth across key social media metrics. ECMHSP increased its Facebook followers by 13.5 percent; Instagram followers by 11 percent and Linkedln followers by 25 percent. ECMHSP now has over 4,000 Facebook followers.
As part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations, we developed comprehensive branding for the milestone year. This included creation of a detailed style guide, custom-designed invitations, event agendas, a social media content campaign, an animated logo, media advisories, and press releases.
ECMHSP leaders participate in many state-level government initiatives, such as the North Carolina Farmworker Action Network, the Virginia Migrant and Immigrant Council, and the Indiana Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Coalition, to advocate for our children and families and for agricultural worker communities more broadly.
We uplifted the voices of ECMHSP families in the development of comments to the revised Head Start Program Performance Standards in December 2023. This included participating in workgroups with the National Head Start Association and National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, and submitting our own comments, including from our Policy Council Executive Committee.
We’ve set six new Head Start Project Goals for 2024-2029
Goal One: Health and Safety. Children, families and staff will be healthy and safe to support children’s school readiness.
Goal Two: Sustainable Workforce. A stable, qualified workforce will be in place to support children’s readiness.
Goal Three: School Readiness. Evidence-based curriculum, assessment, instruction and professional development systems will be in place to ensure the school readiness of all children.
Goal Four: Wellbeing. A culture and systems that prioritize the well-being of children, families, and staff will be cultivated and established.
Goal Five: Partnerships. A strong network of partnerships will be developed, expanded, and maintained, and additional external resources will be developed to provide needed services and advocacy for agricultural workers, children and families.
Goal Six: Family Child Care Homes. Develop a network of family child care homes to extend services to all eligible children, including those living in low concentrations.
Follow us online as we are now taking action to make these new goals a reality.
About ECMHSP Early Childhood Education
East Coast Migrant Head Start Project was established in 1974 through a grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Program is a critical stakeholder in the broader early care and education ecosystem, working alongside child care, pre-K, home visitation programs, and family, friend, and neighbor care with purpose to support the needs of young children.
Currently, ECMHSP operates 43 Educational Campuses and four family childcare homes across ten states providing holistic, high-quality early childhood education services for approximately 3,000 children from birth to age 5, whose parent works in agriculture. For more information, visit https://www.ecmhsp.org/
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