ESC Annual Report 2019

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Community is Ready to Invest ESC strives to build community capacity by bringing community resources together to solve community problems in a safe and productive environment. We are more effective together. PROMISE KEPT, JOBS CREATED, NEW CHILDCARE SLOTS, AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING ACHIEVED It Takes a Team In March of 2017, ESC received a $6 million dollar grant to expand Early Head Start (EHS) Childcare Partnership (CCP) services in ESC’s four-county service area. With this grant, we were able to open 11 classrooms for children ages 0 to 3 years old, in Lamar, Carthage, Joplin, Neosho, Southwest City, and Noel. Three of these classrooms were opened with community partners who either expanded their current childcare centers or opened a new family childcare home. The EHS-CCP grant allowed ESC to have an 18-month start-up period to complete construction and renovations at all sites. While other programs in the country struggled to meet this deadline, the work at ESC was completed and the program fully enrolled with children within 12 months! A large part of the credit has to go to the Construction Manager, Matt Daniel, an ESC employee, who was working for the Weatherization/Home Repair programs. Matt was chosen to lead the team that would either directly complete some of the renovations or to arrange for vendors to complete certain projects. Matt and his team worked on this project for a year, using their knowledge and skills to renovate and refurbish locations that needed extensive work. Every location was done quickly and looked beautiful after completion. While Matt and his construction crew worked, there were many other employees at ESC working behind the scenes. Each center/site has an assigned Area Supervisor and they were tasked with the job of meeting with Missouri Child Care Licensing Representatives, Sanitation Inspectors, and the Fire Marshall. Each agency requires specific materials, equipment, and building schematics in order to ensure that children are safe and well cared for at all times. The Area Supervisors spent months working in collaboration with Matt to ensure the buildings passed all inspections. At the same time they were working to get their centers ready for inspections, the Area Supervisors were hiring new employees that would be responsible for the everyday operations of the program. One of the most important parts to passing Child Care Licensing inspections is ensuring the presence of age-appropriate, child development materials and equipment. ESC’s Early Head Start Education Staff spent numerous hours purchasing, unpacking, and setting up all 11 classrooms. This same group of educators, along with program Service Area Coordinators, were also responsible for training all of the new employees hired by the Area Supervisors, in addition to training the new community childcare partners and their staff, totaling over 50 people. A new teacher completes 93 hours of new employee training before she is considered “fully trained”. The teacher’s training consists of in-depth information on child development and assessment, health & safety measures, working with families from all cultures, Head Start Performance Standards, Child Care Licensing Rules, and many other topics necessary to help children develop School Readiness Skills. There were many other employees, ESC Board members, Head Start Policy Council members and members from our community who made this dream a reality for ESC. Every person made a difference. So what does all of this behind the scenes work mean for our Community? 11 new high-quality, no-cost child care classrooms in Southwest Missouri communities, 74 child care slots for 0-3 year olds, 50 new jobs created, 35 professional early childhood employees trained, expansion of 3 affordable licensed child care centers and the opening of 1 entrepreneurial family child care business. MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES PARTNERS WITH HEAD START/EARLY HEAD START The Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Solid Waste Management provided Economic Security Corporation a $30,000 grant award this year. The new partnership with Missouri DNR, Region M District and ESC made big changes to North Joplin Head Start and South Joplin Early Head Start playgrounds. We were able to use a recycled pour-in-place compound, 98% percent of the families have been able to keep their jobs and continue to meet their employment and education goals. The program’s School Readiness reports show that after only 6 months of childcare services, 85% of the children enrolled are at or above age-expected range in all areas of development. While our goal is to have all children reach at least 90% in all areas, we believe this is a very good start. Promise Kept! made of 100% recycled tires from Missouri, to replace the current playground resilient materials, which were previously grass and wood chips. One of the playground locations selected was South Joplin Early Head Start where we had 32 33
Community is Ready to Invest used grass and portable mats on the playground for infants and toddlers. Having this alternative resilient material allowed for different types of climbing, pushing, and riding toys that we weren’t being used due to safety considerations. These types of toys are helpful for the children’s gross motor development. The other playground was located at North Joplin Head Start. This large area encompassed a climber and swings. We were using wood chips as the resilient material at this center. The new pour-in-place surface has allowed us to save funds we had been using on the upkeep of this large space and has made the playground more enjoyable for the children. We were excited to share this event with our partners, MO DNR and the Region M District and are thankful for this opportunity to improve the quality of services for children and families. Dedication and ribbon cutting ceremonies for both playgrounds were held on November 28, 2018. 1000 BOOKS BEFORE KINDERGARTEN Partnerships Working Together To Enrich Our Communities Literacy skills start developing as soon as your baby is born. To help families with young children develop their pre-literacy skills and gain access to books, the Joplin Public Library (JPL) through a grant funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Frank Fletcher, and Economic Security Corporation’s Early Head Start launched an exciting new program to get parents involved with reading to their babies, toddlers and young children, who might not otherwise have access to age appropriate books, on Early Head Start home visits. 1000 Books Before Kindergarten provides families with specially selected books which are pre-packaged in library bags and are ready to be checked out. Families make their way through 200 bags of 5 books each to reach the end goal of reading 1000 books to their Before After child before they enter Kindergarten! Along the way, families can earn free books when certain milestones are met. Frank Fletcher Toyota provided the monetary donation to ensure that families would receive those free books. For every 100 books a parent logs in and reads to their child, Fletcher Toyota will provide that family with their own book, which allows them to build their own family library. This year there have been 24,600 books read to Early Head Start children and 246 books given to families to keep for their home library. This partnership has been so successful, it will be continued in 2019! ONE COMMUNITY WORKING TO END HUNGER WHERE WE LIVE One Joplin hosted a hunger banquet to raise awareness about food insecurity in our community in July 2018. Hunger is real in our community. More than 36,000 households lack consistent access to enough food to live a healthy and active life in Jasper and Newton Counties. Children are particularly vulnerable. The vast majority of food insecure households with children have an employed adult. The Hunger Banquet is a deeply impacting event that your community will never forget. Community members are invited to attend a meal where they will learn about local hunger. What they don’t know before the meal is that they will be placed in randomly assigned groups. A few will be classified as the rich. Some will be middle class. Many will be poor. Participants learned about the stigma of hunger, hunger in our schools, hunger and the working poor and the personnel impact of hunger. They also experienced GETTING REALL WITH LOCAL STUDENTS – Investing In Our Community’s Future! ESC partners with Community Schools or Youth Organizations to hold REALL simulations. This year, we hosted simulations with The Independent Living Center’s youth and Liberal School District. What is the REALL project? The Reality Enrichment and Life Lessons project is a hands-on simulation designed to challenge youth to think critically about how choices and decisions made in adolescence may have consequences in adulthood. REALL addresses many of the competencies identified by the Missouri State Board of Education: 4 Identify components and sources of income 4 Analyze how career choice, education, skills, and economic conditions affect income and goal attainment food insecurity firsthand, hence the hunger banquet and obstacles people face in obtaining adequate food in our community. Nearly 100 people representing the Joplin community, social service agencies, Joplin City Council and state representatives attended the seminar. The banquet was supported by a grant from Empower Missouri. Members of the One Joplin Poverty Focus Team and Economic Security Corporation of Southwest Area, Access Family Care, Crosslines Ministries, Salvation Army of Joplin, and Joplin Schools spearheaded planning and execution of the seminar. 4 Relate taxes, government transfer payments, and employee benefits to disposable income 4 Explain how financial resources affect the choices people make. Some of the student observations: During the first month, which is referred to as “Reactive” session, very few students thought to buy food, pay their utilities or rent. They were not thinking about the basic necessities of life. Students received shut-off notices for their electricity, eviction notices for rent and hunger cards if no groceries had been purchased. Many were unemployed and couldn’t get jobs, due to a lack of education. Some were receiving Unemployment, but none of them picked up their checks during the entire month, so they were missing valuable income. 34 35
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ESC Annual Report 2019

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