Children & Families First Announces Site Director for
Eastside Community School Initiative

 

December 3, 2009

WILMINGTON - Children & Families First (C&FF) is pleased to announce that Sandy Clark has accepted the position of Community School Site Director of the Eastside Community School Initiative, of which C&FF is the lead partner. Ms. Clark comes to Children & Families First from the State Office of Prevention and Early Intervention where she was a Program Support Administrator, monitoring ten individual community centers and other service providers on their implementation of youth prevention and parent education evidence-based programs.

The Eastside Community School includes students and their families from Bancroft, Stubbs and Elbert Palmer Elementary Schools all part of the Christina School District. Initial planning regarding the implementation and operation of the community school is being supported by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

A community school is an educational institution that combines the best educational practices of a quality school with a wide range of vital in-house health and social services to ensure that children are physically, emotionally and socially prepared to learn. Community schools involve active long-term partnerships among school personnel, parents and community agencies, such as Children & Families First. Community Schools offer a range of supports and opportunities to children, youth, families, and communities – before, during and after the regular school day, six or seven days a week. Partners involved in community schools work to achieve the following key results: children are ready to learn when they enter school and every day thereafter; all students learn and achieve to high standards; young people are well-prepared for adult roles as workers, parents, and citizens; families and neighborhoods are safe, supportive and engaged; and parents and community members are involved with the school and their own lifelong learning.

Children & Families First, a private non-profit social service agency, has been dedicated to strengthening Delaware families since 1884. Services include parent education, child and elder care resource and referral services, foster care, adoption, welfare to work programs, programs to increase child care quality and availability, home-based case management, truancy prevention, counseling, a youth residential treatment center, as well as teen pregnancy prevention and infant mortality prevention programs.  Programming is provided out of seven offices located throughout Delaware as well as in clients’ homes, schools, and other community locations.  Over 40,000 individuals benefited from services statewide in 2008. Children & Families First is a member of the United Way of Delaware and the Alliance for Children & Families and is accredited by COA (Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children). To learn more, visit www.cffde.org or www.ecsde.org.

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