Early Head Start ABOUT AVANCE-SAN ANTONIO, INC. AVANCE MISSION STATEMENT AVANCE MODEL OF SERVICES EARLY HEAD START Program Year

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1 Special points of interest: Mother of the Year Honorees H-E-B Excellence in Early Education Award School Readiness Parental Engagement Special Activities Los Niños on My Mind By Artist, Kathy Sosa Early Head Start Program Year ABOUT AVANCE-SAN ANTONIO, INC. Founded in 1973, AVANCE-San Antonio, Inc. is an organization that has been building families and community in San Antonio for the last 39 years. AVANCE is based on the premise that education begins when a child is born and that parents must be their child s first and most important teacher. AVANCE facilitates change through education and support: first, in parents, then in their young children, family and home. The change AVANCE makes in today s families dramatically impacts future generations. The purpose of the AVANCE program is to develop strong and stable families, health children and promote economic self-sufficiency in families. AVANCE MISSION STATEMENT AVANCE unlocks America s potential by strengthening families in at-risk communities through effective parenting education and support programs. Inside this report: Program Governance 2 EHS Policy Council 2 EHS Enrollments 3 Health Services 3 School Readiness 4 AVANCE Wins! H-E-B Excellence in Education 4 Parental Engagement 5 Funding & Budgets 6 AVANCE Financial Support 7 Annual Fiscal Audit Monitoring Review 7 AVANCE MODEL OF SERVICES The AVANCE Model of Services begins with parents and their infants or young children under the age of three. It reaches out to create strong families by offering parenting education, social support, adult basic and higher education, and leadership development. Quality early childhood education is provided to children ages birth to four. Services are inter-related, family centered and preventive in nature. The AVANCE Model of Services is integrated into all aspects of home, school and community life. EARLY HEAD START The Early Head Start Program provides services to families with children birth to 3 years of age who meet Federal Income Poverty Guidelines and who primarily reside in the Westside and Harlandale ISD community. Services are provided through two program options: 1) a Home-based Option whereby families are visited once a week in their home and group socializations are held twice a month, and 2) a Center-based Option whereby infants and toddlers of working or parents enrolled in college/training receive full-time quality early childhood education and care at a licensed childcare facility. Additional services provided include health, nutrition, mental health, parental engagement and social services through an asset based case management system.

2 2012 Mother of the Year Honorees Norma Ramirez, 2012 AVANCE Graduate Honoree, shares her life story as daughter, Andrea, looks on. Judge Polly Spencer, Chairman s Award Honoree, shares her excitement about Norma. Policy Council s Holiday Food Basket Activity A Great Success!! Policy Council Members Victoria West (Vice-Chair) and Blanca Nieto (Secretary Spanish) present the results of their Holiday Basket Drive. Early Head Start Annual Report Program Governance AVANCE-San Antonio Inc. has a formal system of shared Governance. The AVANCE-San Antonio Board of Directors serves as the governing body for the organization and is comprised of highly professional individuals who are committed to the AVANCE Mission. Members include local attorneys, businessmen, educators, financial experts who support AVANCE with their expertise. The Board s fundraiser efforts are mainly the Annual Mother of the Year Luncheon. Board Members volunteer their time and efforts to put on this wonderful and successful luncheon. Each year the Board selects a Chairman s Award Honoree who is committed to the local community to better the lives of families and children. Also, a former AVANCE Parent Graduate is selected who has taken AVANCE s Mission to heart and has made positive change for themselves and their family. The Early Head Start Policy Council was extremely active this last Program Year. Comprised of 14 actively enrolled parents and three Community Representatives they meet monthly to review and approve the 2012 AVANCE Community Assessment Update, the EHS Self Assessment, the EHS Service Plans, EHS Annual Continuation Grant, the Wintergarden Continuation Grant for Head Start & EHS Services, and the City of San Antonio Head Start Grant. The Council also took the lead to gather canned goods, holiday ware and full Holiday Meals and fixings to ensure a Wonderful Holiday Season for 19 Early Head Start families. Early Head Start Policy Council Page 2

3 Page 3 Early Head Start Enrollments AVANCE-San Antonio s Early Head Start Program provided EHS services under two program options, Home-based and Centerbased. Each family interested in enrolling is screened to ensure they meet income requirements, have an age eligible child and live within the EHS Service Area. Once the child is enrolled families are provided a full array of comprehensive services for themselves and their children. Health Services EHS Staff work with parents to ensure that children have a medical home which includes health insurance, an assigned doctor and dentist. Parents and staff partner to ensure that children stay up-to-date on all well-child healthcare physicals, immunizations and dental visits according to the EPSDT schedule. If a child has a lapse of insurance AVANCE has ensured that these children have access to healthcare at the Community Clinic in partnership with the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (UTHSCSA) School of Nursing. The clinic is located at the AVANCE EHS Castroville Child Development Center and continues to provide a full array of health services and preventive health education. Other generous support provided for clinic services include St. Luke s Lutheran Health Ministries, Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio, Texas Cavaliers Charitable Foundation and Valero Energy who provided matching funds to the donation from the Texas Cavaliers. Also, two doctors provide healthcare services, Dr. Victor German, Pediatric Pulmonologist from UTHSCSA and volunteer physician, Dr. Robert Gilson, Dermatologist. This accessible healthcare provides services in a culturally sensitive manner communicating with families in their primary language (English or Spanish). When a child is ill parents and staff work together to access needed care and follow-up. Overall Health Care- 99.6% of the EHS Children had Health Insurance (Medicaid, CHIP or Private Provider) at the end of the year. 100% were able to access an ongoing source of continuous accessible health care utilizing the Community Clinic at the AVANCE EHS Castroville CDC when coverage lapsed or was delayed. As far as immunizations, 99.6% of the children were up-to-date on all immunizations appropriate for their age and 89% of the children were up-to-date on a schedule of age-appropriate primary health care according to the EPSDT schedule. Dental Care- 96% of the children had continuous, accessible dental care. 94% received primary oral health care according to Texas EPSDT schedule. The Community Clinic began providing children Dental Varnishing which preserves our children s healthy happy smiles. AVANCE supports families to make the changes they want to make in their lives Practices Dental Hygiene at S.W. 19th CDC

4 Early Head Start Annual Report Steve and Eric at AVANCE Kelly CDC practicing their pre-reading skills with Teacher, Ms. Georgia School Readiness During the year AVANCE s Coordinator of Education Services, Bertha Morales facilitated several meetings with staff and parents to develop age appropriate School Readiness Goals for EHS Children. These goals follow the Head Start guidelines and are aligned with the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework and (2008) TEA Revised Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines End of Pre -K Year Outcomes and target the five domains of Physical Development & Health, Social & Emotional Development, Approaches to Learning, Language & Literacy and Cognition and General Knowledge. AVANCE is committed to working with each child to nurture and provide individualized learning opportunities in the home as well at our Centers. Parents were provided an orientation and assisted in developing the goals to ensure School Readiness Goals in their children. AVANCE not only works to ensure that children are ready for Pre-school but AVANCE works to help children exceed expectations and be advanced in social/ emotional, motor, language and cognitive skill development. During the Fall of 2011, AVANCE EHS also implemented the Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessment Web-based/research-based tool to track children s progress. AVANCE EHS will be able to show historical data charts that measure children s development in multiple areas. GOLD is able to track an individual child, groups of children and overall program performance. We look forward to seeing the measurable increases made by our children through a commitment of continuous improvement for the overall success of our AVANCE Children. AVANCE-San Antonio WINS The H-E-B Excellence in Education Award Page 4 AVANCE Unlocking America s Potential We re on the Web! Avancesa.org AVANCE-San Antonio, Inc. became the first recipient of the H-E-B Excellence in Education Award in the category of Early Childhood Education for Texas. The H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards is the largest monetary recognition program for educators in the State and one of the largest in the nation. The purpose of this award is to offer support to help create or enhance Kinder Readiness programs that prepare children to enter Kindergarten socially and academically ready to learn.

5 Parental Engagement Page 5 During the year AVANCE has provided Parents various opportunities to be fully engaged with their children and in EHS Services. As the AVANCE Philosophy promotes that, the parent is the child s first and most important teacher. Following are some of the highlights of Parental Engagement during the year: The implementation of the Tools to Strengthen Families and Communities Manual which includes use of the Family Scaled Assessment Tool, Home Environmental Assessment and Goal Cards. This instrument allows for a stronger process for individual family goal development and the ability to track family progress and outcomes. EHS Home-based families participated in the H-E-B Read 3 Early Literacy Initiative comprised of 6 Parent/Child Workshops promoting literacy for both the parent and the child. Monthly Parent Meetings were held at all sites to discuss program services, updates and events. The meeting also served as a forum for regular parent training in the areas of Health and Safety, Child Development, Financial Literacy, Mental Health, Disabilities and more. Forty-two (42) EHS parents graduated from the AVANCE-San Antonio Parent-Child nine month Parenting Classes in May These parents AVANCE-San Antonio s 2012 Wells Fargo Financial Literacy Graduates have completed at least 75% of the 32 classes offered. Each class consists of an hour parenting instruction, 1 hour toy making session and 1 hour third hour speaker. One hundred (100) EHS Parents graduated from the Wells Fargo Financial Literacy Program. Facilitators for this training were former parent Financial Literacy Graduates. This Initiative in partnership with Wells Fargo Bank is in its 6th year! Eighteen (18) EHS Fathers graduated from the AVANCE-San Antonio Services for Fathers consisting of parent education, communication and anger management sessions. Services to Fathers 2012 Graduates AVANCE held successful Family Engagement Events; the 2011 EHS October Fest and the AVANCE-San Antonio Día De La Familia which promoted a variety of fun learning activities, music, food, entertainment, I Am Moving I Am Learning activities, community resource tables including the San Antonio Mobile Library.

6 $$ Funding and Budgets $$ EHS REVENUES Page 6 Funding Source Amount Federal (Regular) $ 4,191,356 CACFP $ 196,063 Foundation/Corporate Support $ 70,479 Strengthening families in San Antonio for 39 years (Grand Total In-kind Match including Parents/Other Volunteers & donations) EHS Budget 09/1/11 08/31/12 $1,047,839 Category Budgeted Actuals Personnel $2,575,787 $2,633,743 Fringes $ 804,202 $ 660,850 Contractual $ 143,982 $ 150,874 Travel $ 14,935 $ 18,003 Supplies $ 102,700 $ 143,731 Other $ 549,750 $ 584,155 Grand Total $4,191,356 $4,191,356 Home-based Parent Amber Curry with her son, Joseph as they receive their Holiday Gift

7 AVANCE-San Antonio, Inc. Financial Support Page 7 Fiscal Audit The latest Financial Audit for AVANCE-San Antonio, Inc. was conducted by BDO USA for the fiscal year ending June 30, The report found AVANCE-San Antonio, Inc. in conformity with United States generally accepted accounting principles noting no material weaknesses. In addition, the auditors reported that the financial statements of AVANCE-San Antonio presented fairly, in all material respects, the financial condition of the organization as of June 30, Monitoring Review The latest tri-annual federal review was held during the week of January 11th through January 15th. The AVANCE-San Antonio Early Head Start Program was found in compliance of all Head Start Program Performance Standards, laws, regulations and policy requirements. This is the third consecutive No Findings results for AVANCE-San Antonio. In 2007 AVANCE-San Antonio s Early Head Start Program was awarded Center of Excellence status. Preparations are underway for our 2013 Monitoring Review!