Washington, DC— The Department of Human Services (DHS) Early Care and Education Administrator, Barbara Ferguson Kamara, will lead a guided tour of several of the District’s premiere child care facilities for the National League of Cities (NLC), the oldest and largest organization that represents municipal governments throughout the United States, on Sunday, October 22, 2006.
Local officials and senior staff from across the country will come together to devise strategies that aid families and young children during NLC’s two-day Cities Supporting Parents of Young Children Leadership Academy. As part of the Leadership Academy, representatives from six cities and five states who are participating in the Freddie Mac Foundation sponsored project will visit model DC early care and education programs throughout the District. The NLC recently touted the District as a city that invests in its children in its Nation’s Cities Weekly, an electronic newspaper, with a circulation of 30,000.
“We are extremely pleased that this prestigious organization has featured the District of Columbia in a recent edition of its newspaper and, highlighted our commitment to District children,” said DHS Interim Director Brian Wilbon.
“We’re proud of our early care and education sites for children and, the fact that we were able to provide subsidized child care services for 23,160 children of low-income parents in the District in FY 2006,” Wilbon said.
Representatives will visit several of the DHS Early Care and Education Administration (ECEA) subsidized child care facilities that include the D.C. Developing Families Center. The center located in Northeast is composed of three non-profit service providers: the D.C. Birth Center, the Healthy Babies Project and Nation’s Capital Child and Family Development. Services include health checkups, immunizations, pregnancy testing, prenatal care, a birth center, social services assistance, job training and continuing education.
The group of officials will also tour CentroNia in a bustling Northwest neighborhood known as Columbia Heights. CentroNia offers residents numerous educational programs in a bilingual, multicultural community through four educational departments that include the Learning Center, Family/Community Development, Professional Development Academy and a D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School.
“We are really pleased to showcase the District’s high quality programs to the mayors and to our peers from around the United States,” said ECEA Administrator, Barbara Ferguson Kamara.
“We are also pleased about the commitment that Mayor Anthony Williams, the City Council, the Department of Human Services and District residents have made to high quality, comprehensive services for young children and their families, she said.
The tour concludes with a presentation by Dr. Betty Jo Gaines, executive director of Bright Beginnings, a child and family development center in Northwest for homeless families living in shelters and transitional housing across the District. The unique facility provides services that include free, all-day, and year-round developmentally appropriate care, on-site therapeutic support and comprehensive family support services to District residents.