News

Low-waged single parent(s) cannot pay market rate for child care. Many children are in risky situations where they are neglected or abused.  Some are lucky enough to have a relative or neighbor to provide care. Some are supported by childcare vouchers or are in Head Start. A minimum waged single parent working 40 hours weekly may be earning as much as $15,080 annually. This is below the Federal poverty line. The median income in the United States is estimated at $51,939. This is read more…

By Grade Pirez – A High School Student who volunteers for Promise the Children & Girls’ Inc. It’s difficult to put into words how incredibly moving Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education was. I’d like to warn you, though, that I’m not familiar with stage performances outside of Broadway musicals, so I can’t give a particularly artistic review of the production. I am, however, familiar with the rampant racism that has been a pressing issue read more…

By Terry Roderiques, OTR/L Promise the Children, Volunteer As an Occupational Therapist that travels to many schools in my system, I have the pleasure of working with a number of very talented teachers. In researching and thinking over the topic of what qualities I would want in a pre-school teacher, I decided to pick 8 of my most favorite characteristics. This is a limited list and my opinion only. I have listed some references of several articles I found online. read more…

By Delaney Ketchum – volunteer at Girl’s Inc. and student of Early Education. Over 4.3 million U. S. children cannot attend a safe, licensed preschool because their parents cannot afford it. Often, these parents are forced to put their children in dangerous, unregulated daycare centers.  These children go to kindergarten lacking in literacy and math skills and often have difficulties adjusting their behavior to a classroom setting. They continue to struggle throughout grade school and into high school, making it read more…

by Grace Pires, High School Student & Volunteer at Promise the Children and Girl’s Inc. With the way the world is now seamlessly interconnected– whether through technology, trade, or facilitated travel– it is beneficial for people to speak more than one language. Oftentimes young preschoolers are only taught English, and begin studying another language at middle school age. This is great for monolingual children, but it can hurt children who are already bilingual. In the classroom, children don’t have many read more…

by Grace Pires, Junior High School Student & volunteer at Promise the Children & Girl’s Inc. There’s no denying that America is a multicultural melting pot. So it’s only fair that the American education system openly acknowledges various white and non-white cultures and promotes diversity in the classroom. By teaching students about other cultures, starting in pre school and continuing in grade school, teachers can enable young children to respect others whose traditions and appearances are different from their own. read more…

“Summer slide” causes the achievement gap between children whose families earn less, and those that earn more. In summer children forget what they learned in the previous school year when parents cannot afford to send them to quality camps. A quality camp combines fun with learning activities. Children with wealthy parents who send them to well-rounded camps do not experience summer slide. The camp programs that prevent summer slide provide learning activities similar to the school curriculum, but more fun. Reading, writing read more…

By Delaney Ketchum – volunteer at Girl’s Inc. and student of Early Education. Join Promise the Children in asking the presidential candidates what they will do to make sure all children receive adequate health care. Let them know that you care about the health and well-being of children whose parents do not have access to affordable health insurance! While everyone is guaranteed treatment in an emergency room, this does not allow for preventative care or the treatment of chronic illnesses. Often, read more…

By Grace Pires, volunteer at Promise the Children and Girl’s Inc. An important part of increasing children’s success in school is making sure they come to school well-rested, in a good mood, and not hungry. The students’ comfort matters as much the content in their curriculum. So it makes sense that students who are coming in without eating breakfast are performing at a lower rate than other students. Children who do not eat sufficiently are more likely to have weaker read more…

The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) was initiated in 1968 by an amendment to the National School Lunch Act to address the problems created by the lack of free school meals in the summer. Millions of children who received meals during the school year were going hungry in summer vacation. SFSP provides free meals when school is out. SFSP requires a “site” to distribute meals. Meals are often connected to summer camps run by non-profit and governmental organizations. The locations of such programs include; read more…