CPCD Receives $5,000 Grant

from El Paso Corporation

Contact: Becca Bishop, Communications Manager
Ph: (719) 884-1414, E-mail: bbishop@cpcd.org 

Colorado Springs, CO – April, 2011 – At-risk preschoolers in Colorado Springs will receive extra support at Community Partnership for Child Development (CPCD) due to generous donations from the Esther M. & Freeman E. Everett Charitable Trust through the Pikes Peak Community Foundation.

“Now children in our Colorado Preschool Program will receive a broader range of comprehensive health and family services in addition to the preschool education curriculum,” explained Noreen Landis-Tyson, CPCD’s President and CEO.  “Addressing every need of the child and supporting parents as the first and best teacher of their child are key to future school success.”

The Colorado Preschool Program serves three- to five-year-old children and their families. Yet this state program receives funding at a much lesser level than the federal Head Start program. Forty percent of the children in CPP live below the federal poverty line and are eligible for Head Start. The slots just are not available.

CPCD is committed to providing a smaller staff-to-student ratio; medical, dental and mental health services; and a broad spectrum of family services to help parents assume their vital role as teachers and mentors for their children. These add-on services cause a considerable budget shortfall filled by donations from foundations, corporations and local government entities.

Early childhood education works. The at-risk children and disadvantaged families in Colorado Springs grow toward school readiness and self-sufficiency as a result of CPCD operated programs like the Colorado Preschool Program supported in our community.