CentroNía

Results: Access to quality education continues to be the single most important challenge facing the District of Columbia and the greater metropolitan region. CentroNía, a nationally recognized, award-winning educational organization provides affordable, quality early childhood education; professional development to educators; and family support services in a bilingual and multicultural environment to more than 2,400 low-income children and families. Our holistic approach ensures that the children and families we serve receive the support and encouragement they need to succeed academically, develop a strong sense of community, and live healthy and active lives. This includes an award-winning Food & Wellness Department that provides healthy meals for CentroNía’s community, and encourages children, parents, and staff to adopt healthy lifestyles by making informed food choices.

Target demographics: Low-income, working families and their children by providing a continuum of early childhood education and care starting during a mother’s pregnancy until the child is five years old.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 2400 children and families

Geographic areas served: Washington DC, Maryland

Programs: CentroNía’s commitment is to serve low-income, working families and their children by providing a continuum of early childhood education and care starting during a mother’s pregnancy until the child is five years old. Our model includes comprehensive education services for children, their families, and the community. With locations in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in DC and Takoma Park, Maryland, CentroNía Provide affordable and high-quality bilingual education to children ages birth to 5. About 75 percent of our students are Latino, 85 percent are English Language Learners, and 90 percent qualify for free or reduced priced lunch. Services are provided from 7:00am to 6:00pm Monday through Friday. These hours give our families the opportunity to work towards financial advancement through full-time employment or higher education while providing a stable environment for children. CentroNía’s Early Childhood Education program offers services for expecting families, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The goal of the Community Engagement & Education program is to support students, their families, and our community in order to become successful. For students, our services achieve this through complimenting school-day learning, providing social and academic activities that contribute to children’s healthy development, and offering students academically rigorous and engaging programs that deepen their understanding of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts. We extend our model even further to provide comprehensive support services and education opportunities for our families and the surrounding community. CentroNía’s Food and Wellness department mission is to cook nutritious meals, educate adults and children to adopt healthy lifestyles, advocate for better food policies, and expanded this holistic model across communities. At CentroNía, we believe a healthy and active lifestyle is essential to achieving academic and social success, by positively impacting the physical and intellectual development of children and adults. The CentroNía Institute was conceived as the result of CentroNía’s experience and success working with young children, their families, and teachers in a bilingual, multicultural environment. The majority of children we serve are English Language Learners (ELLs). Due to these circumstances, this community is historically underserved, both locally and nationally, by center- and school-based education. The CentroNía Institute strives to raise awareness and strengthen institutional capacity to address these needs in the following ways: Presenting and disseminating research surrounding best practices for educating young ELLs. Offering professional development workshops and trainings to educators, school leadership, childcare center staff, and parents. Providing on-site technical assistance and individualized coaching to teachers and staff in real life circumstances in the classroom. Through education and training, our goal is to meet the needs of the growing population of ELLs and prepare teachers for a successful professional career in Early Childhood Education. NíaCentral, a subsidiary of CentroNía, was created in 2016 to provide catering, workforce development, and administrative and managerial services to early childhood education centers and schools throughout the greater Washington region. With CentroNía’s more than 30 years of experience operating and managing early childhood education centers, NíaCentral will share this knowledge with other centers and schools so as to improve program quality and streamline administration and operations processes.