Charlotte Bilingual Learning Center

The preschool provides culturally relevant, comprehensive Family Programs that offer family members resources and support to help them lead healthy families, engage effectively in their childrens early development, and prepare their children for success in elementary school and beyond. Weekly Family Cafs are a central component of CltBPs Family Programs, through which a trained Family Educator presents information and facilitates discussion about topics chosen by families. In the 2023-24 school year, topics included supporting childrens social-emotional development, promoting literacy development, parent mental health and well-being, and community resources. Discussions typically share evidence-based best practices, while also providing opportunities for families to share their experiences, strengths, and challenges related to the topic. Family Cafs aim to promote positive educational involvement at home and at school, while also helping family members develop relationships with one another and learn from one anothers experiences and expertise. In turn, these relationships can promote greater social support and social capital and enhance participants capacity to promote the best possible outcomes for their children and families. Related to these goals, the Family Programs also organized several events that aimed to build community and connect families to community resources. These events included holiday celebrations, a kindergarten fair, computer, and financial literacy workshops. In the 2023-24 school year, CltBPs Family Programs partnered with leaders from the family community to open CltBPs Clothing Closet, which provides free clothing, materials, and supplies for families with infants and toddlers. Taken together, these programs illustrate CltBPs commitment to meeting the diverse needs of CltBP children and families and creating opportunities to foster social support, social capital, and mutual learning among families. Importantly, these benefits position families to effectively support their childrens development. CltBP also offered services for 33 families with children from birth to age 1.5 through three iterations of the 10-week Creciendo Juntos (Growing Together) program. Through Creciendo Juntos, CltBPs Family Educator facilitated weekly group meetings (via Zoom; 10 meetings total) with groups of 10 to 14 parents to discuss evidence-based strategies for nurturing infants and newborns. In addition to programing focused on supporting children and families, CltBP implemented workforce development programing, which aimed to build on the strengths of CltBP families to develop an early childhood education workforce to provide high quality, culturally and linguistically responsive early care and education for Spanish-speaking children and families. CltBPs workforce development programs help immigrant and Spanish-speaking adults (primarily from the CltBP family community) earn the certifications required to be preschool teachers. Leveraging partnerships with Central Piedmont Community College, participants complete courses provided Spanish that help them progress toward a Preschool Teacher Certificate. Simultaneously, participants engage in English as a Second Language classes, which allows them to pursue additional educational pathways, such as an associates degree, bachelors degree, or a graduate Birth-Kindergarten Certificate. While completing coursework, twelve participants engaged in CltBPs apprenticeship program, which helps them develop practical teaching skills in a dual language, culturally responsive setting. Apprentices provide support in CltBP classrooms at least two days per week, receive 4 mentorship from lead teachers in their classroom, and participate in weekly trainings offered by CltBPs coach. Additionally, apprentices work 20 hours as Early Learning Specialists in ParentChild+. Upon completion of program requirements, apprentices receive a Preschool Teacher Apprenticeship Certificate from the US Department of Labor. Several CltBP teachers and early learning specialists completed coursework as part of the workforce development program, and 9 completed CltBPs apprenticeship program in the 2023-24 school year. Furthermore, most classrooms in the 2023-24 school year included a teacher apprentice, which provided support in the role of a third teacher in the classroom.