March News From the Open Media Foundation

Family Star's mission is "transformation through Montessori education that empowers children and parents to think for themselves, to do for themselves, and to create better lives". We were founded in 1988 by a passionate group of inner-city Denver parents and educators determined to stop the decline of their community and provide their young children with a healthy future. They closed down a crack house across the street from the local Montessori elementary school. This building, reclaimed and renovated, became Denver's premier Montessori early childhood education center. The success of Family Star's pilot program led to a partnership with Early Head Start and the opening of a second location in northwest Denver in 1997. The original issues that precipitated the founding of Family Star remain significant today. Our primary organizational goal is to empower children and their families to achieve a lifetime of learning. With this goal, we promote the age-appropriate development of children and support families as they acquire the skills to become involved parents and active participants in their children's education and in their community.

What are the issues that you are trying to bring to a larger audience?
The academic achievement gap for students living in poverty is well-known, but the stark statistics bear repeating. Low-income children consistently fall behind their peers in test scores, graduation rates, college enrollment, and other measures of academic success. Our programs close the education gap and prepare students to enter school ready to learn. In 2010, Family Star will offer a full-day, year-round education program to 180 children at a time, ages two months to six years old-reaching approximately 250 children each year. The majority of the families we serve are living in poverty -- 82% of our families live at 200% of the federal poverty level or below.

Why is your organization/school unique?
We believe that our authentic Montessori program is key to our success in educating low-income children. Montessori is a child-centered curriculum that acknowledges and supports the individual needs of each child. The environment contains specially designed, self-directed manipulative materials that invite children to engage in learning activities of their own choice. Under the guidance of a trained teacher, children in our classrooms learn by making discoveries with the materials, cultivating concentration, motivation, self-discipline, and a love of learning. Family Star is one of the only early childhood centers in the Denver area that make an authentic Montessori program available to low-income children. Family Star helps mitigate the impact of poverty and turns families toward success, enhancing their abilities to succeed in school, at home, and in their futures. We also offer support to our families via our Healthy Families program, our pregnancy and prenatal program, and our network of community resources - family support and health and disabilities services that are integral to our Early Head Start program.

What are some of your primary goals for 2010?
Our primary goal for 2010 is to expand our early childhood services to meet the needs of more families. We are also researching the feasibility of renovation on our building at 2246 Federal to make 17,000 additional square feet usable for providing quality early childhood services. Additionally, we plan to study Family Star practices and outcomes in order to identify and strengthen "what works" for our program, and to learn how we can contribute to the dialogue surrounding early childhood development.

What are some of the projects you have worked on with the Open Media Foundation?

The Open Media Foundation has provided video services for Family Star's "Lunch with the Stars" event for the past four years. This video is an integral part of our annual fundraiser, and allows us to showcase the unique nature of our school, our families, and the children we serve. Each year, we partner with staff from the Open Media Foundation to film, edit, and produce a high quality video that truly allows us to convey the unique paring of our Early Head Start and Montessori programs.

What have been some of the outcomes of these projects?
Since partnering with the Open Media Foundation, we have received constant feedback on the high quality and content of our annual video. The finished videos are also uploaded online, allowing anyone to watch and learn what our program is like, how we function, and what we're about. The Open Media Foundation has allowed us to broaden the amount of people who have access to information about our organization, and helps us give a real glimpse into the positive changes in the lives of our families.

Click here to view the 2009 Family Star video produced by the Open Media Foundation.