READING, Pa. — A new chapter is beginning for dozens of families in Reading\u2019s Sixth Ward, where early education, community collaboration, and economic development now intersect, inside a building on the GoggleWorks campus.<\/p>\n
The Berks County Intermediate Unit (BCIU) officially opened its first-ever early learning center in this part of the city, a milestone moment celebrated by families, educators, and elected officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our opening, our dedication ceremony for our two Head Start classrooms,\u201d said Christi Weitzel, assistant director of Early Childhood Programs at BCIU.<\/p>\n
The center includes two full classrooms, a playground, a large group instruction room, and office space. It will serve 34 children in the Sixth Ward, with services rooted in Head Start\u2019s mission to level the playing field from the very start of a child\u2019s education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis all came to fruition starting last year,\u201d Weitzel added. \u201cWe just moved in this August.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the project\u2019s significance goes beyond education. Pennsylvania\u2019s Secretary of Community and Economic Development, Rick Siger, described the center as a key part of workforce development in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving access to high-quality child care enables folks to join the workforce, to advance their careers, to fill some of the great jobs we\u2019re working hard to create here in Berks County and across Pennsylvania,\u201d Siger said.<\/p>\n
The ribbon-cutting brought together local and state leaders, including state Sen. Judy Schwank and Jim Boscov, chairman of Our City Reading, one of the organizations involved in making the center a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m particularly touched,\u201d Boscov said. \u201cMy late wife was a teacher for BCIU, and I know the good work that they do. In changing the life of a kid, you change the life of a family, and you change communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwank emphasized the lasting value of the Head Start model:<\/p>\n
\u201cHead Start is a proven program. Nationally, we know those kids go on to graduate, to get careers, and they uplift the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. — A new chapter is beginning for dozens of families in Reading\u2019s Sixth Ward, where early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[214,128,130,129,213,233],"class_list":["post-140663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-area","tag-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}