A total of 59 Santa Barbara County family child-care providers participated in the 9th annual Spruce Up For Kids Day on May 30. The child-care providers received small grants through the First 5 Santa Barbara County-funded Spruce Up For Kids Project to enhance the quality of their child-care programs.
The participating child-care programs provided 30 percent matching funds—donations and/or volunteers—of the total project cost, attended workshops on Quality Self Assessment, and committed to improving at least two areas of their child-care environments, according to a press release from First 5 Santa Barbara County.
Some of these improvements, for example, could have included enhancing outdoor play areas, adding “interest areas,” such as art or dramatic play, and enhancing children’s opportunities for reading and early literacy development. During the application process, pre-home visits took place to identify areas to improve. Post-home visits will be conducted after Spruce Up For Kids Day to measure the success of the modifications.
The event was co-sponsored by First 5 Santa Barbara County and Santa Barbara Family Care Center, which assists families throughout Santa Barbara County by providing education, care, and other resources to young children, their parents, and caregivers.
For more information about Spruce Up For Kids Day, First 5 Santa Barbara County, or Santa Barbara Family Care Center programs, visit first5santabarbaracounty.org or sbfcc.org.
This article appears in Jun 4-11, 2009.
