Juntos al Kinder/Together to Kindergarten

Juntos Al Kinder was developed to target the needs of a growing segment of the museum’s most immediate neighbors. Five school districts surrounding the museum have a higher percentage of students with limited English proficiency than the New York state average. With that audience in mind, LICM expanded its Early Childhood reach and developed an English language and cultural immersion program to serve pre-schoolers and their families through summer classes and year-round parenting workshops and Community Nights.

The goals of Juntos Al Kinder are:

• to ease the transition from home to kindergarten for pre-school children with limited English proficiency
• to help the parents of children with LEP play an active role in their child’ s education
• to make LICM a part of these families’ lifelong learning

LICM is uniquely positioned to implement this program. Its hands-on learning approach and focus on the parent/child interaction, coupled with its role as a meeting place for Long Island’s diverse communities, enables it to serve the multiple needs of this audience.

Juntos al Kinder receives generous contributions from Bank of America Foundation, Inc., Citi Foundation, The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Long Island Fund for Women and Girls, Newsday/Tribune New York Foundation, New York State Office of Children and Family Services (secured by New York State Senator Kemp Hannon, 6th District) and Rauch Foundation.