Because of the grant from the Community Foundation, we can continue to make continuous improvement plans to keep up to date with the latest information to benefit our children and parents, helping us serve two generations at one time.”

Mom’s House, Inc. of Johnstown Recognized Among Top in the Nation Through NAEYC Accreditation

Mom’s House, Inc. of Johnstown Childcare Center has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)—the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children.

The organization was awarded a total of $80,000 in grant awards from CFA’s Early Childhood Education Fund in 2020 and 2021 to be used for hiring and retaining teaching staff, supporting teachers’ professional development, and making other quality improvements. The fund focuses on giving more children access to high-quality early childhood education, helping more of them become readers by the end of 3rd grade, and multiplying their chances of success for their entire lives.

Mom’s House Executive Director Allegra P. Slick announced in February that the Johnstown childcare center, which serves children of single parents, had achieved NAEYC accreditation. NAEYC Accreditation is a rigorous and transformative quality-improvement system that uses a set of 10 research-based standards to collaborate with early education programs to recognize and drive quality-improvement in high-quality early learning environments. Less than 10 percent of all childcare centers, preschools, and kindergartens nationally achieve this recognition.

“We’re proud to have earned the mark of quality from NAEYC, with perfect and near perfect scores, and to be recognized for our commitment to reaching the highest professional standards,” Slick said. “We are able to provide a quality and nationally accredited childcare and preschool program to single parents and their children at no cost to the parent.”

To earn NAEYC Accreditation, Mom’s House went through an extensive self-study and quality-improvement process, followed by an on-site visit by NAEYC Assessors to verify and ensure that the program met each of the 10 program standards and hundreds of corresponding individual criteria.

“NAEYC-accredited programs have committed to a process that takes time, energy and dedication to complete,” Alissa Mwenelupembe, Senior Director Early Learning Program Accreditation, said. “Mom’s House, Inc. of Johnstown has demonstrated their commitment to young children and their families.”

Slick said the Early Childhood Education Fund grant provided support that helped the organization reach this milestone in providing quality care to local children.

“Not only were we able to hire a certified Early Childhood Education teacher, we were also able to pay for our staff to further their education,” she said. “The increase of qualified staff allows us to increase our enrollment and serve more students. This grant also paid for new Pennsylvania Department of Education approved pre-school and early childhood education curriculum, as well as training for our staff on how to effectively use the curriculum.

“Within the center, the grant allowed us to update lighting in the classroom and purchase new technology for both children and staff. Additionally, the funds help us provide healthy meals and snack to students, as we know children learn better on a full stomach. Because of the grant from the Community Foundation, we can continue to make continuous improvement plans to keep up to date with the latest information to benefit our children and parents, helping us serve two generations at one time.”