Bright Futures

Bright Futures provides coaching, navigation, and resources to improve the quality of early childhood education in san miguel, ouray, montrose, delta, and san juan counties. Through coaching, training and navigation, childcare providers are engaged in quality improvement and elevating early childhood teacher interactions with young children. Over the past year, a total of 45 free professional development trainings were delivered. Bright Futures was appointed by the Colorado department of early childhood to be the local coordinating organization for the implementation of universal preschool (upk) within our catchment area. To date, we've assisted with onboarding 35 mixed-delivery preschool providers to accept upk and assisted families in navigating upk for their children. To date, 774 children are receiving upk as a result of our efforts. Additionally, Bright Futures increases positive outcomes for vulnerable, at-risk children and families through evidence-based practices and programs including: (1) parents as teachers (pat) providing home visits and group connections for families. 373 home visits were conducted. As a result, parents participating in pat increased their ability to teach their children both school readiness skills like letters, numbers, and shapes and social-emotional skills like problem-solving, resilience, and self-regulation. (2) parenting workshops 223 attendees participated in parenting workshops. (3) collaborative management program 22 children were served through this family and child-centered approach to supporting vulnerable families through a multi-agency team approach. (4) tuition assistance was awarded on behalf of 58 children to increase access to early childhood education for low-income families.