June 2003 - The Precious Minds, New Connections initiative has completed its first year of operations. It has been an exciting and challenging year. The programs and the Foundation have experienced some growing pains as one would expect. The staff at the 28 funded programs worked hard to reach out to many new parents and other participants. The interest levels of participants in learning more about the development of their children has been heart-warming. The Foundation has received a number of very thankful testimonials from parents who have completed the classes or participate in the home visit programs.

The established programs, Family Service, Healthy Families, Avance and MELD have continued their good work with their participants. We estimate that Foundation funding of their efforts have served over 500 participants.

We have collected substantial data from our 23 new programs and Catholic Charities for Year 1, most of which are using the Foundation’s software. Data for the 24 new programs funded is impressive. Through April 30, 2003 over 3,000 participants (unduplicated) attended sessions in classes completed prior to April 30. Some 40% of those participants have completed over 75% of the scheduled sessions for their classes. In the aggregate 56% of the sessions scheduled for participants were attended. Both of these accomplishments are lower than we had hoped and we expect the programs to place increased emphasis on retention in Year 2. An additional 321 participants received home visits in the five programs using the Born to Learn curriculum. The participants in Year 1 were 60% Hispanic, 21% white, 9% other and 9% unknown. Some 43% of participants had family incomes below $20,000. About 31% had not completed high school and 81% did not have a college degree. From nearly 3,000 participant satisfaction surveys in the site-based programs, 91% indicated that the program they attended was what they expected or better, 85% indicated the program would help improve parenting skills, and 88% said they would recommend the program to others. The limited feedback from a few participants of the home-visitation programs was even more positive.

The Foundation was pleased with the first year of the program given the start-up nature of the effort. The Foundation funded expansions of five programs. Some programs have adjusted their goals and reduced their costs for Year 2. We thank the staffs of the many organizations involved in the programs for their good work and commitment to helping families in our area and we look forward to an even better Year 2.

Another major project in our Precious Minds, New Connections initiative has commenced construction. On July 16, 2003, the groundbreaking for the largest single project of the Foundation was held. The $4.7 million, 1.25 acres area, being developed by the San Antonio Zoo for infants and toddlers and their families, is expected to be completed within the next twelve months. The Zoo has named the area "Kronkosky's Tiny Tots Nature Spot". It is the first project in Bexar County that will bear the Kronkosky name and honors Albert and Bessie Mae Kronkosky, the generous founders of the Foundation. The "Kronkosky Tiny Tots Nature Spot" will be the only area in a zoo developed especially for young children in the United States and perhaps in the world. More information on this project can be found in our 2002 Annual Report on this website. We are looking forward to the grand opening expected in the Spring of 2004.

Conference Agenda ('99) »