Promesa : Caring about the Community

Participating children come from low-income families whose parents work, attend school, or are involved in training or counseling programs. Year-round services are available to those families who need it.

Promesa's Multicultural Day Care Center provides community families with quality child services, in a nurturing environment, that foster social, intellectual, emotional, and physical growth.

Promesa’s Multicultural Day Care Center also provides training workshops to parents. Experts in the field, such as Social Workers, Nurses, Nutritionists and Early Childhood Specialists, teach parents fundamental skills and techniques that aid in the child-rearing process.

Established in 1993, Promesa's Multicultural Day Care Center is funded by the New York City Agency for Child Development (ACD) and licensed by the Health Depart-ment of New York State.

The Center provides a bi-lingual/bi-cultural early childhood education curriculum for children between the ages of 2.5 and 6. Participating children come from low-income families whose parents work, attend school, or are involved in training or counseling programs. Children currently or previously in foster care, are considered in greatest need and thus receive priority for selection. Year-round services are available to those families who need it.

The Center’s daily operations are carried out by a Director, who is licensed in the State of New York, holds a Masters Degree in Education, and has previous teaching and supervisory experience. For the last 3 years, the Center has passed the annual City Assessment with 100% compliance and has met the criteria for the Health Department's Bi-Yearly Day Care Licensing.

The Center offers a well-rounded learning experience for each child by combining a New York State approved early education curriculum with a low teacher/child ratio. All programs are planned according to the mandates defined by The Agency for Child Development and pay special attention to age, needs, interests and development. To ensure individualized attention, each classroom is staffed with 3 licensed teachers, a teacher’s assistant and a teacher’s aide.

The curriculum is comprehensive and includes the traditional areas of math, science, and music, e.g., as well as themes dedicated to physical, emotional and social development. Using the "whole child" concept of education as a model, daily outdoor activities are encouraged. Children participate in carefully planned seasonal trips and community walks that expose them to real-life experiences and enhance their knowledge of the community around them.

Food services, consisting of morning snacks and 2 daily meals, reflect the diverse cultural background of enrolled children and follow the nutritional guidelines set forth by the New York State Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

Eligibility Requirements:

Children between the ages of 2.6 and 6 years old
Children from low income families
Children from parents who are able to work, study, attend educational jobs, trainings and counseling.
Children who are or have been in a foster care

Services Provided:

Planned activities according to the age span of the children within the age groups and implementation by consideration of the different needs, interest and individual development of the children
Teachers prepare the environment for children to learn through active participation, exploration and interaction with adults, other children and materials
Children have “hands-on” experience thus offering a more concrete and enriched understanding of the activity
The curriculum is broad term that incorporates both subject matter, such as math, science, music, etc.
Seasonal trip, community walks and summer trips

Most recently, our new day care center built on Promesa owned property opened its doors, allowing us to continue serving both the neediest group of parents, as well as those families above the poverty level needing assistance in maintaining their standard of living.

Three (3) Toddler Classrooms
10 Children per class (Total 30 toddlers)
3 Education Staff per class (Total 9 teachers)
Two (2) Three year olds classroom
30 Three year olds; 6 Education Staff
Two (2) Four year olds classroom
46 Four year olds; 6 Education Staff
One (1) Five year olds classroom
25 Five year olds; 3 Education Staff

The Promesa, Inc., Child Health Initiative is a health, education and referral program funded by the New York City Department of Health.

The focus of this program is to screen 600 families living in areas with zip codes 10451, 10452, 10453, 10454 and 10457 and to educate mothers and their children with regard to:

Asthma prevention, treatment, and management;
Lead poisoning risks and prevention;
Importance of immunization and primary care;
Child safety;
Referral and follow up agencies and/or services that provide assistance; and
Remedy of environmental hazards affecting the home.

Services Provided:

Home environment assessment towards advice and assistance
Training
Two follow up home visit to targeted families
Pest management
Injury prevention
Peeling paint
Landlord’s remediation of hazards
Referrals for physical, mental and emotional health of children
Help with referrals
Health insurance
Medical referrals

Through our screening tools, 600 families were identified as at-risk and provided with educational services.
100 families received remediation of apartment/home environmental services.
4 focus groups and 2 satisfaction surveys were conducted for use in determining 2nd and 3rd year improvements.
A Mobile Health Unit (shown above) was purchased for the promotion and outreach of this initiative and for Promesa Inc.'s programs. A van was also purchased for follow-up home visits.
Wireless laptop computers were purchased to conduct computerized field home visit interviews and for compiling statistics.

We have received positive feedback from families using the program’s services and the New York City Department of Health has provided the agency with a second year of funding. Promesa will apply for private funding in order to continue the project beyond the New York City Department of Health’s 3-year funding cycle.