What We Do

What We Do

Schools, while by themselves cannot - and should not - be expected to - solve New Orleans' most serious health and social problems, can be places where multiple agencies come together to serve children and their families.

Our children and their families deserve this innovative approach. So that's what we're doing, starting in the Central City community of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Early Childhood & Family Learning Foundation Goals:

to build the Early Childhood & Family Learning Center at Mahalia Jackson School

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

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

to collaborate with schools, families, providers, and community organizations to implement Coordinated School Health in New Orleans area schools

to collaborate with other child care centers to assure all of our children enter kindergarten ready to learn

to develop and utilize a comprehensive evaluation plan for ECFLF activities

to replicate and disseminate the model

Main Focus and Impacts: Through its one-stop-Center-based approach, ECFLF and partners work to accomplish the early childhood and school health initiatives for a community’s children, while supporting and strengthening families by providing needed services/access to services necessary for family stability:

ECFLF and our partners will facilitate access to quality services for all Central City children from prenatal to five years of age through outreach, by creating new models of early childhood services throughout New Orleans, beginning with Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood & Family Learning Center in Central City, New Orleans, by helping to enhance existing programs, and through Child Care and Family Outreach by offering professional development and training for working in the early childhood arena in New Orleans.

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

ECFLF, in collaboration with others, will serve 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.

At our pilot project, Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood & Family Learning Center,the following partners offer the services shown:

And 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 the person access that assistance.

And we're not stopping at Mahalia Jackson Center....we will replicate the Mahalia Jackson Center model throughout New Orleans, transforming our education system, so that it serves the whole child and whole family...whole community...whole city...

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

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.