Yeled v’Yalda recognizes the value and importance of parent and family involvement in ensuring the success of their children’s early education. Collaboration between parents, teachers, and other professionals helps build the positive and goal-oriented relationships that allow children to advance and progress in their educational aims. A strong partnership between families and professionals allows children to benefit from the particular perspectives and experiences each has to offer, and creates a team atmosphere in which all participants are united in achieving each child and family’s individual goals. Yeled v’Yalda’s program staff partner with families and communities to prioritize inclusiveness and ensure that all cultures and languages are valued and respected. Yeled v’Yalda’s family engagement goals support building and fostering key family relationships and interactions, including those of expectant women and their families, as well as parents, grandparents, siblings, and other adult caregivers in the child’s life. This process is based on an ongoing partnership between families and Head Start staff and professionals that recognizes and respects the parent-child relationship as crucial to a child’s growth and well-being in school, at home, and throughout life.

Yeled v’Yalda’s Early Head Start program individualizes services within a variety of settings to meet each child and family’s needs, and offers both center-based and home-based options. Families are assisted in determining which program best meets their needs, based on their individual family circumstances and preferences. Our program offers early learning experiences in areas such as early language and literacy, math and science readiness, fine- and gross-motor skills, social-emotional development, and the creative arts, which are aligned with the Early Head Start program’s early learning and developmental standards. Ongoing assessment and evaluation ensures that learning experiences are built upon each child’s current skills and needs, and are appropriate to their current developmental level. Yeled v’Yalda’s Early Head Start program’s educational services rely upon individually-designed lesson planning within an evidence- and research-based curriculum which allows for the inclusion of all children, regardless of disability. Our philosophy is geared toward creating an environment that fosters early learning and development; encourages parent involvement and relationship building; recognizes and respects individual differences in learning styles; promotes cultural and linguistic diversity; and above all, assists each child in reaching their full potential.

Yeled v’Yalda’s Early Head Start home visitors provide weekly 90-minute-long sessions which are carefully planned and arranged to work within the family’s schedule. Our program’s home-based option delivers a full range of services, including home visits with children and parents, and bi-weekly or monthly group socializations along with other children and families in the program. Yeled v’Yalda’s home-based sessions are planned and spent in a collaborative fashion, as the home visitor works together with parents to plan learning strategies that best serve the child’s individual personality and needs. Home visits are conducted with parents present and participating, reflecting the essential role that parents play in their children’s early learning and development. Yeled v’Yalda’s home-based Early Head Start program prioritizes child- and family-centered methodologies, which rely on fostering parent-child interactions, structuring familiar daily routines, and utilizing familiar household items and materials. Group socialization are planned in conjunction with families, and include children, parents, and providers. They are designed to provide age-appropriate activities which stimulate school-readiness skills for children, and allow children and parents to share experiences with other families in Yeled v’Yalda’s Early Head Start program. All program services and activities are designed to offer experiences that are developmentally suited to the child’s level and needs, as well as culturally and linguistically appropriate to the child’s family and community.

Yeled v’Yalda’s center-based Early Head Start program provides a full range of educational enrichment and child development services delivered within a classroom setting. The program’s services are tailored to meet the unique needs of infants and toddlers, focusing on their cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development. Yeled v’Yalda’s mission is to provide children with nurturing and enriching programs and activities that will result in greater opportunities for success in their education and throughout their lives. In addition to providing a range of educationally stimulating school-readiness activities and skills within a classroom setting, our center-based Early Head Start program focuses upon supporting parents in their roles as their children’s primary caregivers and most essential teachers. The program seeks to foster the strength and resilience of families by assisting them in setting their own personal goals and achieving self-sufficiency throughout all dimensions of their lives, in areas such as housing stability, continued education, and financial security.

In addition to its home- and center-based educational and developmental programming, Yeled v’Yalda’s Early Head Start program provides prenatal information and support, as well as referrals to a full range of health services, including: * Medical, dental, vision, and hearing screening and treatment by local providers; * Establishment of a medical and dental home; * Nutrition services including meals and counseling; * Health education programming; * Mental health screening and referrals; * Early intervention assistance and support.

Family services and supports offered by Yeled v’Yalda’s Early Head Start program include: * Family engagement guidance and opportunities; * Links and referrals to community resources; * Assistance with family goal-setting; * Parent education programs; * Leadership opportunities through parent policy council involvement; * Advocacy skills training; * Support and assistance in transitioning from the Early Head Start (0-3) program to the Head Start (3-5) program, and in transitioning from Head Start to the public and non-public school systems.

The outstanding quality of our Head Start program is a source of great pride for Yeled v’Yalda, and is evidenced by our superior outcomes in the 2020 Focus Area 1 Review, conducted by the Administration for Children and Families. This review identified and acknowledged highlights in all performance areas, indicating zero concerns, deficiencies, or areas requiring improvement. Our program’s exceptional quality is also demonstrated by our continually successful child-outcomes data in all domains, particularly school-readiness goals. We also take pride in a variety of other agency recognitions and achievements, including our robust network of community partnerships and collaborations; our flawless history of securing and maintaining facility licensure; our NAEYC Early Learning Program Accreditation; our high-quality STARS ratings from New York State’s Quality Rating & Improvement System for early childhood programs; and our prestigious Outstanding Early Childhood Award from the NYS Education Department’s Office of School Improvement and Community Services.