Mobility Mentoring: A Pathway to Success for Students and Families
May 21, 2019
For many, the path of upward mobility contains many steps, and there isn’t a clear road map on how to get there. Everyone’s needs are different, so the directions they must take are different too. Sound to Harbor Early Learning Programs are helping families travel those steps, assisting them with Mobility Mentoring, a program that will help them get to where they want to be.
By Holly Reed
Created by Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), the Mobility Mentoring program is designed to help families overcome the obstacles that prevent them from setting and achieving long-term goals. The Department of Family and Youth Services introduced the Mobility Mentoring to early childhood education districts across the state. For the past year, Linda Allen, family services parent educator, and Caitlyn Ishikawa, family community coordinator, have been implementing the program across Sound to Harbor’s service area, training family advocates to be mobility mentors, as well as collecting data, which helps them see the program as a whole.
Sound to Harbor’s Head Start and ECEAP programs, which are both preschool programs funded on the federal and state level respectively, take a holistic approach to early education. They involve families in the educational process and help the whole family to grow. “Yes, we’re a preschool program, but we are also there for the family,” says Caitlyn. “We are working to make sure the entire family succeeds and does well.”