“National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week” is held each year the week before Thanksgiving. This year, it is held on November 12th through the 20th. As we prepare for the Thanksgiving Holiday and think about all that we are thankful for, we are asking you to remember that some families have it harder than others. And worse, there are many families with very young children who are experiencing homelessness in America.
At Children Today, every year we serve more than 100 children and their families who are experiencing homelessness. Some families are living in shelters or are temporarily housed in motels. And, yes some families are currently living on the streets. This is difficult for most of us to imagine. Recently, we enrolled Taylor (not her real name) into our preschool program. She is two years old. Her parents are Mary and Nathan (not their real names). Mary told us that their family is currently living at the beach and sleeping wherever they can. She tried to make us feel better about her situation and assured us that she had lots of blankets and covers to stay warm at night. The family has been homeless since January when Mary lost her job. Mary is just like you and I. She is a very concerned and doting mother and she wants the best for her daughter. We connected them to the City of Long Beach’s Multi-Service Center for the Homeless. Here, Mary and Nathan will receive services from a collaboration of agencies that will help them to obtain housing and with other basic needs. In the meantime, Taylor is being cared for by our staff at Children Today. Our teachers provide her with social and emotional support and care, so that she feels safe and secure. As you can imagine, this is not easy for her, given her family’s housing situation. In recognition of “National Hunger and Homelessness Week,” you can help families like the one described above by making a contribution to Children Today. Please make a tax deductible donation. Thank you.
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Donate to the Holiday Store and help make the season bright for dozens of children and their families. See below to learn how! We are very pleased to announce that we were approved for the Share A Story book grant provided by the Molina Foundation. This grant funds 100 high quality children's books that will be shared with the children and families served by our programs. These books will help develop our children's reading, language and communication skills. We will also share these books with families, offering them a wider variety of books to share with their children at home.
In the coming weeks, please look forward to other posts and pictures about this generous donation. Thanks again to the Molina Foundation for their great work in the Long Beach community. From all of us at Children Today, thank you IKEA Carson for investing so much time and effort, and so many resources into this IKEA Life Improvement Challenge week. We thought we were getting a redecorated lobby. We got that, and so much more! The LobbyWhat a beautiful, cheerful and welcoming space! It's just how we want to greet our families and guests.
It's Christmas in July, folks. Our new best friends at IKEA Carson just asked the teaching staff what other things they needed in their classrooms and then came back with - basically - all of those things. I could go on. Stay tuned for even more wonderful things from IKEA as our Life Improvement Challenge week continues. Back in April, we won the IKEA Life Improvement Challenge to make over a space in our beautiful Eco House facility (thanks to all of you who voted for us)! This week, our new friends from IKEA Carson have come out in force to build furniture, decorate our lobby, and provide us with storage solutions for our offices and classrooms. We are so excited to have IKEA Carson working with us this week and can't wait to see the finished product! We'll keep you posted!
By Tondra Gardner What better way to kick off our first summer in our new child care facility than with... The World Forum Nature Action Collaborative for Children introduced International Mud Day back in 2011 in order to bring awareness to the growing need to connect young children with nature. Children Today joined the celebration by providing a variety of mud experiences to engage the infants, toddlers, and preschool children at their various stages of development. It was an amazing day of discovery, math, and science as our children were provided the opportunity to experience that…Dirt + Water = Mud (and a whole lot of fun)!
Community Giving Over the recent past months, Children Today has been very fortunate. We have received numerous gifts and donations from new and long-time supporters. Two of our newest supporters include Ralph Salcedo, a 7th grader from Leeland Middle School and Rachel Perry, a Girl Scout from Troop 2113. These two young people exemplify giving at its best. Robert recently gave $500 to Children Today, the result of a school project. We were very pleased to be the recipient of such a generous gift, and more importantly, from a person who is learning the importance of giving at such a young age. We were equally excited to receive several boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from Rachel and her friend/neighbor Emily Furuta. Rachel gave a total of 50 boxes of cookies and Emily gave 10. Rachel is also learning the importance of giving back and sharing. It was very important for her to share the cookies with the children and families served by our organization. Rachel's father, Robin Perry is Children Today board member. Children Today is pleased to announce that Tonya Burns has been named executive director. With a decades-long career in the fields of social work, mental health, and child care, and with vast knowledge of operations, program management, and resource development, Tonya is ideally suited to lead the agency into a new phase of growth and excellence. “We are thrilled to welcome Tonya to Children Today,” Bonnie Lowenthal, the agency’s board president said. “We know she’ll make important contributions, not just to Children Today, but to the wider Long Beach service community.” Tonya comes to us with a wealth of education and relevant experience. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago and over 30 years’ experience in the social services field. Here are just a few of her impressive career highlights:
“I am thrilled to work at Children Today. It is my hope to build upon the excellent work provided by the staff and board members of Children Today and to work with the greater Long Beach community to provide additional services to children and their families.” Tonya has a deep commitment to working on behalf of vulnerable and under-served populations and is passionate about addressing trauma. As a Long Beach resident, she is also invested in making our community a better place. We are lucky to have her join us in our work. By Elia Rocha, Rachel Moore, & Alexis Vazquez Earlier in the year, we ran a post titled Books We Love, which highlighted some of our preschool classroom's favorite reads. Here again, two of our teachers share some more favorites. Underground Train By: Mary Quattlebaum Alexis Vazquez writes: "This book is about a little girl and her mother on their way to visit her Nana. They board the subway and the girl is amazed by the sights and sounds of the people and animals that she sees while riding the train. She encounters the whoosh of the tracks beneath her, the buzz of the people, the sights of the animals and the rush of the passengers as she looks out the window." "The children love listening to this book and talking about the things that they see while taking the bus with their parents. The book opens up a discussion about the things they see and places they go with their families while on the bus, in a car, or on train." The Chocolate-Covered Cooke Tantrum By Deborah Blumenthal Rachel Moore writes: "This book is about a girl named Sophie who sees a chocolate-covered cookie and decides that she wants one. When her mother lets her know that she does not have a cookie for Sophie, Sophie becomes very upset and has a tantrum. The book explores Sophie’s feelings and her physical reaction to being told 'No'. Sophie’s mother tries to give Sophie some other options, but eventually Sophie just needs to experience all of her big feelings until she calms herself down. She then asks for her blanket, takes her mother’s hand and walks home. After Sophie takes a nap and eats supper, her mother -surprises her with a chocolate-covered cookie!" "This book opens the door for discussions about children’s feelings. These discussions help foster attachment with us by giving the children a safe place to talk about their feelings." I Can Do It Too! By Karen Baicker Alexis writes: "This book is about a little girl learning to become independent and showing her family that she can do it too. This is a short picture book with simple sentences describing a family doing simple activities, such as pouring juice into a cup and putting on shoes. The little girl’s reply is always the same, 'I can do it too!'”. "The book is a simple story of a young girl trying to learn to do things for herself and the children can relate to her because they too are learning to become independent in their daily activities." Ambulances By Carol K. Lindeen Rachel writes: "This non-fiction book is filled with real pictures of ambulances, EMTs, and patients. It clearly explains, in simple language, what the ambulance does and how EMTs help people. This book explains to the children that ambulances and EMTs, which could seem scary, are actually meant to help hurt and sick people." The Way I Feel By Janan Cain Alexis writes: "This picture book talks about experiencing different emotions, such as silly, happy, disappointed, jealous and many others. The illustrations show the different emotions through colors and words. The book helps our children put names to their feelings and opens up a discussion on how they feel in different situations, not just during conflict and disappointment, but in happy and exciting situations as well." |
AuthorVarious members of the Children Today staff contribute to these blog posts. Archives
April 2024
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