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Ciudad de México, México

SAN JOSÉ COMMUNITY CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

The Community of St Paul in Mexico runs the San José Community Centre for Child Development, located in Jardines de San Juan Ajusco, within the parish of St Thomas the Apostle, in the south of Mexico City. This is a marginalised community at risk of social exclusion, made up of young families who have been displaced from other parts of the country. At this centre, which has been in existence for 20 years, the following activities and programmes are carried out:

PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION AND CHILDCARE

The centre caters for 120 children aged between 1 and 6, who attend from Monday to Friday between 9 am and 3 pm. They are divided into four groups (nursery, pre-school 1, pre-school 2 and pre-school 3), each led by a community-based educator who implements the educational objectives appropriate to each level and carries out quarterly assessments to monitor the children’s cognitive and psychomotor development.

EARLY STIMULATION

EARLY STIMULATION Throughout each school year, the early stimulation specialist works with between 25 and 30 children exhibiting inappropriate behaviour (aggression, apathy, speech delay, etc.), working in partnership with their parents to tailor their education to their specific needs. The children are assessed weekly to take part in group activities and to address cases of developmental delay, with good progress being made in the majority of cases.

CHILD NUTRITION AND HEALTH

All the children are provided with three meals a day to supplement their diet: breakfast, a mid-morning fruit snack, and a hot meal before they go home. In addition, their weight and height are measured three times a year to detect any potential growth delays. A volunteer nurse monitors the nutrition programme and the children’s health and development throughout the school year.

PARENT-TEACHER MEETINGS

Throughout the school year, three meetings are held with the parents of each class, as well as a general meeting, with the aim of helping them to get to know, understand and accept their child, with all their strengths and weaknesses. These meetings are also designed to encourage teachers to engage in dialogue with parents, with a view to sharing experiences, clarifying any queries, exchanging suggestions and proposing actions in response to the children’s needs.

SOCIAL AWARENESS

Social awareness is fostered amongst the city’s university students, encouraging them to get involved during their community service in the various activities organised at the San José Community Centre for Child Development. Throughout the academic year, numerous groups of volunteers from schools, organisations and families work with the children, organising recreational and educational events, during which they have the opportunity to gain an understanding of the social exclusion faced by the residents of Jardines de San Juan.

WOMEN’S TRAINING

The San José Centre organises training activities for women in the neighbourhood with the aim of improving their financial situation, self-esteem and family circumstances.

The centre also trains early years educators from the community through study grants and work placements, so that all the educators working at the centre are themselves beneficiaries of the programme.

Furthermore, with the help of volunteer professionals, the entire team working at the centre attends specific training workshops on Saturdays throughout the academic year to improve the quality of care they provide to the children: public speaking, healthy eating and budgeting, craft activities, household budgeting and saving, children’s sports, prenatal exercise and the use of geometric shapes in drawing.

COMMUNITY BAZAAR

The centre organises a bazaar where it offers the community a wide range of donated items on a daily basis, such as clothes, shoes, toys, kitchenware, furniture, books and decorative items, with the aim of making these purchases more accessible whilst also raising funds to improve the infrastructure and cover the running costs of the San José Centre.