WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

Letter from Executive Director

Hello Friends:

This being my first year with Riverfront Children’s Center I am proud to reflect on the progress that has been made in the past four decades and can see a future where there is still room for growth. An exciting time to be sure! 

I truly believe we are uniquely equipped to make meaningful impacts in the lives of these young learners and their families. We do that through our highly qualified, dedicated, and caring teachers as well as through our newly renovated facilities, our newly well-appointed food pantry, our community partnerships and implementing curriculum during the most important stages of brain development. We carefully utilize grant funding and community donations to equip our staff with necessary materials and tools. We remain committed to continuous improvement as an organization so we can best serve the families and children in our communities. 

As we look towards the future, we want to maintain our same core values and keep our focus where it has been all along-on the children. We will always strive to provide the children with the best early childhood education possible so one day they can share their success story. 

While 40 years of service to the community is something to celebrate, it hardly leaves us satisfied. There is still work to be done. We owe it to the children; we owe it to the community. 

On behalf of the Board of Directors and everyone at Riverfront Children’s Center, thank you for your support of our organization and our mission.

Sincerely, 

Jennifer ZubekExecutive Director

Communication between caregivers and teachers is of the utmost importance to ensure that children are reaching their potential.

By 1983, the number of families with two working parents rose to nearly 60%, up from 40% just 14 years previous. Options for childcare were lagging, and parents were in a bind. Affordable, accessible, high-quality care was on everyone’s mind but was nearly impossible to secure. So, a small group of working parents from Electric Boat forged ahead with their own solution; partnering with the YWCA, they began a childcare program that would later become The Riverfront Children’s Center. Forty years later, we honor their foresight and tenacity, as the need for childcare has increased and our focus has expanded to include accredited early learning and wrap around services that nurture children and families from all socio-economic backgrounds. 

“After five years at Riverfront I am not ready for my last baby to leave.”

The evolution of Riverfront moved at warp speed in 2023, as long-awaited renovations were completed, partnerships were strengthened, and vibrant new leadership was established. Our fortieth anniversary year was enough cause for celebration, but the strides our organization took in one short year are remarkable. Focusing on our families, and the best ways we can serve them led us to seek out innovative ways to support them, incorporating their voices and honoring their wishes in our planning. 

Due in large part to a generous grant from The Edward and Mary Lord Foundation, we completed Phase 1 of renovations to our building. Four infant and toddler classrooms, a teacher planning resource room, 6 administrative offices, an entryway, a family food pantry, a snack kitchen, and two lavatories were reimagined to meet the needs of a modern early learning facility. Upgrades include energy efficient LED lighting, hygienic flooring and counter tops, new cabinetry, sinks, an ADA accessible lavatory, and heavy weight fire safe doors. The impact that these renovations have had on our families and staff is immeasurable. Not only are we better positioned functionally, but we are also uplifted by the aesthetic improvements and feel pride of place. 

Good nutrition is an essential part of a child’s healthy development, but as wages in our region struggle to keep up with the cost of living, food insecurity increases. According to the USDA, food-at-home prices in January 2023 were 11.3 percent higher than January 2022. Our families were struggling, and the most direct way we could help was to expand our onsite free-choice food pantry. In recent years, our on-site pantry has provided over 800 meals to children and families annually primarily through bagged grocery distributions. The limitations of our space made self-selection challenging. As part of Phase 1 renovations, the pantry was refurbished and named “Karen’s Closet” in honor of our beloved staff member, Karen Hakenjos, who has been with Riverfront for 23 years. New flooring, resurfaced walls, heavy duty wire shelving, and LED lighting have transformed a dark closet into a bright, welcoming resource for families who now have open access to pantry inventory during all regular business hours. They can self-select fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and complex carbohydrates to improve the quality and variety of foods in their diets. The rear of the pantry houses hygiene products such as diapers, wipes, washes, hair care, and detergents — everything that a family will need to look and feel their best! Feedback has been enthusiastically positive, and we gratefully acknowledge our partners in providing this benefit to our families including The United Way of Southeastern Connecticut/Gemma A. Moran Food Bank, ALDI, Black Hawk Sportfishing, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Bruce Flax of the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce, and other generous individuals and groups in our community. 

Events throughout the year including a Family Ice Cream Social at Ocean Beach Park and a 40th Anniversary Soiree at Great Neck Country Club gave friends and supporters of all ages an opportunity to celebrate. Staff who were with Riverfront for ten or more years were honored for their dedication to children and families. They include Amanda Brown, Toddler Teacher; Pamela Dugas, Toddler Teacher; Judy Elwood, Nurse Consultant; Karen Hakenjos, Multi-Age Teacher; Elizabeth Hawthorne, Infant/Toddler Teacher; Gwen Lakowsky, Site Director; and Christy McElroy, Curriculum Coordinator. Their longevity speaks volumes about their dedication to their profession and their love for children. 

In 2023 Riverfront families and staff were addressing the lingering effects of pandemic era early learning. Distancing, cohorts, and quarantines temporarily dismantled many of the systems in place that ensured children’s age-appropriate development, and in some cases, these restrictions created learning and development deficits. Children who experienced early learning during the pandemic will require additional support in language and verbal development as masking hid how words are formed in the mouth from children who were just figuring it out for the first time. Children are also behind in fine motor skills as many families utilized tablets and computers instead of crayons, pencils and other writing instruments to pass the time out of the classrooms. We are focusing on controlling pencils, writing letters and numbers, and opening jars to exercise grip strength and dexterity. Healthy, age-appropriate development helps children thrive, and the consistent learning that occurs at Riverfront will help ameliorate the lags that COVID generated. 

The most rapid brain development occurs in the first five years of life. Tracking each child’s development is an important part of early childhood education. Identifying weaknesses and delays early on allows for interventions and therapies to have the most effect. 2023 was a year of incredible growth in our assessment systems. In prior years, parents and teachers filled out paper-based surveys and assessments to track each child’s progress. This paperwork was then collected by teachers and analyzed to create data points tracking developmental milestones and shared with caregivers. It was a cumbersome process and compliance was challenging. 

In 2023 Riverfront won a $25,000 grant to upgrade to Sparkler, a mobile app that parents, pediatricians, and teachers can use to track developmental milestones. Sparkler is a web-based program, meaning that a child’s whole support team can log in and enter and retrieve data, and the record can follow the child through preschool into kindergarten and beyond. Through this team approach, children are better served. Sparkler also offers age appropriate activities to encourage caregiver-led learning outside the classroom. The simplicity of a web-based application has encouraged participation and after the initial roll out, over 95% of families were engaged in the program! Sparkler data collected at Riverfront reenforced the suspicion that children who lost early learning due to COVID restrictions are delayed in reaching age appropriate developmental (44%) and social-emotional (31%) benchmarks with 21% of children referred for developmental support services and 17% for social-emotional support services. 

Closing out the end of our anniversary year, we reflect fondly on the families who have been a part of Riverfront. It has been our pleasure to help them navigate the formative years of their children’s lives with education, care, and services ensuring that they thrive. With the ongoing support of our community, we are enthusiastically looking forward to the next forty years!

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