During Elevation Love Week, Elevation volunteers donated carloads of book bags packed with supplies for our Preschools and ParentChild+ (PC+) families!
Pictured are Monica, a PC+ Early Learning Specialist, and Aurora, our Director of Operations.
We are so thankful for partners like Elevation Church – Concord, who help us strengthen, nurture, and empower whole families!
Two-thirds of the children in our county are not in any childcare, and parents struggle daily, lonely and isolated with no help. At the bilingual preschool at St. James and soon across all our locations and programs, parents are utilizing Carefully to experience a rare commodity these days: new friendships, positive interactions, and mutual respect and desire to provide a healthy community for their children.
Do you find yourself needing care for your children and cannot find it? Keep reading here: https://carefullyapp.com/blog/building-community-with-families-first/
First and foremost, we would like to welcome back all our outstanding teachers for this upcoming school year! Although summer is ending, we look forward to seeing all your bright faces as we transition back into the academic year. (Those not pictured- we see you!). 
At our 5-star immersion preschools, we pride ourselves in providing a safe and conducive environment for all students to enhance readiness and success in life. Children are embarking upon new adventures in the world of learning at this age! With the help of our wonderful staff, we facilitate a unique approach where the “image of the child” is how we determine optimal lessons for development, honoring each child’s uniqueness and passions.
Thanks to our incredible teachers and their love for bettering education, our work is carried out through new and long-lasting connections with the children!
“Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best” -Bob Talbert.
We wish our families, students, and staff a wonderful year. Let’s make this a positive and well-rewarding year for all!
Families First in Cabarrus County Receives $10,000 Grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to support the whole Family through Literacy
Concord, NC – June 22, 2022 – The Dollar General Literacy Foundation recently awarded Families First in Cabarrus County a $10,000 grant to support the whole Family through Literacy. This local grant is part of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation’s recent award of $10.5 million donation to support summer, family, and adult literacy programs, representing the organization’s largest one-day grant donation in its 29-year history.
“When I enrolled my daughter in Families First’s Bilingual Preschool, I didn’t know, but in a year I would pass my GED and obtain my Citizenship with their help! My daughter is so proud of her mom and tells everyone! My relationship and conversation with her are about school and dreams coming true now!”
We use parenting, home-visiting, and early childhood programs to significantly improve school readiness, family engagement, and economic mobility in low-income and predominantly Hispanic and Black neighborhoods. This grant funds a comprehensive literacy approach to break cycles of poverty!
This grant helps us serve children and their families in two bilingual preschools, GED, ESL, and tutoring classes, and, visit more than 25 families (ages 18-36 months) twice weekly in their homes with a book in hand for them to keep (for 48 weeks!), so children access preschool ready to play and learn!
“For nearly 30 years, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has been proud to invest in literacy and education programs in our hometown communities,” said Denine Torr, executive director of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. “The recent and significant shifts in the educational landscape have made the Foundation’s mission more critically important. As we work to create access to high-quality instruction for all individuals, we share our gratitude for the educators who are working to uplift and empower others. We hope these funds will have a meaningful impact on students and teachers across the country and look forward to seeing the positive impact they have on learners.”
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation supports organizations that increase access to educational programming, stimulate and enable innovation in the delivery of educational instruction and inspire a love of reading. Each year, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation awards funds to nonprofit organizations, schools, and libraries within a 15-mile radius of a Dollar General store or distribution center to support adult, family, summer, and youth literacy programs. The Foundation also offers a student referral program for individuals interested in learning how to read, speak English, or prepare for the high school equivalency exam. Referrals to a local organization that provides free literacy services are available online here or through referral cards found in the Learn to Read brochures that are available at the cash register of every Dollar General store.
About Families First in Cabarrus County
Our mission is to use education, parenting, and early childhood programs to nurture children, empower parents, and strengthen whole families to flourish for generations. Families First’s trusted reach in marginalized neighborhoods furthest from opportunities began in the home and is a whole family approach that works.
About the Dollar General Literacy Foundation
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. Since 1993, the Foundation has awarded more than $216 million in grants, helping more than 15.4 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy, a general education diploma or English proficiency. Cal Turner, Jr. founded the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to honor his grandfather and Dollar General’s co-founder, J.L. Turner, who was functionally illiterate having dropped out of school in the third grade to support his family. The Foundation aims to provide support to schools, libraries and nonprofit organizations that seek to improve adult, summer, youth and family literacy initiatives. To learn more about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, visit www.dgliteracy.org.
This pandemic has not been felt equitably.
Our country’s most vulnerable children are suffering the most.
The silence is frightening, and experts are discussing lifelong achievement and health problems. This is why Families First began rapidly exploring with parents to find solutions for them. We found disproportionate gaps in at-home learning experiences rendering child development stifled by increases in stress and traumas.
With the help of concerned parents, church ministry, individual, and corporate donations, the Cabarrus County Community Foundation/FFTC COVID-19 Response grants, and United Way of Central Carolinas, together we:
Ready4K Parent Flyer – TI – English
Ready4K Parent Flyer – TI_Spanish
Below are examples of age-appropriate texts families will receive on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday where parents find solutions every day to help their children learn. They also receive personalized contact information for community resources right to their phones. What a game-changer for our community!
The family engagement curriculum supports the whole child from birth through 4th grade. Each week, parents and caregivers receive age-appropriate text messages in English, Spanish, or Arabic with fun facts and easy tips on how to promote their children’s development by building on existing family routines. Content focuses on language & literacy, math & science, social & emotional learning, and physical development, health & safety.
During these times we are facing, children are suffering an increased and more intense adverse childhood experiences (ACE). When unaddressed, these potentially traumatic experiences can result in both immediate and lifelong negative impacts. Luckily, we can mitigate the adverse effects of trauma. Designed to help parents and caregivers find solutions during this crisis and buffer the effects of trauma by strengthening the five protective factors: Parental Resilience, Social Connections, Knowledge of Parenting & Child Development, Concrete Support in Times of Need, and Social & Emotional Competency of Children.
Personalized Learning is an individualized family learning program based on children’s results on the Ages & Stages Questionnaires®, Third Edition (ASQ®-3) referrals supplement services. Text messages support healthy growth and development measured by ASQ-3: Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Personal-Social, and Problem Solving.
985 Central Drive NW
Concord, North Carolina 28027
office@familiesfirstcc.org
704-786-5613
