We had a great family literacy night with The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

A photomontage of a smiling group of children, including a toddler, a baby, and a person, creates a cheerful human face.

More than 50 budding readers and scientists along with their parents and caregivers enjoyed an evening of arts and crafts based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar, story time, viewing live caterpillars up close and learning about the life cycle of a caterpillar. Families went home with their very own copy of the popular book by Eric Carle and are making plans to come back to the Toy Library and Early Learning Center to see the growing caterpillars turn into butterflies.

/by

Great Turnout For Music & Movement

A person is assembling a LEGO collage of a human face indoors.

We had a great turnout last week for our first Community Connections to Early Learning (CCEL) this year. 50 children and their families/caregivers enjoyed singing and dancing to music played by Sing with Savannah. The children and adults engaged with the music by clapping, rocking, jumping or shaking their paper instruments – we had fun making paper guitars, maracas and ribbon wands. Our next CCEL takes place on March 15th and will feature puppets with an emphasis on communication skills.

/by

CRC Helps Napa Families Build New Memories

A collage displays various elements.

Thank you Help-Portrait East Bay/Berkeley and volunteers for your time, kindness and compassion today. Thank you private donors, Golden Bagel Cafe, Starbucks, Walmart, Safeway, Trader Joe’s-Napa,CA and Bank of Stockton for providing bagels, coffee, snacks, frames and supplies to make this day possible. More than 40 Napa families in need were overjoyed to receive professional family portraits and some silly Holiday ones as well. It’s been an incredibly rewarding day seeing a 92-year-old grandma receive her first ever family portrait with all 4 generations of her family; a family that lost their home in the fires were brought to tears when presented with their family portraits; and a woman from Danville drove up with baby blankets and Christmas decorations for the families. A million thanks for this beautiful day!

Read the Napa Valley Register coverage of the event here: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/nonprofit-helps-napa-families-build-new-memories/article_704d6f1d-27ca-5b33-bd53-3bbd9a25106a.html

/by

Thank you Active 20-30 Club for Hosting more than 100 children in need

Thank you Active 20-30 Club of Napa #57 for hosting some of our families at your annual Project Santa. The children were overjoyed. Just to quote one family, “the smiles and memories of my daughter opening up those precious gifts are priceless knowing that there are many single moms like myself who are barely making it and doing her very best to help make Christmas that much more special.”

/by

FREE Webinar – Supporting Children in the Aftermath of Disasters, Nov. 28th

A group of people, including an adolescent, a toddler, and a child, are supporting a young person outdoors on a grassy field.

Child Care Disaster Response And Recovery Free Webinar Series

The recent natural disasters have brought to light the need for more knowledge on how to support children during disaster response and recovery. This FREE webinar series starts on on September 26th and is intended for child care providers who want to learn more about how to protect their child care businesses and support the children under their care.

For more information and to register go HERE:

/by

Fire Update and Fire Recovery Resources

The people in the image are thanking the fire fighters for helping them return to a new normal. Full Text: THANK YOU FIRE F GETTING BACK TO A NEW NORMAL

We are thankful to our community for pulling together to help each other during the Napa fires; thankful for local businesses that provided free meals, accommodations and services to those affected by the fires; thankful for local officials who worked long hours to keep us informed, thankful for first responders from near and far who kept us safe; thankful for volunteers who were so generous with their time, and thankful for donors who were able to help financially! Recovery is going to take a while and the long-term impact of the fires are just now starting to be felt.  Lost wages, unemployment, and housing affordability affects many of the families we serve and remains a concern for the foreseeable future.

Community Resources for Children can help alleviate some of the financial and emotional burdens faced by families and child care providers during difficult times by:

  • Offering child care providers scholarships for health and safety training and working with them to establish emergency plans so that children under their care are safe during a fire, an earthquake, etc.
  • Giving child care providers support and resources about coping with a disaster or traumatic event so that they, in turn, can support the children under their care.
  • Assisting families who need help finding and paying for child care.
  • Offering FREE family activities and access to school readiness programs for children with little or no previous preschool experience.
/by