New E Center Head Start to open in Yuba City
A new E Center Head Start is expected to open a new location next week at 1356 Queens Avenue in Yuba City, according to program officials. The new E Center provides early childhood education services at no cost to eligible families.
“This is a service that we provide at no charge to the community. This is important because sometimes families need a safety net or need extra help,” E Center Head Start CEO Steve Ly said.
This E Center will provide Early Head Start and Migrant Seasonal Head Start services. Early Head Start is for children ages 0 to 3 and pregnant women, and it is meant for families experiencing at-risk situations. Migrant Seasonal Head Start is for children 4 weeks to 5 years of age who have a family member working in agriculture-related work, such as produce canning, packing plants, forestry, dairy, fishery or bees.
The new center is currently full, although enrollment applications for waitlists are being accepted. The center can look after 66 children and is ideal for working parents as it is open Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
To celebrate the new center, an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony was held on April 10.
“(The ceremony) allows staff and community members to come and celebrate the fruit at the end of this, as opposed to working really hard and not necessarily seeing any results,” Ly said. “This is one incident where we can proudly say it’s made a difference.”
This E Center replaces a different location in Yuba City. They rented the previous center on Stabler Lane, but were able to purchase the new location on Queens Avenue.
A parent at the ribbon cutting event, Dominga Servin, said that she is a part of a homebased program where a teacher comes to her house once a
week, and the family goes to the center twice a month for her daughter’s socialization. Servin’s family will be moving over to the new location.
“It’s really helped her blossom in experiences and connections with her friends here. It’s helped me, as a parent, learn how to work with her and ask questions to help her continue to grow,” Servin said.
Servin said she likes the new location; it is smaller, but there is more for the kiddos to do. The new location is pretty much the same distance away from her. If a person can get their child signed up, she said, they should take advantage of that opportunity.
“It’s inspiring for the parents too,” Servin said. “You get to be around (other) parents and know that you are not alone in doing this.”
There are also monthly parent council meetings that Servin and other parents are involved in, where they keep an eye on things and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
“We get to have a say with what goes on here,” Servin said.
A different parent at the ribbon-cutting event, Katie Wilken, said she is involved with advocacy for Head Start. Wilken originally found her way to Head Start after her son was diagnosed with autism, and she said that Head Start provided more support for him than his community preschool.
Her son has since aged out of Head Start, but she has stayed involved.
“This is the only program that really offered me what I needed,” Wilken said.