First Five Years & Beyond

Mission: First Five Years & Beyond (FFYB) provides parents with the skills, tools, and resources needed to support their children. Our focus is early learning, Youth Development, and Family Engagement with the understanding that parents who have a social connection, knowledge of child development, and connection to resources, thrive and are in a better position to support their children's early brain development and beyond.

FFYB became an operation supports partner of Rainier Valley Corps (RVC) in the spring of 2019. As a partner, we receive a variety of capacity-building support including fiscal management, Human Resources, Board Development, and organizational assessment.

Programs:

What is Kaleidoscope Play & Learn? Kaleidoscope Play and Learn is an organized playgroup for young children and the people who take care of them their grandparents, aunts, uncles, other family members, and family friends. Each group has a facilitator that plans and sets up activities for the children and their caregivers to play together. Facilitators help caregivers learn more about child development, how children learn through play and what caregivers can do at home to help the children in their care grow and learn.

FFYBs Developmental Screening Program uses the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) to engage families in a meaningful and culturally respectful way in their childs development around the South King County area. (Pictures)

Ages & Stages Developmental Screening Program: This program uses the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3), a simple to track and monitor the communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem-solving, and social-personal skills of children birth to age 5.

Why This Matters?

Developmental screening is an effective and efficient way to help parents identify their childs milestone and celebrate those milestones and supports school readiness.

Every family looks forward to seeing a childs first smile, first step, and first words. Regular screenings with the support of early childhood providers help raise awareness of a childs development, making it easier to expect and celebrate developmental milestones.

• Promote universal screening. All children need support in the early years to make sure they stay healthy and happy. Developmental and behavioral screenings assure that children are making developmental progress, in areas such as language, social, or motor development.

• Identify possible delays and concerns early. Screenings can help kids succeed in and beyond their school years. With regular screenings, families, teachers, and other professionals can assure that young children get the services and support they need, as early as possible to help them thrive alongside their peers.

• Enhance developmental supports. Families are childrens first and most important teachers. Combining the love and knowledge families have of their children with tools, guidance, and tips recommended by experts can help optimize the developmental support children receive.

Parent Leadership: Parent leaders can be a key support for other parents in sharing their knowledge, expertise, and experience as these parents navigate the systems themselves. Our parent leadership board brings African and African- American parents together to build collective power and strengthen partnerships and community between African parents, African American parents, and their school community. Parents meet to identify community needs, discuss issues affecting the children in their community and identify opportunities to narrow the opportunity and school readiness gaps in their community. (Pictures) attached.

Youth Development: We create an environment where the youth in our community's voices can be heard on issues that matters the most to them. Creating an environment for discussions around the cultural disconnect that so evidently exist between the immigrant youth and their parents as both parties learn to thrive and adapt to their new culture. Our Brothers and Sisters program uses an experiential youth-based learning strategy to prepare youth who support their families in caring for their younger siblings as they create a safe and nurturing environment for their young siblings. Our expanded Learning Program support immigrant children and youth in creating a safe space for them and their families to learn Social Emotional skills, Soft skills and cultural education.