Education

The Early Childhood Alliance (ECA) has an important mission: to build the brains of our youngest residents – babies. Children from birth to age 5 pass many developmental milestones at a rapid pace. The ECA works to prioritize the education of these children during a critical stage of their growth.

The ECA’s mission is to ensure that all children are healthy, thriving and ready to succeed in school and life. It focuses on providing all families of young children parenting support by building knowledge, skills, confidence and the resources needed to raise their children in healthy and nurturing environments.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, an estimated 15% of children in the United States have at least one developmental delay, yet less than one-fifth of those children receive early intervention services before three years of age.

ECA’s Help Me Grow (HMG) sets out to make sure that all children aged zero to five years old are receiving screenings over the course of their development. Where needed, it provides parents with referrals to community-based supports so that they can address milestone delays early.

Because the brain rapidly develops during the first five years of life, ECA’s staff feels a sense of urgency to find children who need developmental help. Their referrals have come from childcare providers, grandparents and parents. The United Way’s 211 outreach phone number is often a source of referrals and is accessible to anyone who needs services. The best source of referrals is from pediatricians, and yet, very few in Syracuse and surrounding suburbs knew about HMG until recently.

ECA’s “Books, Balls & Blocks” events teach families about social-emotional development, milestones and screenings. When participants sign up, they receive a tote filled with age-appropriate developmental toys. To encourage parents to attend well-child pediatric visits, even during a pandemic, the team delivers developmental toys to the pediatricians’ offices. The toys have a QR code tag which, when scanned, will easily help parents give their information and needs. Collecting data will help HMG know where to focus its energies and how to help the most families.

ParentChild+ (PC+), a collaboration between the ECA and Catholic Charities, matches an early-learning specialist with families to ensure children are ready to enter kindergarten. Each family receives a minimum of 46 home/virtual visits per cycle for a total of 92 visits. Families build a library of books and educational toys, along with curricular guide sheets containing tips for verbal interaction, quality conversation and skill development. Most of the activities are easy to implement and cost very little. Hopping around the living room from pillow to pillow is just one example of an activity that helps develop gross motor skills.

With continued funding, consistency, attention and a network of resources, the ECA is building an intentional framework to help families throughout Onondaga County. Raising early childhood development up as a priority requires the will of a community. Laurie Black, ECA executive director, added thoughtfully, “To quote Frederick Douglass, ‘It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.’”

When students enter the Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection (HW-SC) program, Regional Executive Director Wayne O’Connor says many dream of becoming NBA players or cosmetologists.

Over the course of the program, O’Connor hears students’ aspirations evolve; they say journalist, photographer, researcher or even an environmentalist.

These new passions are ignited when HW-SC students explore the city of Syracuse and beyond on “learning expeditions.”

Learning expeditions put students in the field – whether that’s a zoo or a state park. O’Connor arranges interviews with professionals and gives students the resources needed to document their expedition, record observations and take photographs and video.

It was on a learning expedition that Charisma Sykes found that her passion and interest lay in the environment.

“[What I’m most interested in] is preservation and [the importance of] renewable energy,” said Sykes. “We are putting too much fossil fuels in the air. The way we are heading – the earth can’t handle it. People are getting sick and things are getting destroyed. There’s nothing getting preserved.”

Sykes and other students traveled to Beaver Lake and Rosamond Gifford Zoo where they learned about animals’ well-being in zoos, birds and their environment through nature photography.

Expeditions such as Charisma’s are especially important because many HW-SC students have never set foot outside of the city of Syracuse. There are more than 1,100 HW-SC students in 10 Syracuse City School District schools, and 99 percent face poverty and other life challenges. Students come to this program with evidence-based risk factors, including poor attendance, failing two or more core subjects and low standardized test scores. At the time she came to HW-SC, Sykes was struggling with math.

“I really wasn’t good at math,” said Sykes. “I really needed help and tutoring. I asked my parents [if I could join] and they said it was OK.”

Sykes has been a mainstay at Hillside, starting early when she was in middle school. Now a senior at Henninger High School, she credits the organization for her newfound confidence. She has observed the staff and countless advocates work hard to make sure every student succeeds.

For O’Connor it’s simple: It’s being there for their students and setting the bar high.

Aarick Knighton always planned to go to college, but credits his Say Yes Syracuse (Say Yes) scholarship with “cracking open the door” to more options.

Knighton, a 2011 Corcoran High School alum, used his Say Yes scholarship to study Information Management and Technology at Syracuse University. After graduating, Knighton worked as a social media manager, first for Syracuse.com and later for Syracuse University, before jumping into the political arena this past spring as Mayor Ben Walsh’s campaign manager.

“The initial push that Say Yes gives is invaluable, it really is,” Knighton said.

Say Yes to Syracuse provides fully endowed last-dollar tuition guarantee scholarships to all eligible Syracuse City School District (SCSD) students. Beyond the financial support it also provides families with academic support specialists, access to mental health clinics and legal services designed to help mitigate the systemic barriers to higher education. The SCSD graduation rate increased by 26 percent over the past ten years from 45 percent in 2010 to 71 percent in 2020.

The 2020 graduation rate of Black, Latino and Asian students in the Syracuse City School District (SCSD) met or exceeded that of White students, signaling that the program is helping students break through challenges historically caused by systemic racism.

Knighton said Say Yes provided financial flexibility that he is still experiencing, five years after he graduated from Syracuse University.

“The financial relief—that one less payment a month, the thousands of dollars less in debt—it provides flexibility as we build our young lives, as we move, have families, establish careers,” Knighton said. “I am super grateful to Say Yes for that, and I know my classmates are, too.”

Ahmeed Turner, Say Yes Syracuse’s Executive Director, explained that the foundation of Say Yes is rooted in the economic revitalization of Central New York. Its mission is to provide opportunities for young people to gain a meaningful career and to make a positive impact on the community.

Since the fall of 2009, 4,900 Say Yes students have enrolled in 2 and 4-year colleges (public and private). In July 2020, the Central New York Community Foundation joined forces with Say Yes to continue its support of local students.

“In my opinion, Aarick embodies all of what Say Yes stands for; he took advantage of the tuition guarantee, and he stayed here,” Turner said. “He’s always had this sense of civic responsibility and I think the scholarship emboldened him to be more active in the community.”