The City of Pasadena has a diverse array of services and supports available to young children and their families. This provides an incredible opportunity to link health, early childhood education, child welfare and family support services to reach all families with young children with information and support at the earliest possible moment and have services available as needed for those that require more help and support. The challenge and opportunity is to align, coordinate, and improve the quality of services and supports available to families with young children. Ideally, we should be seeing far fewer children experiencing vulnerabilities and far more children developmentally ready or “on track” when entering into kindergarten.
Ultimately, City institutions – city government, schools, community organizations, and business – can do more. To make the city a thriving community, positive early childhood and early learning experiences must happen for every child in Pasadena. Pasadena’s future depends on healthy and successful young children. To achieve this, we must work together to nurture young children and strengthen each family’s capacity to take the lead in supporting their child’s healthy development and well-being.
Pasadena is a city with a rich array of services and supports from which to build upon to more effectively improve the outcomes of Pasadena’s youngest residents. Like many other U.S. Cities, Pasadena is grappling with changing demographics, a changing economy and a new and growing knowledge base on how best to prepare our children and youth for future success.
As outlined in the Early Development Policy for the City of Pasadena, the City will work collaboratively with the school district, early childhood community and other community partners (a) to maximize the utilization of available child development resources, (b) to support quality improvements in early learning/child care, and (c) to promote the delivery of integrated services for children and their families. The purpose of relationships fostered is to develop creative, cost effective and affordable solutions to the problem of accessibility to quality child care within the community. The City recognizes that resource and referral information is a benefit to families and employers and will not duplicate the work of existing agencies.
Below are a number of resources for Early Childhood Educators and Partners local and national:
Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities (EC-LINC)
The Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities (EC-LINC) is developed by and for communities. EC-LINC’s mission is to support families and improve results for young children in communities across the country, with a focus on accelerating the development of effective, integrated, local early childhood systems. https://www.cssp.org/young-children-their-families/ec-linc-network
Zero to Three
Zero to Three works to ensure that babies and toddlers benefit from the family and community connections critical to their well-being and development. Healthy connections help build babies’ brains. https://www.zerotothree.org/
West Ed’s Early Childhood Development and Learning
West Ed’s Early Childhood Development and Learning informs evidence-based child and family policies and address needs, from early childhood mental health and social/emotional development to professional learning and technical assistance for child care professionals. https://www.wested.org/area_of_work/early-childhood-development-learning/
National League of Cities Early Learning Nation 2025
The ultimate goal is to build an Early Learning Nation of communities that prioritizes kids and families and promotes learning and development for early and life-long success. http://www.nlc.org/early-learning-nation
Vroom
Vroom turns shared moments into brain building moments. Whether it’s mealtime, bathtime, or anytime in between, there are always ways to nurture our children’s growing minds. http://www.joinvroom.org/
Talking is Teaching
“Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” is a public awareness and action campaign that helps parents recognize their power to boost their children’s early brain and vocabulary development through simple, everyday actions – like describing things while walking outside, or singing songs together during bath time. Using books, parent videos, text messaging, social media, and information from expert partners, Talking is Teaching empowers parents and caregivers with fun and easy ways to improve their babies’ learning. http://talkingisteaching.org/
Healthy Pasadena
one-stop resource providing data and information that measure the health of our community. It is intended to help planners, policy makers, and community members learn about local issues and identify disparities within the region.
Pasadena Public Health Maternal Child Health
The City of Pasadena Public Health Department is dedicated to the physical, social and mental well-being of all who live, work, learn and play in Pasadena.
Options for Learning
Options for Learning has been serving children and families since 1981. As a non-profit child care and early learning agency, Options for Learning has been at the forefront of helping families either break the cycle of poverty, or improve their lives, by providing children and families with the tools to create a positive foundation for school, social and life success.
Pasadena Unified School District
The Child Development Department of the Pasadena Unified School District serves children ages 3 through 11 in 20 different school locations across the District. Our program offers Full Day Preschool, Part Day Preschool and Before and After School Care for families who may qualify for State Subsidized funding. https://www.pusd.us/Page/141
Families who are not income eligible may also be able to obtain services.
Please call the office for additional information. Children must be 3 years by by September 1st of the enrolling school year to enroll in all preschool programs.
Pasadena Public Library
Storytime has benefits for children and their caregivers!
- It’s a wonderful way to bond with your child
- It exposes children to new words, concepts and ideas.
- It teaches children to pay attention in a group setting.
- It is a wonderful place to make new friends – for children and caregivers.
- Caregivers can learn new songs, rhymes and ways of telling stories
- It’s fun!
Health Care
There are several locations within the City of Pasadena that can provide free to low-cost healthcare services. https://ww5.cityofpasadena.net/public-health/health-services/
Young & Healthy’s mission is to provide access to high-quality healthcare for uninsured and underserved children and families, to improve the quality of life for all children in the greater Pasadena area through prevention, education and enhanced healthcare services. http://www.youngandhealthy-pas.org/
ChapCare has been putting patients first since 1998. For 18 years ChapCare has served the communities of the San Gabriel Valley, providing quality health care for men, women and children of all ages. https://www.chapcare.org/
Pacific Clinics launched Head Start/Early Head Start programming in 2013 to support young children ages 0-5 and their families and caregivers from low-income neighborhoods in Altadena, Glendale, and Pasadena.
They provide comprehensive high quality early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services. They conduct a developmental screening for each student, and can identify and support children who may have a mental illness or severe emotional disturbance. Their mental health 0-5 specialists work with Head Start/Early Head Start teachers to ensure these children receive the behavioral health treatment they need to be successful in school and in life. http://www.pacificclinics.org/find-support/head-start-early-head-start
Every year the Mom’s Club of Pasadena hosts a Preschool Fair to learn more: http://www.momsclubpasadena.com/Preschool__Fair.php
Professional Child Development Associates is a non-profit organization that offers a range of multidisciplinary screening, evaluation, therapy, and specialized services for children, birth through 21 years of age, and their families, when there are any concerns or problems in development, behavior, or social relationships at home, school, or in the community. http://www.pcdateam.org/
Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center is a private, non-profit corporation that operates under contract with California’s Department of Developmental Services. The Center serves over 9,000 children and adults with developmental disabilities, who have or are at risk for a developmental delay or disability, and who are at high-risk of parenting an infant with a disability. https://lanterman.org/