At this year’s annual Starfest fundraiser, Childcare Resources of Indian River offered its supporters a choice of a luncheon at the Quail Valley River Club or an evening event at Quail Valley at the Pointe.
Through its various programs and initiatives, the nonprofit plays a pivotal role in training and developing early childhood educators and providing high-quality early education to ensure children ages 6 weeks to 5 years receive the foundational education necessary for future success.
“We have purchased a new campus located in the heart of Vero Beach that we are super excited to have as our permanent home for our organization, that will help in growing and creating opportunities for the young children of our community,” said Tracy Sorzano, board president.
“This is a really exciting chapter in our organization and we’re really happy to have all of you here to be a part of it and to be a part of our growth and vision,” Sorzano added.
She explained that the new facility will enable them to meet the increasing demand by enhancing their three core programs – school, wellness and early intervention – as well as their outreach programs, and noted that they have launched a Transforming Tomorrow capital campaign.
“The Indian River Community Foundation voted to make our project their very first impact investment. They will be investing $1.5 million into our project,” shared Shannon McGuire Bowman, executive director.
She said they received a contribution from an anonymous donor, and they are working toward obtaining tax credits to help close the funding gap, and still need to raise about $1 million to fully fund the project.
“Over the last 31 years, we’ve curated a pretty unique program in the world of early childhood,” said Bowman.
Last year, through their school, wellness programs, early intervention and outreach initiatives, Childcare Resources impacted some 4,000 local children.
Bowman noted that 44 percent of households in Indian River County are ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families, who earn more than the federal poverty level but who still can’t afford basic needs.
“These are folks that are working full time but earning a wage that is economically difficult for them because of the high cost of living here in the neighborhood,” added Bowman.
She added that they are currently funding the early education of 20 children from homeless families.
“Why do we do that? Because the early years are so important,” said Bowman.
She said research shows that children who have had a high-quality early learning experience are more likely to show up prepared for kindergarten.
“Less than 50 percent of the children in our community show up to kindergarten ready,” added Bowman.
This year’s keynote speaker was Dan Wuori, Ph.D., a nationally recognized advocate and policy expert in early childhood education.
After having toured the Childcare Resources School earlier in the day, Wuori commented on the irony of speaking about his book, “The Daycare Myth: What We Get Wrong About Early Care and Education.”
“A lot of the challenges that I wrote about in this book are not things that are happening in the same way at Childcare Resources. They are a special program and sort of an outlier in the field in terms of their compensation of teachers, provision of healthcare, and retirement benefits. These are not the norm in the field of early childhood education, unfortunately,” said Wuori.
He likened the way society currently views the importance of early childhood education to the contrast of the flawed Food Pyramid of 30 years ago, which resulted in a tripling of obesity rates, vs. the food guidelines of today.
“There is nowhere in public policy that we are more misguided and more upside down than in our approach to young children and families and the professionals who serve them,” said Wuori.
Childcare Resources strives to ensure that every child has access to the resources and support they need to thrive. Their goal is to elevate and promote the highest quality early childhood development and education for all children, with a focus on economically challenged children and families.
For more information, visit childcareresourcesir.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
