Case Studies

DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative

The Promise Neighborhoods Initiative is a federal program that supports community-driven efforts to improve educational and developmental outcomes for children living in underserved neighborhoods. The vision of the program is that all children and youth growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to great schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career. In 2012, the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) received an historic five-year, $25 million implementation grant from the US Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhood Fund. As a part of this effort, DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) committed to providing families in the Kenilworth-Parkside community access to high-quality early learning opportunities in order to improve young children’s short-term and long-term outcomes. This approach promotes DCPNI’s vision that the children of Kenilworth-Parkside will have the support needed from early on to graduate from high school, obtain a college or vocational degree, and become successful in their careers and community. To further advance this work, DCPNI partnered with School Readiness Consulting to examine and enhance the early childhood education offerings available in the surrounding neighborhood, including DCPNI early childhood initiatives. SRC worked to:

• Conduct stakeholder meetings and a data review – as part of asset mapping the neighborhood – to gather information on existing services and resources available to young children and families

• Develop a quality performance rubric and formulate success metrics based on research-based and national standards of quality to assess formal early learning programs in the DCPNI network; and

• Design a progressive set of strategies to further improve the services and supports provided to young children and families across the community.