Promoting Children's Early Development

Program Highlights

El Valor is nominated by Illinois State Governor Pat Quinn as a National Center for Excellence
El Valor is the second largest provider of early childhood education programs in Chicago after the Chicago Public Schools
El Valor’s vice president for Children & Youth Programs, Clara Lopez, serves as an advisor for the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
El Valor constructed and now operates three state-of-the-art Children and Family Centers. Each one works with a thousand families annually
El Valor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Guanajuato, Mexico to be a trainer-of-trainers in Early Childhood curriculum
El Valor's Connecting Research to Practice is connecting the latest research and making it meaningful to professionals and families

El Valor’s Children’s Programs support families through seamless, comprehensive programming that fosters creative and innovative child development services, parental involvement, multiculturalism, and respect. Children’s development, including children with special needs, are strengthened through relationship building, community partnerships, professional leadership, strong management systems, and family advocacy. El Valor works with more than 4,000 children under the age of five, 20% who are diagnosed with a developmental or physical disability.

EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS

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PREVENTION/PRENATAL CARE helps parents understand child-parent relationships when a child in in-utero and how it translates over to when after the child is born. (Read more)
EARLY HEAD START programs enrich and provide meaningful educational opportunities for children ages birth to three. (Read more)
HEAD START is a comprehensive child development program working with children ages 3 to 5. Children that complete the program have the skills necessary to succeed in school.
EARLY INTERVENTION works to strengthen families that have a child less than three years of age with a developmental or physical disability. Parents are encouraged to become their child's primary teacher and therapist. (Read more)
TRAINING AND SUPPORT FOR HOME CARE PROVIDERS provides bilingual training and support to day care home providers to prepare them for licensing in Cook County. These programs are provided through a partnership with the City of Chicago Family Support Services Department (Read more)
PRIVATE PROVIDER INITIATIVE helps other organizations with early childhood programs develop and maintain best practices and build professional capacity to have the highest quality programs for children birth to five. (Read more)
PREPARANDONOS PARA EL FUTURO CONFERENCE is an annual conference that offers best practices and capacity building seminars/workshops for child home care providers (Read more)
FAMILY INVOLVEMENT PROGRAMS offers parents a variety of enrichment opportunities including English Language courses, Computer Literacy courses, Parenting seminars, and family support groups. In addition, El Valor’s Fathers’ Initiative provides fathers and children unique bonding opportunities

“…I was amazed at (El Valor’s children’s) kindness, curiosity, their caring and their independence. Far more than other preschool children with whom I have worked for the past 25 years, these children seem to construct understanding of relationships they have formed with their teachers, with their peers, and the playful explorations that are encouraged in every classroom.”