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Denise Louie Education Center 

Description

Half of Washington’s children enter kindergarten unprepared. Children who do not have access to high quality early learning experiences are 25% more likely to drop out of school, 40% more likely to become a teen parent; 50% more likely to be placed in special education; and 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime.   Our children deserve better -- and we can’t afford not to solve this problem. 

Most of the families DLEC serves are low-income immigrants and refugees, and over 80% speak a language other than English at home. Our multilingual Family Service Specialists and Home Visitors can help families locate a doctor for their child, enroll them in English classes, or secure emergency housing or food if they find themselves homeless or hungry.  We offer monthly parent meetings and groups to help parents develop skills and knowledge about subjects like nutrition, safety, personal finances, and health care – all tools they will need to help their children be successful. 

Mission Statement
DLEC provides high quality multicultural early learning and family support services so that Seattle kids will be ready to succeed in school and life. 

We will respect and preserve each child and family's individuality, cultural heritage and home language. We will promote personal and social responsibility with integrity and love in an environment defined by social justice and peace.
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Denise Louie Education Center
606 Maynard Ave S #101 
Seattle 
WA
98104 
(206) 973-1810 

Janice Deguchi 
Executive Director 

Programs

Denise Louie Education Center Programs

Support and Skills for New Parents
Our programs recognize that parents are every child’s first and most important teachers, so working with families right from the start is critical to our success. Once a week, Home Visitors come into a family’s home to listen, encourage and teach healthy childcare skills.  New parents who develop a relationship with their home visitors feel more capable and are more able to access other services they need, so they don’t feel so isolated or overwhelmed.  In fact, research shows that high quality, voluntary Home Visiting is a proven pathway to having fewer children in social welfare, mental health, and juvenile corrections systems.  

A Great Early Education for Kids
Kids who go through the DLEC program get a high quality, developmentally appropriate early education. From birth to age three, home visitors meet weekly with parents to share simple learning games and activities that parents can teach at home. Our three and four year-olds attend a fully-licensed Head Start pre-school. Multilingual teachers reinforce the languages kids speak at home as well as help them master English. The high-quality curriculum includes literacy, math, and social-emotional skills so that all DLEC five-year olds can enter kindergarten prepared and ready to learn and grow. 

A Supportive Community for Us All
Our programs offer opportunities for parents to come together and build supportive friendships with each other, while at the same time developing leadership and advocacy skills that will serve their families for years to come. For instance, the Play & Learn program provides a chance for parents and caregivers of young children to meet and share the joys and challenges of parenting together. New Parent Support groups in various languages give parents an opportunity to ask questions and receive support among their peers while exercising or participating in other activities together. At monthly Policy Council meetings, parents develop leadership skills so they can advocate on behalf their child and their education. 

DLEC relies on $500,000 in non-government grants, individual giving and fundraising events to meet additional needs and innovate our programs. Why should you support Denise Louie?  

First, because it is an investment that will pay off many times over in the long run. For every $1 invested in pre-kindergarten, there is a return of investment ranging from $7-$16. Head Start has been shown to increase high school graduation and college attendance by 20%. Simply put, paying for early learning now means we won’t be paying nearly so much down the road for “safety net” and correctional services. 

But there is a bigger reason, and that is quite simply because these kids deserve a fair shot at a decent education. Because poor children deserve to grow up in the same high-quality learning environments you would choose for your own children. Children from low-income families arguably have the greatest need for enriched early learning environments to help them succeed in school and in life, but that is out of reach for most families. Our programs help close the “preparation gap” so that kids can enter kindergarten ready to be successful.  Please invest in their future!




Recent Successes and Current Challenges

Raising a Reader (RaR) is a early literacy "read aloud" effort among teachers, parents and librarians targeting low-income families where parents are poor readers and/or non-English speakers. Each week, bright red bags filled with books are given to DLEC families. At the end of the program, children exchange their red bag for a blue one to use when going to the library.

After just one year of RaR in three DLEC classrooms:
  • The number of times families read together and the length of the reading session doubled. This increase is critical for our families since we know children in families receiving public assistance hear on average 3 million words annually, compared to 11 million words per year for children in professional families, and exposure to language at an early age is a predictor of success in school. 
  • Sixty-one percent of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children, but after RaR, DLEC families visited the library more frequently together and learned a love for reading.
  • Children in classrooms that implemented Raising a Reader were assessed as Kindergarten Ready at a rate higher than those in non-Raising a Reader classrooms.  
Continuing and maintaining the RaR program in our classrooms will cost approximately $10,000.

Evaluation


Denise Louie Education Center (DLEC)—located on Beacon Hill, in the International District and at Lake Washington Apartments (Rainier Beach)—is key provider of culturally relevant early childhood education to at-risk, low-income families.

Use of Best Practices
DLEC’s preschool teachers track outcomes and indicators through Teaching Strategies Gold, the same tracking system used by WaKIDS in the state’s kindergarten readiness assessment process. At a local level DLEC has aligned its kindergarten readiness standards with Seattle Public Schools as part of the Seattle Early Education Collaborative.

In addition to on-site early learning programs, DLEC assigns a Family Service Specialist to each child’s family. These staff members contact families weekly to provide support and guidance with such challenges as improving English language skills, finding employment or housing, and accessing health care.  Families of young (birth to 3) students enrolled in Early Head Start receive weekly home visits and two group socializations per month with a bilingual Home Visitor.

Accessibility and Cultural Competency
DLEC specializes in serving diverse families. Children are approximately 50% Asian, 30% Latino and 10% African/African American, and Staff at DLEC reflects the language and cultural backgrounds of the families they serve. All parent meetings are conducted in Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Somali, and English so parents can discuss topics in their first language. DLEC offers parents the opportunity to develop leadership skills through the parent-elected Policy Council (PC). PC members learn how to run meetings, discuss budget policy, and address human resources issues in partnership with Center staff. This group has final decision making authority over hiring and firing decisions, budget, goals, human resources policies, and program policies.

Sustainability
The majority of DLEC’s budget going directly to services is tied to government grants or contracts and often doesn’t cover the full cost of DLEC’s expenses.  While DLEC has strong and consistent management and leadership at the senior-staff and board level, direct-service staff turnover is relatively high. DLEC is in the midst of a three-to-five year partnership with Social Venture Partners to develop longer-term capacity-building strategies in fundraising and human resources.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
6/10/2012 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/10/2011 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
3/10/2010 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.
3/18/2004 $50,000.00support the renovation of the Beacon Hill Head Start facility.

Financials

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