EDUCATION PROGRAMS

PRESCHOOL PROGRAM

The Joshua Group Preschool Program provides a free early childhood education for 50+ low-income Harrisburg students as well as Harrisburg preschoolers on the Head Start waiting list. Currently there are over 300 Harrisburg children on the waiting list for Capital Area Head Start preschool programs, and many more children are not even on a waiting list. The Joshua Group established a free Preschool Program with a goal to help more young children enter school ready to learn and to be better prepared to be successful once in school. By the time low-income children start Kindergarten, those without preschool experience tend to fall behind, especially in reading skills. The Joshua Group Preschool offers a Kindergarten Readiness curriculum, focuses on academic and social development, and utilizes Pre-Reading software designed to enrich vocabulary and ensure Reading Readiness. The licensed Preschool Program offers classes four days a week, morning and afternoon sessions, for 54 unserved three, four, and five year olds from low-income families living in the Allison Hill neighborhood. Preschool education is core to our mission and one of the most pressing educational needs in the city.

Children from this distressed community enter Kindergarten at a significant disadvantage to their peers in the region, and the lack of accessible, tuition free, high quality preschool programs with a Kindergarten Readiness curriculum is a leading factor. The classes offer a small student-to-teacher ratio to better provide the individual help the children need. Research indicates that the long-term benefits of a quality preschool education are higher graduation rates, reduced delinquency rates, and decreased crime rates. (Childs Tend Data Bank) The low academic achievement scores and low graduation rate among the youth of the Allison Hill neighborhood only underscores the need to increase the access to preschool education to help turn those numbers around. Students receive daily nutritious meals through our partnership with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.