community partner highlight
New Partners, Same Mission By: Anna-Bryce Hobson During the January General Membership Meeting, the members of the Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) approved three new community partners to partner with in the 2021-2022 League year. Those new partners included Alexander Youth Network, Charlotte Bilingual Preschool and Heart Math Tutoring. They each share a connection with the JLC’s Community Focus Area for 2018-2023, School Readiness for children from birth to fifth grade in Mecklenburg County’s priority zip codes. These partnerships will allow JLC members to further the JLC’s mission in meaningful ways. Here is a little more about each new community partner’s mission and the ways the JLC plans to partner with them this year.
Alexander Youth Network
Charlotte Bilingual Preschool
Alexander Youth Network, which has been a previous JLC partner, is an organization committed to providing quality professional treatment to “children with serious emotional and behavior problems.” It offers a network of 13 different mental health programs and services for youth in the Charlotte area. It has served more than 10,000 children and families since it was founded in 1946. Alexander Youth Network provides programming, in-home services and outpatient care to children in need of stable relationships, consistent mentoring and day-to-day treatment.
The Charlotte Bilingual Preschool was launched in 1999 in response to the need for preschool options for Spanishspeaking children from “economically marginalized families.” It is housed within the Hickory Grove Elementary School Annex and has approximately 150 children in its program. The Preschool targets a very prevalent issue within the Charlotte community. Nearly a quarter of Charlotte’s school aged children are Latinx and many of them struggle with gaining access to early education programs. Since research shows that children without a preschool education enter Kindergarten 12-14 months developmentally behind their peers, Latinx children are disproportionately impacted. This setback at such a young age has been tied to long-term barriers on economic mobility. The Charlotte Bilingual School is an organization that increases access to early education programs for Latinx children, improves their family engagement in these programs and trains more Latinx educators. Ultimately, it prepares Spanish-speaking children for success in school by providing a superior dual-language, multicultural early childhood education.
The organization offers a plethora of programs ranging from psychiatric residential treatment and therapeutic foster care to programming that helps with grief and loss, attention problems, anger issues, bullying problems and self-esteem. Alexander Youth Network also offers trauma assessments, psychological evaluations and rapid response crisis homes. This year, JLC members will have the opportunity to assist in planning and hosting special events as a committee. These events could take the form of planned celebrations or recreational activities like arts and crafts, yoga or gardening events. JLC members will also have the opportunity to have one-on-one sessions with children, be it in the form of weekly lunch or dinner outings, tutoring or classroom buddy arrangements.
This year, JLC members will serve this organization by supporting programs like supply drives and delivering materials to the Preschool’s families. They will also provide virtual homework assistance and in-person classroom assistance with reading books, facilitating activities and preparing materials.
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