Want to help a child? Help a parent, too

Last spring, Cynthia Gattorna walked into the Bret Tarver Isaac Preschool in Phoenix and stumbled upon something 18 years in the making.

Gattorna was at the school as the non-profit she leads, A Stepping Stone Foundation, prepared to open services there in the fall.

“You know, I was a (Stepping Stone) preschooler,” a school receptionist told her.

A teacher doesn’t always get to see the success of his or her labor. Gattorna did. The young woman was attending college and has since been hired as a speech therapy assistant at the Isaac campus.

“Just like we hoped, she had graduated high school and gone on to college,” Gattorna said. “That is exactly what we are here to do ... cradle to career.”

The receptionist’s mom also has been hired as a teacher’s assistant for the Isaac preschool program.

A Stepping Stone Foundation looks to transform lives by serving preschoolers and their parents. Its LEAF program, which stands for Literacy Elevates Arizona Families, has four components:

preschool for ages 3 and 4, family literacy such as English lessons or GED prep classes for parents,

home visits during the school year,

and intergenerational learning activities, such as parents volunteering in the preschool. The parents sign a contract that requires them to spend at least eight hours per month in the classroom.

“Our program only operates when all four of those are present. If a family signs on, they sign on to do all four of those things,” Gattorna said.

A typical day sees parents drop off their children at preschool and then go to their own classes. If there are younger siblings, free child care is provided.

A Stepping Stone Foundation offers the program in coordination with public schools to leverage assets. The school provides the facility, along with breakfast and lunch, and the non-profit provides the staff.

The program is offered in the Isaac and Alhambra elementary school districts in Phoenix and the Miami Unified School District in Gila County.

The program, which received a $15,000 Season for Sharing grant this year, serves about 75 families annually.

Gattorna shared more details about A Stepping Stone Foundation.

QUESTION: What is your organization all about?

ANSWER: Our mission is fairly simple; it’s to transform the lives of needy families through quality education . ... LEAF has been branded as such for a couple years, but this program has been around quite a while. Stepping Stone has been doing this since 1990 here in the Valley. We do have two other programs: internships for former program participants and we provide (college) scholarships to former preschool participants. Q: How do you gauge success? A: In the short-term, we get preschoolers ready for kindergarten success. That is something we can and do measure. Our kids either perform the same or greater than their school and district peers. The whole goal is to get them on par with their more affluent peers.

Q: How did last year’s Season for Sharing help you?

A: The grant helped us educate local families for one full school year, which includes the free adult education, the home visit, parenting classes, preschool and intergenerational activities. Q: What is your greatest need? A: Our need really is for resources. ... Isaac is an expansion that began this fall. Our goal is to build capacity so that wherever there are 15 families in a community in Arizona, we could be there providing those resources.

“Our mission is fairly simple; it’s to transform the lives of needy families through quality education.” CYNTHIA GATTORNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, A STEPPING STONE FOUNDATION