Corning Promise recognizes that “children’s lives are intertwined with the life of their whole community” (The Context of Meaning of Family Strengthening in Indian America) and early gains in the first years of life have enormous impacts on the child’s future. “We cannot afford to postpone investing in children until they become adults, nor can we wait until they reach school age—a time when it may be too late to intervene. Learning is a dynamic process and is most effective when it begins at a young age and continues through to adulthood.” (Heckman 2000, pg. 50) A supportive, healthy start at this stage, from a safe and loving home to the early stages of formal schooling, ensures children develop skills that set them up for emotional, academic and life-long success.
Our Corning Promise Vision
Corning Promise envisions a community where our youngest children are supported in their development to become strong, vibrant and healthy individuals, with strong foundational skills that set them up for life-long success. Parents, as children’s first teacher are acknowledged as pivotal figures in the child’s development. An emphasis on early childhood development and school readiness supports sets our students up for success throughout their years at Corning schools.
What we’re doing
Corning Promise supports our youngest learners by funding expanding evidence-based programming to children, birth to age 5, thereby ensuring more children acquire strong foundational skills – cognitive, emotional, and language-to succeed. To increase access to high-quality developmental programs, Corning Promise has partnered with organizations to deliver services to families in their homes. Bilingual home visitors from Healthy Families America (HFA) and Early Head Start deliver quality child development education and family support services. Other services include:
- Support from a public health nurse who supported families on the HFA caseload;
- A comprehensive Early Reading and Language program worked with area private and public preschools to increase English oral language capacities and literacy skills by focusing on transforming all private and public preschools into “Centers of Excellence” marked by high quality instructional programming and classroom environments; and
- Mental health services for preschool-age children and their families.