Center for Nonprofit Leadership
Helping nonprofit leaders do better at doing good

Meet Organizational Member: El Centrito Family Learning Centers

The Basics!

Teresa Segovia
El Centrito 
Executive Director

Tell us about yourself, and your organization’s mission.

Founded in 1992, El Centrito has worked for over two decades to fulfill its mission, “El Centrito Family Learning Centers is committed to create a multicultural community of excellence by inspiring children, youth and families of Ventura County to learn, lead and reach their greatest potential.” 

The agency has built a reputation for its high-quality, unique and culturally competent programs that build student confidence and instill a love of learning. El Centrito offers three interlinked programs that reflect El Centrito’s commitment to increase access to stimulating and explorative educational opportunities, build literacy skills, and form a pipeline of opportunities for Oxnard’s low-income and immigrant children and families.

What’s happening at the El Centrito—any recent highlights, milestones, new programs  or upcoming events?

We have a lot going on at El Centrito! We moved our Little Dolphin program (which serves two and three year olds) from the Ocean View site to our site at St. Paul’s Church, where we have one of our state preschools-School Readiness Preschool.

We are also re-launching our parent program and changing the name from Padres Promotores de la Educacion project to Padre a Padre. We feel that the new name more clearly explains what the program does which is to connect parent to other parents and encourage them to become involved in their child’s education.  

Lastly, unfortunately we had a break-in happen at one of our classrooms where we run our afterschool STEAM Academy. We are still hosting children at our site, but right now, they are not able to use the classroom due to the vandalism.

We have received wonderful support from the community, and with those donations, we will be able to open up the classroom again at the end of October. We put up a GoFundMe page since we had to throw many materials away, books and furniture. The GoFundMe page is called Rebuilding STEAM.

What about your organization is particularly special to you, what would you like our readers to know?

I think that El Centrito is unique in that our parent engagement is strong. We have programs that provide direct services to children from zero to 8th grade and throughout all of those programs, we engage the parents, because we understand that, we can only do so much if we only serve the child without including the parent. For example, in our STEAM Afterschool Academy, we have quarterly meetings where we talk to parents about the importance of STEAM education and offer take home activities.  In our preschools, we have Parent Advisory Councils where parents have the opportunity to voice their needs and concerns and in our “Padre a Padre” program all of the participants are parents.

Why did you think it was important to become an organizational member of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership?

Most of my nonprofit work had been in Santa Barbara County prior to me coming to El Centrito, so I did not really know many people or know of available resources. I knew that it was imperative that I find that right away because this work is built around relationships.

I was a new executive director and one of my board members referred me to Dena Jenson, the Center’s director. I reached out to her and she let me know about the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and suggested I check it out for resources. It was been the best decision I have made! I have connected with people through networking at the Center and have learned so much. Most recently, I completed the Board Leadership Institute with one of my board members and it truly made a difference in how the board and I work together.

What do you value most about your membership?

We were awarded an organizational membership, so we do not take any of the workshops for granted and try to attend as many as we can. We are so appreciative of the membership because I don’t have to try to find some wiggle room in my budget for professional development.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Dena is amazing! The nonprofit sector is lucky to have her in our corner.


 

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