SPARK is dedicated to empowering parents as a child’s first and most important teacher. We help children thrive by ensuring all families have what they need for a child to succeed in school and life. Since 2012, we have impacted over 10,000 families and over 12,000 children. Children are at the heart of what we do. For more than a decade, SPARK has worked to ensure every child has the best start in life, and we will continue working for the families of Aurora for another decade and beyond!
2022-2024 Three-Year Report
Data Report for Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, & 2024 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2025).
Coming Soon!
2023-2024 Annual Report
Data Report for Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024).
Bright by Text
SPARK partners with Bright by Text - a free text messaging service for local families. Bright by Text provides invaluable articles from early childhood experts on topics including developmental milestones, mental health and resilience, social-emotional competency, STEAM-based activities, language and literacy, and nutrition and recipes. SMS capabilities embrace partnerships with local agencies by sharing information of services with the community. Families receive updates about local events, programs, services right to their phone.
Family Gateway Interviews
SPARK’s Gateway to Early Childhood Programs is a single point of entry for Aurora families with children birth to age 5 who are interested in learning more and enrolling into early childhood programs and resources.
Our Family Engagement staff meet with and interview a family, to help them determine the best early childhood placement according to their family and child’s needs. We also provide information about the importance of continual developmental screenings and can conduct the screening at the time of the interview. Additionally our staff will also connect you to community resources that can assist in supporting the needs and interest of your family and children.
2022-2023 Annual Report
Data Report for Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023).
We hosted our annual Week of the Young Child resource fair with 15 community partners on April 22, 2023 at the Fox Valley Mall. We estimate around 800 people attended and they received resources from our partners, developmental screenings and also got ample opportunities to engage in parent-child activities provided by SPARK and other partner agencies.
FAMILY GATEWAY INTERVIEWS
Families are asked in all our activities if they would like to participate in a Family Gateway Interview. The interviews help us determine if they are interested in enrolling in an EC program and their eligibility for publicly funded programs. It also helps us to determine if they have any need or request for support their whole family. Our goal was 114 interviews for the fiscal year. To date we have completed over 300 interviews with families.
PARENT TESTIMONY
Parent testimony used in a video created by Illinois Action for Children, from Lizbeth Rodriguez (translated from the original Spanish)
My name is Liz, this is my daughter Allison. Allison is almost 2. She loves drawing on everything, playing with her toy food and learning new words. She likes learning about fruit. I am a first time mom and an only child from my parents. The Opening Doors (Abriendo Puertas) program helped me learn from other parents. I didn’t understand the importance of reading to my baby, my parents never did that for me. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to do better for Allison. The parenting and play groups have helped Allison grow faster than I could have imagined. Before she only had interaction with her dad and I. Now, she’s talking. She’s less shy. She’s open to learning new things.
Ten Year Report: 2012 - 2022
Take a look back at the amazing things SPARK accomplished in its first ten years of existence.
