All God’s Children Preschool Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum
All God’s Children Preschool has been a ministry of Grace UMC for many years. The preschool director was concerned about how the pandemic had impacted the daily lives of children for well over a year and the toll it has taken on everyone. She began researching curriculum that could provide mental health support for preschool age children and identified the Second Step Early Learning Social Emotional Learning curriculum and Second Step’s Child Protection Unit.
When Metro Ministries announced the Children Matter Most grant cycle, she worked with Grace’s outreach director to submit a proposal. With their grant award, she has purchased the curriculum as well as supplemental children’s books and staff training materials. She anticipates many positive outcomes for the children once the curriculum is implemented, including improvements in listening to others, paying attention to their own feelings, managing strong feelings such as anger and disappointment and making friends, as well as being able to recognize, report and refuse unsafe situations from the implementation of the Child Protection Unit. The director is excited to begin implementation with the early 2022 preschool term.
