Sunbeam Family Services to expand early childhood services with grant
Sunbeam Family Services has announced the additional expansion of its early childhood services programs as a result of a second federal Early Head Start Child Care Partnership Grant.
The $9.1 million grant is awarded by Health & Human Services — Office of Head Start and will be distributed over a five-year period, allowing Sunbeam to increase its impact on children ages birth to three years placed in traditional early childhood centers.
Sunbeam will administer and manage the grant by partnering with six to eight new early child care locations across Oklahoma City.
“Once again, Sunbeam has built on its history of successful quality early childhood programs with innovative and collaborative thinking to garner additional federal funding for the metro area,” Paula Gates, Sunbeam Director of Early Childhood Services, said in a news release. “This award is the result of two years of work and planning and the federal funding will enhance the quality of childcare for the most at-risk children and families in the Oklahoma City area.”
Sunbeam CEO Jim Priest emphasized these early childhood programs not only serve children and families today, they work as a long-range gamechanger in solving poverty.
“We’re helping create a positive trajectory of these children and put them on a path for future success in school and in the workforce,” Priest said in a news release.
The grant will expand Sunbeam’s reach to more than 620 children and their approximately 2,480 family members.
Sunbeam currently has 12 partnership sites opened through the first federal grant awarded in 2015 and operates three early childhood centers, including OKC Educare, Tony Reyes Bilingual Early Childhood Center and Emerson Alternative High School early childhood program.