School Aged Child Care News!

Service Projects
This month, Eader YMCA  adopted a family for Christmas! They are participants from the Oak View Sports program. They are a family with a mom dad, four daughters and one son. They made a Christmas wish list and parents from the Eader YMCA were able to choose from their list and buy them presents (each member received 5 gifts). On Friday December 21st site director Lucelyna Vazquez played Santa and brought the gifts to their house. The look on their faces when they saw the presents is indescribable. They were very happy and grateful that the Eader YMCA was able to help them out during the holiday season.

Special Events
The West County Family YMCA is going to be hosting their first annual K+ Spring Concert on Thursday, April 3rd at Peterson Elementary School.  The theme for this year’s event is “Hands Around the World.”  Each K+ program center will be taking a different country and will be dressing up as children and singing a song from that respective country.  Each K+ teacher is working very hard to prepare for this event under the direction of our K+ specialist, Tomia Hicks.

Site Recognition
Congrats to Jaime and her staff at MOFFETT YMCA for achieving 3rd place in the association contest, “Knock Your Socks Off”

Congrats to Lucelyna at EADER YMCA and Tomia and Jessica at PETERSON YMCA for making the decision to apply for their sites to undergo accreditation.  The National Afterschool Association recognizes afterschool programs across the world through the accreditation process which is very lengthy and timely.  Both program sites have begun the process and are looking to have endorsers come and visit their sites within the next year.

Director Recognition
Tomia Hicks has done a fabulous job as serving as our K+ specialist here at West County Family.  In addition to her normal duties as a center director, Tomia has been overseeing all of our K+ teachers.  This includes consistent site visits, monthly meetings and trainings, and meeting on a regular basis with each K+ teacher and their director.  Tomia has continued to go above and beyond in this role including by taking on the task of planning our first annual K+ Spring Concert.  Thanks Tomia for all of your hard work!!

Jaime Alls has taken on the responsibility of serving as our Assistant Director Mentor Specialist.  Jaime has developed a training program for our assistant directors, and has been holding monthly meetings and one-on-ones to track their progress in their new leadership position.  Through her efforts, Jaime has been able to work with our Assistant Directors to make sure they are fully prepared for all that they may encounter in the child care field and will help them prepare for their transition to one day becoming a center director.  Great job, Jaime!!

Penny Andrews is serving as our Training Specialist here at West County Family.  In addition to helping to monitor the CORE trainings that are offered each month, Penny has been out and attending various trainings and then coming back to the department and training our center directors in various topics.  In the upcoming months, she will help to develop our spring training for the part-time staff in the department, as well as be an integral part of planning our summer training in June.  Keep up the great work, Penny!

For more childcare information, please contact Chris Becerra at 714-500-5245 or cbecerra@ymcaoc.net