Announcing our Newest Investment: Albina Head Start
October was an inspiring month for SVP! Over 250 community members invested in early childhood joined Social Venture Partners, Early Learning Multnomah, and Portland State University at the “Preschool for All” Symposium on October 13. Less than a week later, we showcased the community impact that SVP investments help create at our Annual Partners Meeting; affiliates from SVP’s global network joined us and stayed for a day and a half “Learning Lab” case study on Portland’s journey towards our Ready for Kindergarten goal. On top of these events, SVP’s Portfolio Management Team (formerly the Capacity Investment Team, or CIT) voted to make additional investments in KairosPDX, the Community Education Workers program, the Native American Youth and Family Center, and Latino Network totally more than $97,000. The Team also approved the recommendation to invest in a new Community Partner/Investee: Albina Head Start. Please read on to learn more about this new SVP partnership.
Albina has been offering Early Head Start and Head Start services to low-income families in Multnomah County. Currently, they serve over 1,000 children annually, across 25 locations. In addition to early childhood education, Albina offers wraparound services to families and children, including free preventative dental care, family advocates, fresh food partnerships, and career training for parents. Albina Head Start seeks SVP’s investment of time and expertise in order to conduct a feasibility study on the viability of expanding the array of career training programs they provide to the parents of children enrolled in their Head Start programs.How is this tied to kindergarten readiness, you ask? Research shows that strong parental involvement is a crucial strategy—and part of Albina Head Start’s mission—to providing early learning and educational opportunities to children, enhancing a parent’s role as the principal influence in their child’s education and development. The lack of training available to Black, Latino, and Immigrant parents living on a low income is measurable; addressing this gap is important to support early care and learning. SVP’s investment in Albina Head Start is primarily focused on leveraging SVP’s a human capital—and augmented by making a $25,000 grant available to secure an Encore Fellow. This Fellow will lead the feasibility study, which includes an ecosystem analysis and market research. If the feasibility study validates the market's need and fit for Albina Head Start, we will move to the business planning phase of our partnership.
Some background on Albina Head Start
Albina Head Start has been serving children from low-income families in Multnomah County since 1965. AHS currently provides center-based full-day, year-round Head Start services to 626 preschool children (ages 3–5) in 33 classrooms, as well as Early Head Start services for 188 infants and toddlers in 24 classrooms throughout North, Northeast and Southeast Portland. 95% of children served are Black or Latino, 65% of Albina’s over 300 employees are current or former Head Start Parents, and 83% of teachers are people of color. Staff come from 27 different countries and speak 24 different languages. Head Start programs offer services that support families and strengthen communities so that children are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. They focus on early identification, treatment, and health promotion. Staff use these health strategies to make sure students engage in learning. The five central development domains that Head Start addresses are:
Approaches to learning (focusing on how children learn)
Social-Emotional Development (Creating and sustaining meaningful relationships with adults and other children)
Language and Literacy (Listening to, understanding, and using a language)
Cognitive Development (Reasoning, memory, problem-solving, etc.)
Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development (perception, motor skills, health, etc.)
We are incredibly excited to see what we can accomplish together. If you’d like to get involved with the SVP Partner working closely with Albina Head Start on this project, please contact Rebecca Brown Schroeder to learn about ways to engage.
We encourage you to come to connect with staff, Partners engaged with Investees or attend a future event in order to learn more about our impact in person.