Educare COVID Updates

Early care and education

Prepare your child for success in kindergarten and beyond. 
Educare Model

Welcome

At Educare, we believe everyone deserves a fair chance to achieve their dreams, and it starts by leveling the playing field from the day we’re born. As one of the nation’s most effective early childhood network of schools, we ensure young children from underserved communities have the best possible chance for success in life. Our approach extends beyond the classroom to help children, families and communities thrive.

About Educare

The Educare Learning Network will demonstrate that research -based early childhood education prevents the persistent achievement gap for our nation’s most at -risk young children. The Network’s evidence, practice expertise and dynamic partnerships will help ensure that all children and families, especially those at greatest risk, will have access to effective early learning, and that the first five years will be an integral part of the nation’s education system.

Our comprehensive program incorporates everything science says young children need to flourish.
Educare children transition to kindergarten with the skills necessary for them to learn and thrive.

Featured

Groundbreaking of Educare Springfield

Community leaders, local and national partners gathered on September 17 to celebrate the groundbreaking of Educare Springfield, the 24th Educare school nationwide. Educare Springfield will provide low-income children with high-quality early learning during their first five years to prepare them… Read More

Press Room

Fall 2020 Update: Snapshot as of November 1, 2020

By Nikki Burnett • November 1, 2020
Educare Springfield joyously opened our doors and transitioned 141 children, their families and staff beginning January 2, 2020. A few short months later, which seem like a lifetime ago for our community, Educare closed the facility on March 13, 2020 due to the state lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the physical facility closed, our early learning community did not cease serving the children and families of Educare Springfield. We continued to provide services for our families, providing supports and referrals from the family service coordinators. Many families were faced with food insecurity, some required mental health referrals, and others needed learning supplies to assist their children's development. We instituted virtual classrooms for continued learning and enrichment with our Holyoke Chicopee Head Start partners.

Educare Springfield Executive Director Joins National, Local Boards

By BusinessWest • October 29, 2020
SPRINGFIELD — Nikki Burnett, executive director of Educare Springfield, the nation’s 24th Educare early-education center, has been appointed to a number of national Educare-related boards, including the Educare Learning Network (ELN) collaborative fundraising advisory board, which finds opportunities for greater financial sustainability of the ELN through enhanced fundraising programming. Burnett, the first executive director of Educare Springfield, has also joined the Red Nose Day advisory board, which provides guidance over the grant from Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day Fund on behalf of the ELN. Burnett has also joined the Educare Policy Work Group, which guides and supports the collective network’s engagement in early-childhood policy and advocacy, and the Educare Learning Network steering committee, which informs the direction of the annual meeting. Locally, Burnett has also joined a number of local serving boards, including the board of trustees of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, as well as the boards of Holyoke Community College Foundation and Dress for Success. B  urnett was raised in the Mason Square neighborhood, attended neighborhood public schools, and earned her undergraduate degree in leadership and organizational science from Bay Path University. She will be completing her master’s degree in leadership and negotiation from Bay Path in 2020. Read the full story at Businesswest.com
Paul Belsito

Paul Belsito Eyes ‘Impact Philanthropy’ As He Takes Helm At Davis Foundation ‑ Business West

By BusinessWest • August 4, 2020
Belsito said his first assignment is to understand what makes Springfield Springfield, and it is ongoing. From there, his job is to pull people together — something the Davis Foundation has always been good at it — and, when possible, move the needle. He’s made it a career to take on such work, and he’s more than excited about what the next chapter might bring. Read the full story at Business West

One People, One House: We all need to ‘stretch’ to bring about lasting change

By Masslive • August 2, 2020
Editor’s note: This is part of The Republican’s One People, One House community dialogue series sharing perspectives on the issues of racism and policing: We are advised to stretch before jogging or running a race to warm up our muscles and increase flexibility. Without stretching there is weakness and inability to extend all the way. Some stretches are tight and painful, and a trainer will encourage us to continue to move into the discomfort and hold there. After holding the stretch for a few seconds (which ultimately feels like an eternity), the muscles have loosened, feel limber and are ready to conquer the track ahead. We are in times where humanity is running the race FOR its life. It is incumbent upon all of us to get in the starting block and commit to the finish line. Jeremy Heimans, in his TedTalk, “What New Power Looks Like,” tells us that we need “the deployment of mass participation and peer coordination to create change and shift outcomes.” I am experiencing an exponential increase in opportunities to have discussions about race, politics and history in my personal and professional life.  Read the full story at Masslive.com
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