What We Do

Schools by themselves should not be expected to solve New Orleans' most serious health and social problems, but they can be transformed by bringing multiple agencies together onsite to serve children, their families, and neighbors in these ways - above and beyond education.

ECFLF believes all our children, and their families, deserve this innovative kind of support.

So that's what we're creating, starting with our pilot project, Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood & Family Learning Center, in the Central City community of New Orleans, Louisiana.  
 

ECFLF's Goals:

• to build the Early Childhood & Family Learning Center at Mahalia Jackson School (Completed!)
  

• to develop and implement our model for high quality comprehensive care, education, and safety, for infants, children, youth, and families 

• to advocate for the development of healthy, safe, productive neighborhoods that support children and their families
  

• to collaborate with schools, families, providers, and community organizations to implement the CDC's Coordinated School Health model in New Orleans area schools
  

• to partner with with area child care centers to assure all area children enter kindergarten ready to learn 

• to develop and utilize a comprehensive evaluation plan for ECFLF activities 
  

• to replicate and disseminate the model in similar communities throughout New Orleans (and beyond)
  

                                                 

Main Focus and Impacts:  

Through its Center-based, "one-stop-shop" approach, ECFLF and partners join together to implement proven early childhood and school health initiatives for a community’s children, while simultaneously supporting and strengthening families by providing needed services (or access to those services) necessary for family stability and success: 

 ECFLF and our partners will facilitate access to quality services for all Central City children from prenatal - five years of age by:

 creating new models of early childhood services throughout New Orleans, beginning with Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood & Family Learning Center in Central City

 helping to enhance existing programs, through Child Care and Family Outreach,    by offering professional development and training for professionals working in the early childhood arena in New Orleans. 

providing, in collaboration with partners, modeling, technical assistance, resource assistance, and implementation of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Coordinated School Health model, to K-12 schools, (beginning with four schools in Central City). 

serving, in collaboration with others, as a policy change agent to accomplish meaningful change in the funding, resource, and service realms of early childhood education/care services and coordinated school health programs, within Louisiana and nationally. 

 

 

 

 

Our Promise: No One is Turned Away.

If there is a service we do not offer to an eligible member, we find out who does, and we help them access that assistance.

Replication:

We're not stopping at Mahalia Jackson Center; we will replicate the model throughout New Orleans, with the goal to transform our education system, so that it serves the whole child, the whole family, the whole community.

Coordinated School Health:

In addition to the Early Childhood & Family Learning programs we're operating out of Mahalia Jackson Center,  ECFLF is implementing a Coordinated School Health plan, starting with supplementing basic school health care and tracking students at four schools in Central City. Schools make perfect "health hubs" for communities, and we plan to take this model city-wide. 

Here's a diagram to help explain the Coordinated School Health Model in Central City: 

 

 

 

Child Care & Family Outreach:

ECFLF conducts outreach to child cares in Central City, providing technical assistance and professional development to enhance (a) program performance (b) academic success for preschool age children, and (c) children’s readiness for school.

The main objective of this initiative is to ensure that children’s reading levels at the exit of kindergarten are at grade level expectations / at their optimal ability levels.

ECFLF’s Outreach Program also aims to ensure the academic and social needs of children are met through seamless delivery of services at the Mahalia Jackson Center and as they transition to school, collaborating with all relevant service providers to ensure there are no gaps in services.

To learn more about the Central City community, our members, advisors, service and funding partners, and staff, please click to the Who We Are page.