Jenn Snyder - Equip 8 preschool classrooms

One of the programs that operates at our Robert Mayer Child Development Preschool at Golden West College is the Twilight Education Project.  This program gives low-income English Language Learners free preschool instruction for young children, academic support for school age kids, and ESL and job skills training for moms and dads.  This program is the Club's premier "Family Strengthening" program and won Boys & Girls Clubs of America's 2011 Family Strengthening Award.  The program started in 2003 and over the years, it has received many honors at the local, state and national levels.  More important to the Club than any award that we might receive is the success of the families we serve. 

The Alvarez family has been participating in the Twilight Education Project almost from its very start.  In 2004, a staff member at the Huntington Beach City School District referred the Alvarez family to the Boys & Girls Club's Twilight program and to Speech and Language Therapy because their three year old child Melissa had a speech delay.  Coupled with her therapy, the Twilight preschool program forced her to use language skills to communicate with her peers and she started to have great results.  The speech and language therapy program usually takes a couple of years, however, Melissa only needed one year and was able to enter directly into regular education in Kindergarten, without having to do special day classes.  Her mother and her speech therapist thought the Twilight program had a lot to do with this success.  Melissa and her younger sister Marian have both been in the program since 2004 and have attended regularly over all these years.  They are doing excellent work in school.  Melissa is now in 5^th grade and gets A’s on her report card.  Marian is now in 4^th grade and is having great success in her school’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program.   Their mother, Marqueza Alvarez, believes that the help that her children have received at the Twilight Education Project is what has enabled them to be so successful in school.  Mrs. Alvarez is one of the biggest parent promoters of the program and helps us spread the word within the local community. 

The preschool classrooms that this project helps support are now giving the next generation of young children the opportunity to succeed like Melissa and Marian.  Thank you!