Wishing You and Your Loved Ones a Safe and Peaceful New Year
As 2023 comes to a close, we reflect with gratitude on all the program participants, supporters, community partners, volunteers, and staff who worked together to support each other and build community over the past year. Through challenges and triumphs, suffering and hope, we leaned on others for support and found moments of joy together.
The community we are connected with continues to grow, and we see new relationships being formed and longstanding relationships being strengthened every day. Coming out of the pandemic there is a renewed recognition that we need each other; that we cannot survive in isolation, and that a connected community is a strong community.
So as this year winds down, we send you our hope for a new year full of true and authentic connection; a year where you are fortified by those around you, and find moments to celebrate and join together in community. From all of us at Valley Settlement, we wish you a safe and peaceful new year.
Parent Mentor: Bridging Connection and Communication
In elementary school classrooms up and down the Roaring Fork Valley, you’ll find smiling volunteers in bright blue polo shirts participating in Valley Settlement’s Parent Mentor program. Parent Mentors support teachers and work one-on-one with students, often in their mutual first language of Spanish. Mentors strengthen communication and connection between students and teachers at a critical time in students’ development. In the words of Karen Christina Castaneda de Lopez, Parent Mentor volunteer:
Karen, above, has volunteered as a Parent Mentor for two years.
“[Parent Mentor] has been excellent, aside from giving me security and peace of mind as a mother about how the teachers work with the children, I have been close to my daughter, and that has helped her in her self-esteem. I have also been able to help the teacher in developing teaching resources and, above all, I have been able to help children, specifically those who are deficient in their reading, writing, or mathematics development. The children are very grateful and you can see a look of confidence when you are there; they ask for help without shame. They call me and say, ‘Can you help me, Miss Karen?’ I have also made friends and [received] important information about community supports. THANK YOU. ”
Contributions from our generous community help to make programs like Parent Mentor possible, and we are so grateful. If you’ve yet to make your contribution to Valley Settlement, please consider donating today to propel our work into 2024!
Lifelong Learning: Project-based Learning
Lifelong Learning Student, Fall 2023
The holidays are often a time of coming together, be it with our relatives, our friends, or our chosen family. Students in Lifelong Learning’s English classes recently presented a learning project about their family tree, bringing close loved ones near and far.
El Busesito Preschool: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
El Busesito Preschool Family Night, November 2023
El Busesito Preschool’s second family night of the school year was focused on literacy and encouraging parents and children to engage in fun and interactive ways of reading. Teachers opened the night by reading aloud the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. to the whole group. After the read-aloud, families created masks of one of the characters from the book. Once everyone was finished making their masks, the teachers did a second read-aloud where parents and children wore their creations, portraying the animals represented in the book and bringing them to life.
Learning With Love: Opportunity to Learn a Life-saving Skill
Learning With Love Participant, Fall 2023
Participants in our Learning With Love program, a home visitation and group class for parents and children ages 0 – 3, recently participated in Spanish-language CPR training with Red Cross volunteers. Participants appreciated the opportunity to learn a life-saving skill and had fun while doing it!
Did You Know?
Over the last year, our Family Support Team has distributed over $140,000 in emergency assistance funds to families during times of crisis, helping to promote financial resilience when families need it most.
Valley Settlement’s mission is to listen to Latina families, and together create opportunities for early childhood and adult education, connection, and growth, so children and families can thrive.
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