Cañones Early Childhood Center
The Cañones Early Childhood Center is a small nonprofit organization, interrupting the cycles of rural isolation and poverty, by bringing early childhood education, child development, and emergent literacy services to an under-served population of rural, isolated, minority families in northern NM.
The Cañones Early Childhood Center has been has been successfully providing high quality bilingual early childhood education services to this region for more that 20 years, reaching children who live in such remote and isolated areas that there are no other services available.
The communities targeted by this project have had no Headstart, Pre-K, libraries, or other educational resources for young children. Historically, the center has served a population of typically developing children as well as those with developmental problems and severe disabilities.
This project involves busing children from outlying territories into the center for a stimulating, developmentally appropriate, literacy-rich educational program. The center provides a unique space for this age group, organized into various interest areas, equipped with stimulating, inviting materials.
The paraprofessional staff is indigenous to this region, totally bilingual, and trained specifically to work with this age group. The presence of foster grandparents adds an inter-generational component to the program. This is a grassroots venture, with indigenous staff and a local parent board directing the center’s operation.
1985
Martha Vialpando