February 2012 E-Newsletter
Encouraging Creativity and Impact
Executive Director's Corner
Did you know that too much
screen time impairs a child’s academic performance?
According to the American
Academy of Pediatricians, children who spend too much time in front of a TV or
computer are at greater risk for obesity, irregular sleep, behavioral problems,
and poorer performance on school tests. The Mayo Clinic provides helpful tips
on how to limit screen time and make times when a child is in front of a screen
more productive in their article, “Children and TV: Limiting Your
Child’s Screen Time.”
Here at Avance-Dallas, we are teaching our
parents to limit screen time and increase parent-child engagement. And our
parents report that this knowledge is changing the way they structure their
home environments (as Mildred describes in her story below). Thanks for
standing with Avance-Dallas to
encourage the best parenting practices in our families’ homes.
Linda Hall
Interim Executive Director
Avance
Inc. Receives Prestigious 2012 Luminary Award
Doll Contests Nurture Moms’
Creativity
One of the ways Avance-Dallas
changes children’s lives is by leveraging their mothers’ creativity. Every year
the moms in our program design and craft dolls for their children, and during
the week of December 12–16, 2011, Avance-Dallas
held doll contests at all 33 of our site cohorts.
Several friends from the community, including
principals and teachers, came out to judge the dolls, and all the winners
received home and beauty products as an award. One mother who struggles with
depression was amazed when the judges awarded her first prize at her site,
boosting her confidence in herself.
Another mom, Maria (pictured above), thought her doll
did not turn out well at all. But during the Christmas break she took the doll
to a toy event at church, and everyone was amazed when she told them she made
it herself from scratch. All of the children loved the doll, and now Maria is
planning to share her learning and teach other parents and older children in
her church community how to make dolls of their own.
Through the Avance-Dallas
program, moms learn that toys do not have to be expensive to be
fun and enriching for their child. And they also gain the confidence they need to
become their child’s first teacher and to use their creativity to change their
child’s life.
United Way Features Avance-Dallas Grad on Website
“If it wasn’t for Avance
and United Way, my priorities would have been cleaning the house and baking,
and he would have been watching TV all day.” So says Mildred, an Avance-Dallas grad whose story is
featured on United Way’s website.
March of Dimes Grant Equips
Avance-Dallas Moms
March of Dimes has awarded Avance-Dallas an $8,000 grant to educate
mothers on the prenatal regimen that saves babies and gives them a healthy
start. One Avance-Dallas mom,
Claudia, says this program made a real difference in her prenatal program.
Claudia, an expectant
mother in the Avance-Dallas
program, and her husband, Salvador, had to find someone to watch their small
business so they could attend the Avance-Dallas
classes featuring the March of Dimes curriculum together. In the end, they both
said it was well worth it. Claudia explains that, thanks to the March of Dimes
curriculum, “I now have more questions that I can ask my gynecologist without
fear of not understanding what he’s going to say in response.”
Educating mothers about the
preterm health of babies is critical in Texas, which received a “D” on the
March of Dimes 2011 Premature Birth Report Card, a rating that means preterm
birth in the lone star state is between 12.8% and 14.6%. Our program combats
these high statistics by devoting two weeks to delivering the March of Dimes Becoming a Mom / Comenzando bien® (“starting well”) curriculum to hundreds of moms, teaching
parents how to promote their baby’s healthy development and safe delivery.
We’re grateful to March of
Dimes for investing in Avance-Dallas
so we can give more babies a healthy start to their lives.
Partner Profile:
Gloria R. (Peggy) Smith Advise and Consult Fund
We’re pleased to announce
that the Gloria R. (Peggy) Smith Advise and Consult Fund administered by the Baptist
Foundation of Texas has given Avance-Dallas a $7,000 grant to advance
at-risk children.
This grant makes it
possible for more at-risk children to get the early stimulation they need to
succeed in school and life. Many thanks to the Gloria R. (Peggy) Smith Advise
and Consult Fund and to Mrs. Smith’s two daughters, Peggy Lynn Smith and Sheila
Gerhauser, for recommending funding support for Avance-Dallas.