WACC Initial Programs
Multi-lingual Preschool : Trough Issa’s leadership, WACC served 34 students in its multilingual Preschool site in Rainier Valley. The preschool is part of the City of Seattle Pathways Preschool Program and offers a dual language program in French and English (while also incorporating West African dialects). Because the children in the preschool are predominantly English Language Learners with immigrant and refugee parents, we focus on providing services that are culturally competent and linguistically accessible. We use the Creative Curriculum as its participatory learning approach works well with immigrant and refugee children who are English Language Learners. By integrating a family’s home language and culture into our instruction, we not only help immigrant and refugee children and their families feel accepted and welcomed, but also encourage them to draw on prior knowledge to emphasize their strengths and make new information more meaningful and comprehensible. Our cook, with over 20 years of experience, prepares daily preschool meals with halal food and West African recipes to promote healthy eating and “a taste of West Africa.” We also provide before and after school care and daily transportation to pick up and drop off children from their homes to our site.
ParentChild+ Program : Issa had put in place a home visiting program (ParentChild+) serving about 80 families with children aged 16 months to three years old. While our program began with the intent of just serving West African immigrant families, our services had since expanded to serve the broader African population due to expressed community need. The Early Learning Specialists hired for this program come from the African immigrant and refugee community.
West African Family Support Program: This program served about 240 families which includes our Parent Education and Support Program (for families with children prenatal-5 years old) and Positive Families Connections Program (for families with children 5-24 years old). Both programs are funded by King County Best Starts for Kids and provide multilingual and multicultural parenting/caregiver education and support services to low-income, LEP immigrant parents/caregivers including monthly support groups, parenting and caregiver workshops (in English, French, and several West African dialects including Wolof, Pular, Bambara and Sonike), and case management services.
Help Me Grow Program : This strategic program is part of King County Best Starts for Kids’ Expanding Help Me Grow Initiative for families with children prenatal to 5 years old. As part of this effort, we received funding from Best Starts to: 1) begin a Family Connection Pilot Program which will provide one on one assistance to help African immigrant families navigate a range of systems so that they can support their child’s healthy development and meet basic needs and 2) expand our screening and referral services including providing culturally adapted developmental screenings to immigrant families not currently being reached, providing community education to destigmatize developmental screenings, and offering navigation and support as families access early learning interventions. Through our multilingual/multicultural efforts, we empowered over 200 African immigrant families so that children receive needed services and developmental screenings, families get the support they need, and parents improve their knowledge of child development.