Redlands Christian Migrant Association Inc

Programs: From three modest child-care centers with 75 children in 1965, rcma today serves nearly 6,500 children of migrant farm workers and rural, low-income families in 68 centers and 3 charter schools throughout florida. Children in our centers range from 6 weeks to 12 years old. Rcma's inclusion of children with disabilities, beginning with infants and toddlers, has been recognized as a model within florida. Rcma, the largest single provider of child-care services in florida, now offers preschool services in 20 rural communities. Like other children rcma serves, most of those enrolled speak english as a second language, if at all. With a mission of hiring staff and teachers from the communities served, rcma already employs a majority of bilingual staffers. Many of our employees are former migrant farm workers who acquired their child development credentials, family development credentials, associate's degrees or bachelor's degrees after joining rcma. Serving a large migrant population, plus other year-round farm and low-income families, rcma offers the 540-hour vpk program option during the academic year. This way, even though some children arrive late and leave early, they still receive the required coursework, which is essential to their success later in kindergarten and elementary school. We have strong partnerships with head start, florida's office of early learning, local early learning coalitions, the mexican consulates in orlando and miami, florida agriculture, community-based organizations and school districts. More than half of rcma's childcare centers have been nationally accredited, reflecting standards and achievements that exceed state licensing requirements.

head start, early head start and migrant head start are comprehensive child-development programs that serve pregnant women, children from birth to age 5 and their families. The programs strive to increase the school readiness of young children in low-income families. Key to the success of rcma in preparing young children for public school is its mission to hire staff and teachers from the communities served. Most of our staff is bilingual, and many are former migrant farm workers, including our associate executive director and director of farmworker advocacy. Head start nationally evolved from a task force recommendation in 1964 for the development of a federally sponsored preschool program to meet the needs of disadvantaged children, head start now offers programs geared for children 3 to 5 years old. Early head start provides programs for infants and toddlers, newborns to 3 years. Responding to the unique season needs of migrant farm workers, migrant and seasonal head start was created in 1969 and serves newborns to 5 year olds. Head start is a program within the administration on children, youth and families in the u. S. Department of health and human services, which awards grants to rcma to provide these services.

rcma operates three charter schools (public schools of choice), the immokalee community school in eastern collier county, the wimauma academy, and the leadership academy in southeastern hillsborough county, which provide a unique opportunity for rcma to extend its positive impact on children. The schools provide a seamless transition for children as they progress from rcma's early childhood and pre-kindergarten programs into elementary school and middle school in hillsborough county. Test results confirm that the longer students remain with rcma, the better they perform in school. Our children's improvement between kindergarten and third grade on reading assessments, for example,is dramatic. When one considers that many of our students are tested in their second language, their accomplishments are quite impressive. The academic focus is the improvement of language and math using a thematic and integrative approach, which immerses students in an enriched environment that reflects the complexities of life. The results include improved language, academics and literacy, increased self-esteem and desirable social skills. The immokalee community school (kindergarten through sixth grade), the wimauma academy (kindergarten through fifth) were originally chartered in 2000 and adding a third charter school in 2012-2013 in hillsborough county, the leadership academy (sixth through eighth). In 2013, the school board of collier renewed rcma's charter for another three years (ics). Hillsborough county renewed rcma's charter in 2012 to operate the middle school for another five years (leadership) and in 2015 to operate the elementary school for another five years (wimauma).