Through the West Sacramento Home Run, the City of West Sacramento will be a thriving community that benefits children, families and local businesses by providing access to high-quality early learning for all children, opportunities to develop valuable work-readiness skills, and financial assistance for postsecondary education and training.
The goal of the Quality Early Learning program of the Home Run is to ensure every child in West Sacramento has access to affordable, quality, early learning.
The Home Run has partnered with the ScholarShare Investment Board to promote CalKIDS.
West Sacramento high school graduates can attend Sacramento City College feefree and tuition-free for two years.
The Ready, Set, Save! program grants every West Sacramento resident under the age of 19 the opportunity to receive up to $1,000 for College.
New opportunities for interns and early learning providers to earn digital micro-credentials.
The Home Run was awarded the California Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in City-Business Relations in 2023!
Fifty-eight High school interns participated in our 8-week paid summer internships this year!
The Home Run has attended and hosted various events throughout the year to promote our programs.
Making West Sacramento the best place to grow up, raise a family, and find talent.
This year has been another of unprecedented growth in the Home Run participation numbers and recognition. Our Paid Internship program was recognized by California League of Cities through a Helen Putnam Award of Excellence for City/Business Relations and Community Impact, and we received a grant for $211,000 for collaboration between our Ready, Set, Save! program and the new California College Savings Account program known as CalKIDS. This grant has enabled us to broaden our outreach efforts and provided funding to our K-12 schools and early learning and care sites to hold family workshops as well.
We launched a new website in June and July of 2023 which decreased our website hosting costs by 60%, while increasing numbers of families and youth utilizing the website by 47%! The new website offers a simpler and more user-friendly interface for claiming money for activities through our Ready, Set, Save! Scholarship program and enables our high school interns to learn about and apply for internships. The website also features an eligibility tool to guide families to the programs their children can participate in. Designed by our Program Technician Dhamar, the new website is a huge improvement and asset to the Home Run!
Our Quality Early Learning program expanded to include infants and toddlers to reflect our alignment with the State of California’s Quality Counts, and to better serve our families looking for childcare for all ages. Because the majority of our sites already served infants, toddlers AND preschool aged children, this was an easy adjustment to make and more accurately reflects our deep commitment to ensuring all West Sacramento families have access to affordable and quality early learning and care.
We upped our game in the social media arena, with our two Program Technicians and our Home Run Intern all contributing their creative talents to post fun and engaging reels, informative posts, and inspiring statistics. One of our reels even went viral, with 1,535 views!
We are excited about the future as our numbers or children, youth and families served grow, and we focus on continuous program improvements. We are delighted to share the progress we have made over the past year in this annual report!
Justine Jimenez
Home Run Business Manager
10 certified sites participated in a minimum of 24 hours of Professional Development throughout the year
13 individual educators participated in a minimum of 12 hours of Professional Development
A total of 184 Inclusion Badges were awarded to providers who demonstrated that their programs fostered skills for working with children and families with diverse needs, as well as promoting anti-bias education.
One of the biggest challenges we faced this past year was getting Home Run’s professional development hours, including coaching, recognized in Yolo County’s QRIS pathways. This inclusion is crucial for West Sacramento educators, allowing them to count these hours toward statewide incentives and ensuring their training is tailored to their specific needs.
After extensive meetings and collaboration we successfully completed the CA Coaching Companion coaching cycle with our dedicated Home Run coaches, marking a major milestone! This achievement means that, starting in the 2024-25 school year, these coaching hours will officially count towards QRIS pathways and statewide incentives. This victory not only validates the quality of our professional development but also opens the door for local educators to access greater support and rewards for their hard work.
In the past year, Ready, Set, Save! saw a decline in new accounts opened, with a total of 359 compared to 621 the previous year. However, we achieved a significant increase in incentives claimed, rising to $35,071 from $23,663. This 48% growth indicates that our existing participants are becoming more engaged and gaining a deeper understanding of the program.
Our outreach efforts, strengthened by our partnership with CalKIDS, have remained robust. We promoted the program through social media, workshops, and community events. During this process, we discovered that many participants who signed up already had existing accounts, whether from recent enrollments or earlier registrations they had forgotten about.
To address this, we focused on a new goal: to activate these existing accounts and encourage greater participation. However, we are still committed to reaching new audiences, especially those who may be harder to connect with and can benefit the most from our programs. Overall, we are encouraged by the increased engagement among our existing participants, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our outreach strategies.
This year’s 529 Day winner Olivia received $1,529 in college savings, and her teacher Megan was awarded $500 for her classroom!
The West Sacramento Home Run Internship Program proudly received the League of California Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in City-Business Relations in 2023! This honor underscores the program's dedication to building connections between the city and local businesses while nurturing the next generation of talent, ultimately contributing to a vibrant community. The team had the opportunity to showcase the internship program at the League of California Cities annual conference, engaging with other cities and addressing their questions.
This year, the Home Run Internship program continued its growth, with 156 high school applicants! Fifty-eight interns were placed throughout West Sacramento and surrounding communities. These interns gained hands-on experience in a variety of locations, including MILE Preschool, Nine8 Comics and Games, Three Sisters Gardens, Hart Management, and many more. The program’s diverse placements provided valuable exposure to different industries, equipping interns with the skills and insights needed to thrive in the professional world.
Number of Participants Each Year
27 Interns
17 Interns
33 Interns
36 Interns
56 Interns
58 Interns
Meet Amarion! He worked at Nippon Shokken U.S.A Inc. this past summer and had a great time learning all about the behind-the-scenes operations of a production company.
CalKIDS is a state program designed to help children save for their future education. Every eligible public school student in California receives a college savings account to support their academic goals.
In partnership with local CSA programs, the ScholarShare Investment Board launched a grant to promote CalKIDS and these savings accounts. We were thrilled to receive a generous grant of $211,825 on May 30th, which has directly benefited children in our community by providing early financial support for their educational aspirations.
Since receiving the grant, we have: Conducted workshops to educate families about savings options
Purchased tablets to improve our program delivery
Created co-branded promotional items to raise awareness
We also worked closely with community partners to ensure our efforts reach as many families as possible. We are proud of what we have accomplished with this grant and look forward to continuing our work!
Number of students registered in 22-23 (grant money not in place)
Number of students eligible for a CalKIDS account 22-23
Number of students registered in 23-24 (grant in place)
Number of students eligible for a CalKIDS account 23-24
Since the grant began, we've boosted numbers by 30%! We’re excited to grow this further next year!
27 recipients of the West Sacramento Promise in the school year 23-24.
66.7% of recipients were first generation college students.
Research indicates that College Promise programs significantly enhance year-toyear persistence rates, leading to increased completion of postsecondary credentials, such as certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees.
Graduates of West Sacramento high schools are granted automatic admission to Sacramento City College. By enrolling full-time within six months of graduation, they become eligible for the West Sacramento Promise, which covers their fees. Additionally, tuition expenses are supported by the California College Promise or the Los Rios College Promise. In the 2023-24 academic year, 27 students took advantage of these opportunities!
This year the Home Run added a significant number of new microcredentials and badges with our expansion into badging for Quality Early Learning and new badges available for our Home Run Interns. Both categories of badges are aligned with the standards and practices for Early Learning professionals and Home Run Interns and are earned through a combination of rigorous training and experience. Due to this expansion, we saw a huge increase in numbers earned! A total of 166 digital micro-credentials were earned by Early Learning professionals, and 243 were earned by our Home Run Interns. We are excited to see how well these new micro-credential and badge opportunities have been received, and we expect even more growth in the coming year!
EVELOPMENTAHEALTH SCREENINGS
The Home Run team attended 30 events this year, collaborating closely with community partners such as WUSD schools, Community Schools, and Early Learning sites.
Throughout the year, the Home Run team built meaningful connections with local organizations, immersing ourselves in the community to maximize our positive impact. Our participation in a variety of events— like the West Sacramento Trunk or Treat, Community Schools Kickoff, Yolo County Children’s Alliance Back-toSchool Backpack Giveaway, YOLO High School Career Fair and the Juneteenth Celebration—allowed us to engage with families, students, and community leaders, all while sharing the vision and benefits of our program. Each event offered unique opportunities to spread awareness about the different programs our initiative has to offer.
During the 2023-2024 school year, we partnered with our local community schools to introduce a 4-part workshop series. Families and students were invited to explore all the programs the West Sacramento Home Run has to offer. At our River City workshop alone, we saw incredible enthusiasm, with over 60 students signing up for our program!
In September of 2024 we were notified that we received a $200,000 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture to connect our local Family Child Care and Child Care Centers with high-quality local produce and education for staff and children about gardening, nutrition and health! The grant will kick off in January of 2025, and we will also have the ability to provide funding to sites to build gardens and other infrastructure to improve their farm to early learning programs.
The Home Run Team has partnered with five local youth to champion our programs within the community. Our dynamic team includes two students from River City High School, two from Washington Middle College, and one WUSD alumnus now attending Carrington College. These committed promoters will enhance our outreach through peer-to-peer support, hosting workshops, on-campus activities, and other initiatives, helping us connect with communities that might otherwise be difficult to reach. The Home Run Promoter program will operate throughout the entire 2024-2025 school year.
Building on the success of our new digital early learning microcredentials, we’re excited to announce the upcoming launch of three additional badges: Home Run Ambassador, Child Observation, and FCC Business Practices. These microcredentials will showcase recipients' diverse skills, dedication to program growth, and in-depth knowledge of the Home Run initiative. By earning these badges, participants will demonstrate their commitment to excellence in early education and their ability to implement best practices in their work.
Helping West Sacramento families save for postsecondary education or training has been a priority for the Home Run team since we started. We have done this by offering incentives to families who open and contribute to ScholarShare 529 accounts for their children This strategy has been effective in encouraging families to open ScholarShare accounts, but less so in getting them to contribute to those accounts. In addition, families that enroll their children in Ready, Set, Save! often start out with a burst of enthusiasm, earning many incentives But then, for a variety of reasons, their activity tapers off. Other families register their children but fail to submit evidence of their activities, so their accounts sit idle. Over the next year, the Home Run team will explore strategies to encourage more savings and more participation.
In March 2025, the Home Run will host a Financial Wellness and Family Strengthening Workshop for West Sacramento residents. This workshop is designed to equip families with practical tools to strengthen their financial well-being and build stronger family dynamics. Designed to be accessible, engaging, and impactful, the workshop will offer insights into financial planning, budgeting, and family resource management, tailored to support our community's unique needs. By empowering residents with these skills, we’re helping to create a brighter and more resilient future for West Sacramento families.
E S T S A
Making West Sacramento the best place to grow up, raise a family, and find talent.