This was an exciting year in our Early Childhood Programs! In September our Early Education and Care Center expanded to serve infants and their families. The generosity of MVYouth has allowed us to increase the number of working families we serve each year. In 2023 MV Community Services supported families who work in education, health care, human services, hospitality, retail, agriculture, construction, transportation, shipping and town government. Access to high quality early childhood programming plays a foundational role in our economy and the health and well-being of our community! In December our Early Education and Care Center was re-accredited through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). NAEYC Accreditation is a rigorous, multi-step process that involves extensive self-reflection and quality improvement to meet the program standards. Our program demonstrated excellence in areas such as Curriculum, Teaching, Health, Community Relationships, Physical Environment, and Leadership and Management. The accreditation is a testament to the dedication of our incredible team of educators! We continued our efforts to build a workforce of early childhood educators in our community. Our Program Director served as a mentor for ACE MV’s Early Childhood Education Cohort, supporting students enrolled in coursework through Cape Cod Community College. This fall we partnered with ACE MV to launch a new Cohort for students enrolled in early childhood coursework in Brazilian Portuguese through Urban College of Boston. We launched our Early Head Start program in 2023, expanding our home-based services to support families with children between 0-3. This program recognizes parents as their child’s first and most important teacher and capitalizes on the learning opportunities in the home and community-based settings. Our Family Center continued to offer evidenced-based parent education workshops and series designed to meet the unique needs of our community. We partnered with the Dukes County House of Correction to offer Nurturing Fathers and the Peer Recovery Support Center to offer Nurturing Families in Recovery.