FACES - Families And Children Early Support


FACES (Families And Children Early Support) is a consortium of early childhood educators, agencies, organizations, funders, school staff, advocates and community members who work to support early development, education and school readiness efforts throughout King County. The groups use a variety of strategies to ensure that all children and families are ready for their school experience and that schools welcome and support families in their diversity. There are FACES groups in each sub-region of King County: North, South, Seattle, and East. Each group works on goals for their local area, and also on those that will benefit children in the County as a whole.

FACES East
FACES North
FACES Seattle
FACES South


FACES East

Accomplishments:

• Sponsored three Giraffes workshops for parents, all very well attended and with great feedback from families, in the Eastside communities of Snoqualmie/North Bend, Issaquah and Mercer Island in 2005. The focus was on providing community resources around early childhood issues and school readiness. A special emphasis was put on encouraging and supporting father/father-figure involvement. The workshops were led by early childhood experts in the areas of Emotion Coaching, Play as Learning and Father Involvement. These Giraffes workshops are a continuing emphasis for our FACES East group and are very well received in the early childhood community.
  
  
• Co-sponsored with the FACES Groups, CONECTATE, a networking meeting for Latina parents throughout King County. This gathering provided an opportunity for parents to connect and exchange ideas and information about such topics as overcoming the challenges of raising a family in a new culture and advocating on behalf of their children. Over 30 children and parents participated in the event.
  
  
• Funded a Latina children's storyteller and dancer, who performed at the 2006 Hispanic Heritage Celebration at Crossroad Shopping Center.
  
  
• Co-sponsored a Parent Leadership Training series for 40 parents in Seattle (Somali), East King County (Latino, Vietnamese), South (Latino) and North (Latino, English-speaking) to help them increase their knowledge of early learning/school/support systems and resources so they could better advocate for their children's needs.
  
  
• Developed Public Policy Priorities for the 2007 State Legislative session including Early Learning, Family Support, and Healthy Kids. In October, FACES East co-sponsored a State Legislative Candidates Forum with the Eastside Human Services Forum. Fifteen candidates from East King County Districts 5, 41, 45, and 48 discussed their positions on early childhood education and school readiness.
  
  
• Added 6 new members/organizations to roster.
  

Contact:

Alex O'Reilly, City of Bellevue
(425) 452-2824
aoreilly@ci.bellevue.wa.us

Meetings: Monthly on the 1st Tuesday of the month from 2:30-4:00pm at Eastgate Public Health Clinic, 15350 SE Eastgate Way, Bellevue, WA.



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FACES North

Projects Sponsored :

• The Children's Festival held in October at Third Place Commons
  
  
• "Crib to Classroom" Annual training conference held in January
  
  
• Various childcare provider trainings
  
  
• Reggio Emilia Network of Puget Sound
  
  
• Partnerships with local schools ensuring that young children are ready to start school and schools are prepared for their diverse populations
  
  
• Outreach to parents of young children easing the transitions that mark the path to kindergarten
  
  
• Assistance to families and care providers in order to identify young children needing extra services to assure school success.
  

Contact:

facesnorth@gmail.com
http://groups.google.com/group/faces-north

Meetings: Third Wednesday of every month from 1:30-3:30pm at the Center for Human Services, 17018 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98155.



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FACES Seattle

Accomplishments:

• Provided feedback to the Early Learning Benchmarks, including ways to ensure cultural competency; and conducted outreach to immigrant and refugee communities to ensure their voices were included in the process.
  
  
• Maintained and expanded communication network for the early learning community that helped to 'get the word out' about community events and resources for families, providers of early care and education.
  
  
• Facilitated identification of community partners looking for resources to partner with the City of Seattle to apply for federal funds.
  
  
• Continued to play a role in providing feedback to the City of Seattle in the development of the Early Learning Network (ELN).
  
  
• In cooperation with other FACES groups, conducted parent leadership training for 2 Somali families.
  
  
• In spring 2007 partnered with Sea-Mar Community Health Center and Sea-Mar Early Childhood Program to sponsor School Readiness Community celebration attended by 200 Spanish-speaking parents, children and caregivers.
  
  
• Projects planned for this year include summer early literacy programs for Spanish and Somali-speaking families, early literacy project with low-income families in Southeast Seattle, and outreach efforts to the Muslim community to promote access to early learning services.
  

Contact:

Karen Akada Sakata
(206) 684-0184
karen.akada@seattle.gov

Meetings: Monthly on the 1st Thursday from 1:00-2:30pm at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA, (206) 684-4711.



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FACES South

Accomplishments:

• Sharing information about programs and resources and discussion of challenges and barriers during monthly FACES meetings provides opportunities for each of us to come to a greater understanding. South FACES members are working to support each other as we work in the diverse communities of South King County.
  
  
• Partnering with the Starting Points Collaborative, FACES has convened an advisory group in Burien to ensure linguistically and culturally relevant early learning opportunities are available, accessible and meaningful to parents and community groups.
  
  
• Tukwila Latino Parent Think Tank during the Spring of 2005. South FACES entered into a partnership to understand Latino families' experiences in raising young children. As a result, a Latino Parent Think Tank was formed. Continued support includes identifying opportunities for parents to engage in communities to shape activities, programs and policy affecting their children.
  

Contact:

Denese Bohanna, South King County Community Network
dbohanna@skccn.com

Jim Ott, Children and Family Commission
jim.ott@metrokc.gov

Lori Guilfoyle, United Way of King County
lguilfoyle@uwkc.org

Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of the month, 12:30-2:30pm.



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