{"id":52932,"date":"2024-01-27T01:47:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T01:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/?post_type=family-stories&p=52932"},"modified":"2024-01-27T01:49:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T01:49:01","slug":"somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care","status":"publish","type":"family-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cocopah Head Start recently reached a milestone and teacher assistant Alicia Mills couldn\u2019t be more excited.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAchieving a four-star rating means a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of our hard work paid off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The early childhood program participates in Quality First, which First Things First (FTF) created to help improve the quality of child care and preschool for children birth to age 5 and their families in Arizona. The FTF Cocopah Regional Council funds the voluntary program in its community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To measure progress in quality improvement, each program participating in Quality First is assessed and given a Quality First Star Rating, ranging from 1 to 5 stars. A provider has met or exceeded the standards of the Quality First program at 3- to 5-stars, with 5 being the highest rating. Star ratings are based on what research shows are the key components of quality early care and education.<\/span><\/p>\n

A quality environment that promotes children\u2019s well-being includes skilled teachers and learning environments that nurture language and cognitive development, as well as social-emotional skills and regular feedback to parents on the development of their child.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cocopah\u2019s achievement was one of teamwork, Mills said. And the winners are the program\u2019s 20 children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe children have new toys and new ideas to explore,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The higher rating not only meant more funding support for age-appropriate books and other learning materials, but \u2013 for the benefit of children \u2013 it also consisted of intensive professional development for Cocopah\u2019s staff members.<\/span><\/p>\n

To help make the early childhood program reach its higher star rating, the staff had to attend about 120 hours of training sessions on the developmental needs \u2013 such as social emotional, physical and health \u2013 of young children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned what to expect and how we\u2019re supposed to do things,\u201d Mills said. \u201cWe have to really get on the children’s level, have that eye contact, and really work with them, showing them how to play, what to do in each area, and how to talk to them, how to interact. It was really nice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Quality First coach was at the ready, helping staff members create goals and make adjustments in areas that needed improvement, she said. Later, when she and her co-workers learned that they had achieved a 4-star rating, Mills said they couldn\u2019t help but burst out in tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just cried so much because we were so happy,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were so excited about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council funds Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":52933,"template":"","tags":[93,183],"class_list":["post-52932","family-stories","type-family-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-quality-first","tag-cocopah-tribe","regions-cocopah-tribe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSomerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care - First Things First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Things First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-27T01:49:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AZFTF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/\",\"name\":\"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care - First Things First\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-27T01:47:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-27T01:49:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png\",\"width\":750,\"height\":393},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Region Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/\",\"name\":\"First Things First\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#organization\",\"name\":\"First Things First\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/firstthingsfirst_card_gray.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/firstthingsfirst_card_gray.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450,\"caption\":\"First Things First\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/AZFTF\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/azfirstthingsfirst\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/first-things-first\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/FTFArizona\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care - First Things First","description":"The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care","og_description":"The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/","og_site_name":"First Things First","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/","article_modified_time":"2024-01-27T01:49:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@AZFTF","twitter_misc":{"Tiempo de lectura":"4 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/","name":"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care - First Things First","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png","datePublished":"2024-01-27T01:47:14+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-27T01:49:01+00:00","description":"The First Things First Cocopah Tribe Regional Council Quality First to help early care and education providers in our state improve the quality of their programs in ways that help young children learn, grow and thrive.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Cocopah-Tribe-Quality-First.png","width":750,"height":393},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/somerton-early-childhood-program-reaches-for-the-stars-to-provide-quality-care\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Region Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/region-stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Somerton early childhood program reaches for the stars to provide quality care"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/","name":"First Things First","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#organization","name":"First Things First","url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/firstthingsfirst_card_gray.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/firstthingsfirst_card_gray.jpg","width":800,"height":450,"caption":"First Things First"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/","https:\/\/x.com\/AZFTF","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/azfirstthingsfirst\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/first-things-first","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/FTFArizona"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region-stories\/52932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/family-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region-stories\/52932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52944,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region-stories\/52932\/revisions\/52944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftf-stg.magnetry.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}