The Salvation Army Partners with Chicago Public Schools to Provide Quality Childcare
Cindy La is the Director of The Salvation Army’s Early Head Start Program. She has more than 10 years of experience in early childhood development. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in education and a Master’s Degree in child development with a specialization in infancy.
Excelling in school can be a challenge for any young person. There are distractions, in school and at home, that can take attention away from studying and achieving good grades. Those distractions are multiplied when the young woman has a child to care for.
To help alleviate some of the pressures, The Salvation Army partnered with The Simpson Academy for Young Women – Chicago Public School’s only public school for pregnant girls and mothers in grades 6 – 12 throughout Chicago to provide these young mothers with quality early head start programming for their infants so they can focus on completing their education. In addition to serving the students while pregnant, the school provides education and supportive services after they become mothers. The childcare provides an environment that is conducive to developmentally appropriate experiences. The child’s progress is tracked and shared with the mother.
The Salvation Army’s Early Head Start program meets the unique needs of these teen mothers by providing not only low-cost quality childcare, but also offering a variety of social services such as food, furniture, housing, counseling, and clothing if needed. They also have the opportunity to visit The Salvation Army’s Temple Corps Community Center in the neighborhood for classes and additional support. During the holidays, each mother is given a Thanksgiving dinner box with turkey, stuffing and other trimmings, and the family is adopted as part of the Angel Tree program so she and her children have gifts for Christmas.
Families enrolled in the Simpson Early Head Start program take part in the Old Town School of Music’s Lullaby Project which provides the classrooms with live music performances. The mothers also have the opportunity to write a personalized lullaby for their children, empowering them to be strong mothers and artists.
For more information on Simpson Early Head Start or other Salvation Army Head Start programs, visit our childcare website.