2011 Annual Report - Children, Youth and Family Services

Meet Our Community Partners & Volunteers
Children, Youth & Family Services is fortunate to have the
support of a great many individuals and local organizations.
Some give of their time and expertise, some donate funds,
most do both! Their contributions make a difference for our
programs and that makes a difference for kids.
Parenting Mobile Partners
The CYFS Parenting Mobile provides an array of support to
families in their own neighborhoods. Many local public and
private organizations partner with CYFS in this program.
Among them are: The Infant Development program of
ARC of the Piedmont, Bright Stars, Jefferson Area CHIP,
the City Preschool program, PB&J Fund, Martha
Jefferson Hospital health outreach, the Women’s Initiative,
Junior League,
Habitat for
Humanity,
Church of the
Incarnation
and UVa’s
Madison House.
Over 90% of children participating in our school readiness
programs increased their positive social/ emotional behavior
and early literacy skills, sending them to school with the skills
they need to succeed. This initiative is successful because of
our strong community partners who work closely with CYFS
staff to help these families.
Child Care Quality Program Partners
Last year, State Farm partnered with our Child Care Quality
program to fund professional
mentoring to child care
providers in Charlottesville/
Albemarle who are serving
at-risk preschool children.
Their support provided for
a year's worth of services
for one child care center
immediately impacting the
lives of about 56 children by
improving the care they are
receiving. The effects are long-lasting, though, and will
impact future children as well. The overall goal of the Child
Care Quality program is to improve access to and the quality
of child care for young children so they receive enrichment in
the early years and arrive at kindergarten with the skills they
need to succeed in school.
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Spotlight on:
Play Partners
CYFS’ Play Partners
program depends on
community volunteers to
deliver its early literacy
activities in child care
settings around the
community. The program
promotes the importance of
reading in a child’s early
years and helps prepare the
children for their entry into
kindergarten. These
dedicated volunteers, many
with over ten years of
experience in the program,
work in pairs visiting their
assigned child care settings
for an hour each week. After
reading the “book of the
month”, the volunteers
engage the children in
activities that emphasize and
extend the concepts and
vocabulary in the story.
“My daughters always said
that they were “going to
school” on the days that Play
Partners ‘teachers’ were
coming. They are both doing
great in school!”, said one
parent. This year 17 regular
and 6 substitute volunteers
served as Play Partners in 11
child care locations. They
gave over 1,400 hours of
their time and distributed 900
new books to participating
children and their caregivers.