Early Care and Education (ECE)
What’s Happening: ELV
HOP Grant
Early Learning Ventures (ELV) was recently awarded a continuation grant from the Colorado Health Foundation for our Healthy Options for Preschoolers (HOP) program, allowing ELV to sustain this program for another two years. HOP promotes healthy snack options for children and families, both in the home and while at child care. These toddlers are introduced to new food items from their parents and their child care provider that contain more whole foodswith less sugar and artificial ingredients. Parents and providers receive resources, such as recipes, grocery store gift cards, and healthy snack tips to help them maintain serving healthier snacks.
HOP’s primary focus is on educating families about Rainbow Snacks, which are healthy snack options that combine two or more whole grain foods, fruits, vegetables, dairy, or lean proteins. These healthy and tasty snack combinations encourage parents and child care providers to serve a variety of healthy choices for their children to choose from.
Colorado Gives Day
Early Learning Ventures is participating in this year’s Colorado Gives Day on December 5th. Show your support for Colorado’s youngest learners by contributing to ELV. All donations will support ELV’s mission of providing high quality care and comprehensive services to children and families.
ELV works hand-in-hand with both child care providers and families to bring enhanced resources directly to early learning programs to ensure all children reach their full potential. Through an Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grant, ELV provides child development services to high-need children in four Colorado counties—Arapahoe, Garfield, Mesa, and Pueblo—where the gap between need and availability of high-quality services is substantial. As a part of EHS-CCP, ELV serves 30 child care providers and 240 children within these four counties.
Through coordinated services, a sustainable business practice, and the implementation of high quality standards, ELV is able to support both children and families in a holistic and timely manner. Additionally, ELV’s efforts to ensure school readiness include increasing teacher qualifications, curriculum implementation, and nurturing proper development through health and wellness screenings.
