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New Executive Director Looks Forward To Contributing To Future of Our Center

daniel May 8, 2017 News 0

We welcome our new Executive Director Rhonda Rogers!

She’s a strong advocate for high-quality services for vulnerable populations. Ms. Rogers specializes in developing and overseeing new and innovative programs. Her commitment to families, children, and youth, and to high-quality programs spans a timeframe of more than two decades.

She explains below her vision for our Center – today and for the future.

1) What made you want to become the executive director of Lake Worth West Community Center?

Rhonda Rogers: I wanted to become the new executive director of Lake Worth West Community Center because of all of the great work that the organization provides for the community.  Lake Worth West has a great reputation in the community and you can see the positive impact each and every day.  I had the pleasure of working with the organization as its program officer with the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, so I was aware of the agency’s long-standing quality programs.

2) What are your main goals for the center for the coming years?

Rhonda Rogers: My main goals are to increase the exposure of the organization (through social media and the website), grow our board of directors, and increase our partnerships and funding. I know that these are large goals, but with the great team that I have and the amazing programs, I am sure to get these accomplished.

3) What are you most looking forward to in your new job?

Rhonda Rogers: I am most looking forward to providing direct services to clients.  I have been behind a desk for the last eight years and I love to hear the voices of the children and see the smiles on so many faces.  I am enjoying the daily activities and programs that take place at the center.

I am looking forward to contributing to the future of Lake Worth West and leaving a legacy of quality programs and services for the neighboring community.

Feel free to contact Ms. Rogers any time at rrogers@lakeworthwest.org or 561-649-9600. Or come on by the Center and say hello!

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Retired Executive Director Most Proud of Transforming Young Lives

daniel April 25, 2017 News

Carol Clinton has retired from Lake Worth West Community Center after 12 years as executive director.

She reflects on how she helped started most of the programs offered by our Center and what she has enjoyed most about her job over the years.

What I’ve loved most is watching the children grow up from toddlers to teenagers and then heading off to college. For many, going off to college was a milestone for their families with them being the first to attend a college. It’s so nice that we as a center played a big role in that and helped these young people make the right decisions about staying in school, graduating, going to college and then starting out in their careers.

I loved it when our “kids” came back to visit. Many of them are so tall now and they have to bend down to give me a hug! They tell us how we helped shape their lives. For me, it’s a deep feeling of pride knowing how we helped transform their lives and make them productive citizens.

One of the ways our center has made so much impact in the community was being part of the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County’s BRIDGES program. As one of 10 BRIDGES sites in the county, Lake Worth West Community Center has been addressing the sentinel outcomes in the program (promoting healthy births, reducing child abuse and neglect, and preparing children for kindergarten) and putting a significant emphasis on early childhood literacy. Since most of our families are immigrants from Central and South America, we created many workshops, seminars and other events to acclimate them to their new community. We offered programming to help parents become better parents and understand how to make their children succeed in school. We also focused on helping our families get to know other families so they could adjust better to their new lives here.

We’ve had many other partners in achieving our objectives. In addition to the Children’s Services Council, we’ve also worked closely with the School District of Palm Beach County to educate parents about the importance of getting their children to read and attend school regularly. These are both critical in keeping children on grade level and making sure they will graduate on time.

In all my jobs, I’ve worked with staffs to help families break the cycle of poverty. The work often involved helping people make the right choices and having options to better their lives.

I’m grateful to have been part of changing many lives over the years.

As I said, nothing has warmed my heart more than seeing our young people grow up to become successful and productive individuals. I’ve always encouraged my staffs to be there for our youth — and it’s paid off.

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Good School Attendance Leads to Children Doing Well Later in Life

daniel March 14, 2017 Childhood Literacy, Early Learning, News

Millions of children in the United States, including many in Palm Beach County, finish third grade without learning to read proficiently — and that puts them on a dreaded track of dropping out of high school.

The ability to read is critical to a child’s success in school, life-long earning potential, and his or her potential to contributing to our nation’s economy and security.

Many factors are at play for children to succeed at reading proficiency including the obvious: early literacy education, summer learning, family support, and high-quality teaching. Here’s one that’s not as well noted: school attendance.

Attending school regularly helps children feel better about their schoolwork — and themselves. And so, it makes sense that good attendance leads to children doing well later on in high school, college, and at work.

For us at Lake Worth West Community Center, a local committee is meeting to address school absenteeism in our community. Our Strong Starts group of residents, business leaders, school administrators, pre-school operators and other stakeholders are looking for local solutions to improve attendance for all students in the area west of Lake Worth – and, with it, raise reading proficiency levels.

It’s also a subject our staff and facilitators discuss often with our parents attending our BRIDGES at Lake Worth West programs and events.

So why is school attendance important? Research shows that missing 10 percent (or about 18 days) can create difficulties in learning to read, and students can fall behind even if they miss just one or two days every few weeks, according to Attendance Works, a national and state initiative that promotes better policy and practice around school attendance. Other facts show the depth of the problem:

— One in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students nationally are chronically absent, missing nearly a month of school. Further research shows even higher rates among preschoolers.

— Early absences are associated with reading difficulties and poor attendance patterns in later years of life. One study found that only 17 percent of students who were chronically absent in both kindergarten and first grade were reading proficiently in third grade, compared to 64 percent of those with good attendance.

— The effects of poor attendance are particularly hard on low-income children, who need more time in the classroom to master reading and are less likely to have access to resources outside of school to help them catch up. Unfortunately, low-income children are four times more likely to be chronically absent.

— Absences can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help some children catch up.

This research makes a clear case that parents have to understand the consequences of chronic absenteeism and, more importantly, do everything in their power to prevent their children from skipping school regularly.

Good attendance habits begin at home with the right messages from parents and caregivers, starting in preschool, so children learn right away that going to school on time is important. Many of our Spanish- and Creole-speaking parents who can’t read or speak English fluently can help their children learn to read simply by getting them to school everyday.

To encourage good attendance, parents can also (according to Attendance Works):

— Set a regular bed time and morning routine.

— Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.

— Don’t let your child stay home unless he/she is truly sick. Keep in mind complaints of a stomach ache or headache can be a sign of anxiety and not a reason to stay home.

— Develop back-up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbor, or another parent.

— Avoid medical appointments and extended trips when school is in session.

The Lake Worth West Community Center and our partners are working with families to improve school attendance and, at the same time, reading skills. We’re helping families overcome barriers to getting children to class and ensuring that parents know the importance of attendance and the value of a rich and engaging school experience.

Carol Clinton is the executive director of Lake Worth West Community Center.

 Interested in getting involved in our Strong Starts group? Call us at 561-649-9600.

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Early Childhood Education Is Key To Future Learning

daniel March 14, 2017 Childhood Literacy, Early Learning, News

Reading proficiency by third grade is the most important predictor of high school graduation and career success, studies show. Yet every year, more than 80 percent of low-income children miss this crucial milestone.

Poverty compounds the problem: Students who have lived in poverty are three times more likely to drop out or fail to graduate on time than their more affluent peers.

So what can be done? A good place to start is increasing assess to early childhood literacy education.

From day one, a child’s brain begins forming connections that build the foundation for all learning he or she will do later in life. In fact, 90% of children’s critical brain development occurs by age 5. Children who are read to, sung to, and talked to from a young age develop bigger vocabularies, become better readers, and are more likely to succeed in school.

At Lake Worth West Community Center, programs are offered to develop basic reading skills for children of all ages. They are free and open to the public.

Our center’s child development specialist Veronica Callejas explains the importance of early reading and what services are available to families so their children can grow up to become skillful readers.

1) Why is early childhood literacy so important?

Veronica Callejas: Early childhood literacy is the stepping-stone for children to prepare for reading and writing readiness. Research indicates that children who enter school with strong oral language skills learn to read and write with greater ease and tend to excel more in school than their peer with less knowledge of vocabulary and language structure.

Early childhood literacy develops vocabulary concepts, as children gain information about word meanings and pronunciation. These concepts are first introduced in speaking and understanding other’s speech. It also teaches children the structure of language and the concept that it communicates meaning/information. In turn, children can articulate their words and thoughts clearly.

2) Why is it particularly vital to new immigrants settling in our community?

Veronica Callejas: It is particularly vital for new immigrants to have these programs/workshops available because their children are growing up in households where they are hearing and speaking a non-English language, so that makes it harder for new student immigrants to learn.

Thus, these children have less exposure to English in their earliest years and will be challenged by their language skills upon entering school. Children, as well as their parents, need socio-emotional support. Early childhood education is tied to everything a child will face and accomplish in his or her future years, including social situations and practices.

 3) What kind of early literacy programs/workshops are offered at Lake Worth West Community Center and BRIDGES at Lake Worth West?

Veronica Callejas: We have many early literacy programs at the center, including:

Cradle to Crayons

Raise me up

Exploring our world

Reading club for kids

Storytime by Palm Beach County Library.

There’s also have programs in the homes of children between the ages of 2 and 4. These are offered by Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County and PCHP (Parent Child Home Program).

Visit our activities calendar by clicking here to see the schedules for these and other upcoming programs and events. Or call us at 561-649-9600.

To help support our early literacy programs, please consider a donation to our center. Learn more here.

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Our Reading Program Prevents The “Summer Slide”

daniel June 1, 2016 News

It’s called the “summer slide” – the tendency for students, especially those from low-income families, to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year.

Lake Worth West Community Center is offering summer reading and other educational programs to children and their families so they can continue practicing essential reading skills learned during the school year.

The summer slide is a very real phenomenon. Research shows that most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months, according to National Summer Learning Association. In addition, low-income students lose more than two months in reading achievement.

Surveys of teachers also found that summer learning loss could be reduced, even eliminated, if students participated in a summer learning program.

As a result, Lake Worth West Community Center is providing a summer reading program starting June 13 through August 3.

The eight-week classes for children from first grade to third grade go from 10:30 am to 12 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. The summer reading program for mothers is from 10:30 am to 12 pm on Wednesdays.

These classes provide tips and strategies to support and encourage children to achieve their reading goals. Books and incentives will be given to all participants, too. Also, teachers, librarians and school teen coordinators will discuss topics of interest to children and their parents.

In addition, during the summer months, the center will offer the “Raise Me Up” class which encourages interaction between parents and their children. Instructors will teach parents about communication, fine and gross motor skills, building social skills, and much more. They will also go over site words for children to learn and discuss the importance of regular school attendance.

During this time, parents will be able to do ASQ-3 Screening for their children to identify early development or behavioral problems in children who are 2 months to 5 years old.

So this summer, it’s fine for kids to be carefree and be happy just being kids. But it’s also vital to access educational opportunities.

Call the Lake Worth West Community Center at 561-649-9600 to learn more about our summer reading program.

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Parents Learn Skills to Be Their Children’s First Teachers

daniel June 1, 2016 News

Lake Worth West Community Center offers many classes for young children and their parents. These are part of Children Services Council of Palm Beach County’s BRIDGES program, which stresses positive parenting.

Here’s what one of those classes is like.

Alongside her mother Yushiry Gonzalez, 4-year-old Saory is slowly coloring her favorite foods and toys as she finishes off her “first book.”

It’s a valuable lesson for Saory who is refining her motor skills and learning to socialize in preparation for pre-school.

And it’s also a good lesson for Yushiry, who is 28 and originally from Mexico, as she develops her parenting skills.

They are attending the “Exploring Our World” class at BRIDGES at Lake Worth West at the Lake Worth West Community Center. The class is one of many the center provides for families from Central and South American countries, as well as local families, so they gain the skills needed to raise their children in Palm Beach County. In addition to regular classes, the center also offers ASQ-3 Screening to determine if children are at risk for developmental delays.

“This has taught me a lot of patience,” Gonzalez said, who also has a 2-year-old son. “I’ve learned so much about being a better parent mostly by calming down when I talk to my children.”

During the morning class Gonzalez is attending, close to 20 other mothers and their children are creating their own “first books” full of first words, first sentences and first pictures of all their favorite things. They are also doing arts activities, reading books, and listening to instructor Veronica Callejas explain the importance of parental engagement with children.

“As parents, you have to be your child’s first teacher,” said Callejas, a child development specialist at the center. “We have to get our kids ready for school.”

Parents attending this class, and others like it, to learn practical techniques to reduce stress and address everyday parenting concerns. According to BRIDGES, here are examples of positive parenting:

  • Create a stable, supportive, peaceful home.
  • Build positive relationships with your children.
  • Deal clearly, calmly and consistently with any problem behavior.
  • Encourage behavior that you like.
  • Know what is reasonable to expect from your children and yourself.
  • Take care of yourself as a parent.

A stay-at-home mom, Gonzalez brings her daughter to the classes regularly. Her daughter enjoys coming because she likes the activities and spending quality time with Gonzalez doing fun projects like the “first book.”

“I tell her we’re going to ‘school’ and she just lights up. She loves it here,” Gonzalez says.

Fabienne Brizeus also enjoys bringing her children to the classes. On the same morning class, she, too, is sitting with her 3-year-old daughter Johanna and also working on their “first book.” Her son, Joshua, 2, is in another room playing with other children – a big step for him because, until recently, he had been clinging to Brizeus every time she leaves him to go to work as a manager at a McDonald’s.

“The parenting skills I learned have helped me develop a closer relationship with my son and daughter,” she says. “They’ve learned that when I go to work, they are going to be OK and I am going to be Ok. I just walk out the door and leave and my son no longer screams and throws tantrums.”

Learn more about our Early Beginnings programs here and our Adult programs here.

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College Prep Club Teaches Youth To Achieve The American Dream

daniel May 12, 2016 News

Hours after the school bell rings, the teens gather in a classroom to learn about college, careers, and achieving the American Dream.

The setting isn’t in a school. It’s in a modular unit at Lake Worth West Community Center.

The nearly 50 high school students are there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7 p.m. participating in the College Prep Club, which is funded by the United Way of Palm Beach County.

These youths from mostly Latin American and Caribbean families come to strengthen their academics, determine what college they want to attend, and prepare for their college years and beyond. They also come to gain confidence and determination to overcome the cycle of poverty that have entangled their families, and chart their own course toward independence, success, and prosperity.

The College Prep Club is working: many of the students do go on to college. And not just local schools. Some students have made it to top universities like Yale University.

On this day at the club, after eating pizza for dinner, the boys and girls are discussing the use of cell phones, tablets and other electronic gadgets connected to the Internet – and how they make our lives better and worse.

“You have to be extra careful,” the coordinator Betsy Smith said, as students lean in to learn about bullying and gang recruitment that comes from being on social media.

“Yeah, it happened to me,” one girl said, as others nodded in agreement.

To prepare for their futures, these students must also learn about obstacles standing in the way of their achievement. Part of that is overcoming negative stereotypes that many of them have been branded with, just because of their families and where they have grown up.

“These kids are great, and they have to learn they aren’t numbers and that they matter,” said Maria Gisela Omana, who is the site administrator for Lake Worth West Community Center. “They are our future. We teach them to become leaders in their community, schools and families.”

Many of the students have known each other for years. In addition to gathering at the classroom, they also go to dinner and on trips to movies and other places. They have become close, like an extended family, and have learned together to be respectful, polite and appreciative toward others.

Josselin Rodriguez, a junior at Lake Worth High School, has been coming to College Prep Club for nearly two years.

Well-spoken and chatty, she envisions going to Palm Beach State College and then to Florida Atlantic University or University of Miami. She wants to study business or psychology. The club is preparing her for the basics about apply to college like how to write an application and qualify for financial aid.

“Until I came here, all I wanted to do was just pass school. I didn’t care. Now I care a lot more. I want to be higher-ranked in my class. I want a good grade point average. I want to do well. I really want a head start in life,” she said.

Her attitude toward school changed through the friendships she made in the program and the information she learned.

“There’s great people here who really care about me. When I had problems, I would talk to them. We had good discussions. I gained more confidence about myself and opened up and become social,” Josselin said.

Her family from Honduras, she was born in Texas and grew up in Lake Worth. Her father is a construction worker and her mom stays at home raising her and her two younger brothers. Josselin would be the first in her family to go to college.

“I really want to succeed and be a good motivator for my two brothers,” she added.

Jessica Chirinos, a senior at Lake Worth High School, also intends to go to Palm Beach State College and eventually transfer to Florida Atlantic University to study criminal justice.

“I want to be an FBI agent and go after bad people,” she said, very seriously.

She credits her “family” at the club for giving her an emotional boost to tackle her studies and focus on the future. Through the club, she learned how to speak in front of others and exert herself in a discussion. She’s now an A/B student verses a C/D student just a few years ago.

“I used to be really quiet but after coming here, I learned how to express myself and communicate well with others,” she said. “For a long time, I felt I wasn’t as smart as the other kids in school. But now, I have realized I’m just as smart as everyone else and I learned how to show it.”

Jessica, too, would be the first in her family to go to college. Her parents are also from Honduras.

“My parents taught me to stay away from drugs and bad things,” she said. “I will do well in life.”

Call the Lake Worth West Community Center at 561-649-9600 to learn more about our college preparatory club.