Highlights of the grant include:

• Provide referral services for repair and rebuild, unmet needs, and direct assistance and ongoing services for Hurricane Ike related damages
• Eligible clients live in the service areas of the Greater Houston Long Term Recovery Committee. This area includes Harris, Fort Bend, and Waller Counties as well as West Chambers County (west of the Trinity River).

People who feel they may be eligible for funding and service under this grant can call the Stay Connected number at (713) 667-5853 or visit the website at www.stayconnectedtexas.org.

The project team will be visiting licensed child care facilities around Houston to model and teach strategies for promoting social-emotional development and respond effectively to challenging behavior.

Highlights of the grant include:

• On-site mentoring and consultation by a specialist in early childhood behavior and social-emotional development
• Extensive training for teachers and administrators on promoting social-emotional competence, responding effectively to challenging behavior, and other related topics
• Visits by a mental health professional to provide classroom, teacher and family support for children with persistent challenging behavior
• Scholarships for staff interested in furthering their education
• Materials and equipment grants for books and training materials, and up to $2000 in equipment to enhance classroom environments

This child care quality improvement project is funded by the Gulf Coast Workforce Board with federal stimulus dollars.

The goal is to serve concentrations of low-income, minority older adults in three neighborhoods, helping them achieve optimal individual levels of functioning and support needed to age in place comfortably.

Highlighted outcomes expected from the grant include:

• Older adults, both mobile and homebound, are better prepared and supported for a higher quality aging-in-place experience
• Senior services providers are better connected and coordinated in leveraging resources and efficiently delivering quality services
• Senior Centers are more integrated with other local service providers and community development entities, and capable of extending services to other neighborhood sites such as churches and senior apartment complexes.

Highlights from the grant include:

• Continuing to accomplish the great work already in progress – helping the poor and underserved children and families of Southwest Houston to achieve greater educational outcomes.

Neighborhood Centers’ Head Start also offers in-house special needs speech and mental-wellness services, and is the only Head Start program in Texas that collaborates with Teach For America. We also offer opportunities for parents to participate in meaningful educational programs including English as Second Language classes, job training and parenting skills classes that help strengthen families.

This child care contract marks the fourth workforce contract for Neighborhood Centers’ Public Sector Solutions Division and is in addition to the contracts we already operate for workforce development boards in the Gulf Coast region (13 counties in the Houston area), Coast Bend region (12 counties in the Corpus Christi area) and Deep East Texas region (12 counties in the Lufkin/Livingston/Jasper area).

Highlights from the grant include:

• Serving an additional 2,500 children in subsidized child care
• Support to the child care providers with quality improvement initiatives