MOLINE, ILLINOIS (March 24, 2021) — SAL Family and Community Services (SAL), home to Skip-A-Long Child Development Services, is embarking on a major new initiative intended to transform the lives of low-income/expectant families and children through four years of age.

Through the implementation of the first and only Early Head Start Child Care Partnership Program (EHS CCP) serving the Illinois-Quad Cities, SAL continues its deep commitment to further the Quad Cities’ regional vision of cultivating a community that is both equitable and inclusive.

The program is made possible thanks to a new, annual $3.8 million grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and is the result of a bipartisan effort to increase access to early-childhood education-providers while also making transformative investments in children and families.

“This is a tremendous opportunity worthy of celebration for our entire community — not only is it a major investment in families, but also a chance to address poverty with real solutions,” said Marcy Mendenhall, President and CEO of SAL. “Offering this program at SAL allows us to continue to provide an unparalleled level of care to families and children, while putting education at the heart of that care.”

The new Early Head Start Child Care Partnership Program at SAL will provide comprehensive, relationship-based services to infants and toddlers, as well as low-income pregnant mothers and their families living in Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island Counties, Illinois. These services include year-round, individualized child-care and early-childhood services and family-support including nutritional counseling, referrals to food assistance, oral health-care, mental-health services, substance-abuse prevention and treatment, referrals to emergency shelter or transitional housing, and home-based prenatal and postpartum services.

As SAL celebrates its 50th year in operation this year, the implementation of EHS CCP perfectly aligns with the programs and services it already offers within the Quad Cities. It also serves as a natural progression of the organization’s growth. Bolstering SAL’s longtime commitment to serving families and children in the region, EHS CCP will also allow the organization to seamlessly transition children and their families into SAL’s Skip-A-Long Child Development Services’ preschool program after their participation in the program.

“We’re so grateful that we’ll able to implement such extensive services to support everything that SAL has done over the past 50 years. We look forward to applying our deep understanding of this community to the needs of our youngest population,” said Mendenhall.

“As a mother of three boys, I understand the importance of investing in our children’s education,” said Illinois Representative Cheri Bustos, who has been a devoted champion for this program. “A strong early-childhood education is a key part of our children’s foundation for success in life. This Early Head Start Child Care Partnership Program will be transformative for our families in Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island counties, and I’m pleased to announce this federal investment in early education to ensure that our children have a lifetime of opportunity.”

EHS CCP aims to bridge the care and education gap between pregnancy and childhood, with the goal of readying children for kindergarten socially, emotionally, and cognitively. It’s also designed to provide families with the tools and skills they need to become successful, sufficient, and healthy members of the community. Historically, educating both families and infants during their early period of life has been overlooked — but now, as a direct result of this funding, SAL will be able to change that.

“With the launch of EHS CCP, Quad-Citizens can turn to us as the leaders in modernized early-childhood education, and rest assured that SAL will be able to dramatically transform our community for the better,” said Deb Brownson, chief program officer of SAL and an expert in early-childhood education in the Quad-Cities region. “A program like this will benefit our community in so many ways; it will help us break the cycle of inter-generational poverty, for example, by allowing us to support families through quality early-education that addresses critical needs early on.”

To build out the program, SAL will hire new employees, promote current employees into leadership positions, provide lower teacher-to-student ratios, and give families and children access to licensed and credentialed teachers, mental-health experts, nutritionists, and more. These new capabilities will also expand SAL’s network to include partnerships with up to eight licensed child-care homes and one child-care center serving Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island counties — and it will position SAL as the expert in modernized childhood education with the capacity to dramatically impact the Quad Cities for the better.

JUST THE FACTS

  • Children under 4, pregnant mothers and their families who reside in Henry, Mercer, or Rock Island Counties, and whose incomes are below the 100% Federal Poverty Guidelines are eligible for the EHS CCP program.
  • The program is available to families with children who are already part of SAL’s Skip-A-Long Child Development Services (SKIP) preschool program, as well as new families.
  • To learn more about EHS CCP, eligibility requirements, or to enroll, contact Angela Casteel, eligibility director, at (309) 764-8110 (option 3), and visit www.salfcs.org/ehs.

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