Our Community...
In Central City and wherever we go, we serve the whole community; children, parents, families, neighbors.Our inaugural project, in cooperation with the Orleans Parish School Board and other service, funding and community partners, is the creation and construction of Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood & Family Learning Center in Central City, New Orleans.
Central City is a historic community composed of many ethinicities, including African-American, Latino, Asian, Caucasian, and Native-American families. Especially since the storms of 2005, daily life can bring extra challenges here, and unfortunately, crime has become rampant.
The Early Childhood & Family Learning Foundation (ECFLF) was founded to address these challenges and end the cycle of hardships on students from such communities who are expected to achieve equally with their more affluent peers who are not faced with the stressors of life in poverty. Central City community leaders support our project as a catalyst for neighborhood redevelopment and are integral in our planning and implementation. They recognize this program for its ability to provide jobs, educate adults, provide job training, and have a significant economic and social impact on the area, all on top of its high quality environment for infants through 5-year-old children, all while supporting parents as first and life-long teachers.Foundation headquarters will permanently relocate to this building once it's complete. The early childhood school and other program facilities there are set to register new members and begin providing services in March or April 2010.We will replicate MJ Center at least five more times in similarly challenged New Orleans communities, resulting in at least six such centers across the city.Planned onsite partners and the services they'll provide at Mahalia Jackson Center include:
Please join us in recognizing all of our current Community, Funding, and Service Partners (as of January 2010), without whom none of this would be possible:
Because Wee Care Learning Academy
Booker Academy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Central City Partnership Comeback Committee
Central City Renaissance Alliance
Children’s Trust Fund City of New Orleans
C. J. Peete Development/Urban Strategies
Clear Head Learning Center
Educational Support Systems
GAP
Healthy Start
The Joseph Group
Lindy Boggs Center for Community and Family Literacy
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals
Louisiana Department of Social Services
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
Louisiana Public Health Institute
Louisiana Workforce Commission
LSU Health Sciences Center School of Nursing
Mattie’s Little Angels
McMillan’s First Step
Metropolitan Human Services District
Office of Community Development
Orleans Parish School Board & Administration
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
Southern University at New Orleans
Total Community Action (Head Start/Early Head Start)
ECFLF Board of Directors
Audrey M. Browder, Chair Reverend Irvin L. Bell, 1st Vice-Chair
Ronald P. McClain, 2nd Vice-Chair
Pearlie Elloie*, Secretary
Dan Henderson, Treasurer
Melanie Bronfin
Marsha Broussard Millie Charles*
Nancy Freeman Hon. Marlin N. Gusman Hon. Walker Hines
Jason Wynne Hughes
Mary M. Joseph
Roselyn B. Koretzky
Joy Osofsky
Reverend Hill Riddle
Ashton Ryan*
Madalyn Schenk
Judy Watts
Sharon Worthy
Dr. Pat Cooper, CEO (Ex-officio)* Co-Founder
Early Childhood & Family Learning Foundation Staff
Dr. Pat Cooper, CEOConnie Bellone, Director of Health & Wellness ProgramDr. Cynthia Honore-Collins, Director of Community ServicesMindy Hawes, Director of CommunicationsBarbara Lopez, Office ManagerSheila Matute, Director of Education and Childcare ServicesPhyllis Landrieu*, Co-Founder and Development Consultant
And finally, some of our most glamourous friends are pictured here:
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