24-Hours of Success Stories from Our Partners

This Giving Tuesday, Bright Promises Foundation wanted to do more than just ask. We wanted to give back too.

On Tuesday, November 28th, every hour for a full 24-hours Bright Promises shared success stories from our network of 20+ partner organizations. This campaign was a wonderful opportunity to see and experience the incredible variety of programs and partnerships that Bright Promises sustains, as well as the diversity of the children and families that we serve together with our partners.

From stories of children who are thriving thanks to quality early childhood education, to refugee families who are receiving the special support they need during the transition into their new home, to a single mother who has been able to build a stronger and more loving bond with her son thanks to the knowledge and skills she gained from participating in our initiatives, these are stories that help to inspire and fill us with hope.  

All of that we were able to do for children and families in Chicago this year is only possible because of the generous support of our donors and volunteers. Thank you!

Some of the highlights from our partners during 2017 include:

• Children’s Home + Aid participated in this year’s EQUIP program, which helps early childhood centers implement and sustain meaningful changes to improve the quality of services they provide to young children and their families. With support from Bright Promises, Children’s Home + Aid built an Emotion-Centered Environment, beautifying their center and creating a more natural, home-like environment for children, families, teachers, and staff.
  
  
• This year, Bright Promises partnered with Casa Central to help their teachers, parent educators and family support staff to intentionally create a culture of collaboration and reflection, leading to improved social-emotional, academic and physical health outcomes for low-income children and families on Chicago’s West Side.
  
  
• Throughout 2017, Bright Promises has partnered with Enlace Chicago to deliver a series of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) workshops to Little Village parents, with the goal of supporting SEL both at home and in the classroom. This year alone these workshops have reached more than 240 parents.
  
  
• This year Bright Promises partnered with The Montessori School of Englewood and Gardeneers to build a school garden. Beyond supplying low-income families who are living in a food desert with fresh and healthy produce, the garden is a living laboratory for students and parents to learn interdisciplinary lessons drawn from real life experience.
  
  
• This year, Bright Promises began a multi-year partnership with RefugeeOne with the goal of infusing all aspects of their youth services with Social Emotional Learning (SEL) while creating more intentional and ongoing parent programming with an SEL basis. In the first year alone 150 refugee children and 120 refugee parents have benefitted from this partnership. 
  
  
• Strong partnership with families is essential in highly-effective learning environments. This year, Bright Promises is working with VOCEL to support their effort to involve families and ensure parents’ ideas are surfaced and integrated in the early learning program so that there is a more seamless home-school connection, helping children feel safe, loved and valued.
  
  
• This year, Bright Promises partnered with Gads Hill Center to expand their home visiting programs, which help transform the home into a primary learning environment. In addition to weekly home visits, this program provides bimonthly group social gatherings where families can share experiences, bond with one another, and build support systems. By layering weekly visits, support groups and social gatherings, interventions build upon one another to maximize impact.
  
  
• Throughout 2017, Bright Promises partnered with Breakthrough to provide help to young children living in East Garfield Park who have experienced childhood trauma. This project allows youth who have experienced trauma to learn how to self-regulate and aids in improving students’ behaviors through learning how to control their impulses and delay gratification, learning specific strategies to help them process their needs both in the classroom and in life.
  
  
• The goal of Bright Promises partnership with Chinese American Service League this yearwas to make sure early learners are ready for the kindergarten transition by supporting the use of comprehensive curriculums and on-going assessment, which open doors for continuous learning for each child.
  
  
• Bright Promises is very grateful to be entering the second year of our partnership with Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation. We are working together to help parents strive to do more to help their children succeed by changing the transmission of toxic interpersonal interactions into a positive cycle.
  
  
• This year, Bright Promises partnered with Chicago Youth Centers to expand their Parenting with a Purpose program as a part of our new Social Emotional Learning initiative. This initiative helps parents promote personal and academic success in their children by intentionally teaching non-cognitive skills like healthy stress management, positive self-esteem, and conflict resolution.
  
  
• Growing poverty rates and violence have led to emotional upheaval and social insecurity in the lives of our children. This year, Bright Promises is partnering with Youth Opportunity Unlimited to provide 450 parents with holistic supports that will help them nurture their child’s positive social and emotional development in the face of these ongoing stressors.
  
  
• Bright Promises partnered with Learning Bridge Early Education Center this year to improve their Parent Engagement program, which helps parents, teachers, and school leadership create intentional, strong partnerships that help young learners gain skills they need to achieve in school and beyond.

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Gallery Enjoy more success stories on Bright Promises social media!

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