AURORA, Colo. — The partnership between You be You Early Learning (YbY) and the Aurora Housing Authority gives preschoolers access to early childhood education delivered to their backyards.
YbY is a local non-profit that uses a mobile classroom to deliver early childhood care to low-income communities.
“This bus is equity because we come to them,” said YbY Executive Director Roya Brown. “It’s accessible, they don’t have to drive anywhere, they just come and bring their kids here.”
The mobile classroom is parked in the parking lot of Willow Creek Apartments in Aurora. The teacher-led cooperative preschool is based on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Brown said they wanted to start the preschool as a resource for BIPOC or Black, Indigenous, People of Color students.
“These are the neighborhoods that are usually left behind,” Brown said. “I used to be a high school teacher and many of my BIPOC students coming (in), they had a vast gap as far as their education in science and math and we are hoping to close that gap.”
The mission of YbY is to provide equitable and affordable access to high-quality inclusive programming for historically marginalized and underserved communities. Brown said Aurora is one of the biggest deserts when it comes to offering affordable early learning.
“It’s affordable because we’re providing it for free,” Brown said. “I wanted to provide these services and I wanted to provide these for these types of communities.”
Charron Logan is a teacher at the preschool. She said being able to bring a service like the mobile classroom provides a great resource and education in a space where students feel at home.
“For them to be in a setting where they know they’re comfortable is important,” Logan said. “Because you can get in a school and they’re not comfortable which makes them reluctant to learn.”
Logan said the preschool is helping to bridge the gap for students because now, they are more open to learning.
“It’s a smaller class size, it's more comfortability with the teachers and it’s not looking at a whole world that’s like, ‘I’m afraid that he’s over here doing all of this and I don’t know the answer, or I know the answer, but no one’s paying attention to me.”
Both Brown and Logan hope this school helps students in low-income neighborhoods help build self-confidence on the road to their academic success.
“They’re confident in knowing,” Logan said. “And if they don’t know, then they’re confident in learning and just knowing that there is someone to help them to learn.”
Find more information about You be You Early Learning.
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