Member Spotlight- Justine Jimenez and The West Sacramento Home Run

This month’s Member Spotlight shines on Justine Jimenez and The West Sacramento Home Run Program,a cradle to career initiative comprised of 6 programs and funded by a local transfer (sales) tax in the City of West Sacramento.

We asked Justine to share more details on Home Run’s Quality Early Learning program and the High School Internship program that exposes students to career pathways in ECE.

The West Sacramento Home Run is a cradle to career initiative comprised of 6 programs and funded by a local transfer (sales) tax in the City of West Sacramento. It was launched in 2016 when our City Council placed a sales tax measure on the ballot with a major component of its funding being planned for the Home Run. The 5 additional programs of the Home Run joined our already flourishing Quality Early Learning program which has been run within the city since 2002, and functions as a training, technical assistance, and coaching hub to serve our unique, mixed delivery of certified high-quality early learning sites. These include Family Child Care Homes, fee for service centers, Head Start, Early Head Start, Alternative, License Exempt and CSPP sites. Another program of the Home Run, the Paid High School Internship program, allows local high school students to participate in careers they are interested in by working and being mentored for 8 weeks during the summer.

In 2022 our first Home Run Early Learning Site opened their doors to high school interns and worked with 3 students during the summer, training and coaching them in positive interactions with young children, and developmentally appropriate instruction and guidance in classroom activities. As of the summer of 2024, our opportunities for early learning internships grew to 7 sites, comprised of 4 Family Child Care Homes, and 3 fee for service centers (a YMCA, Parks and Recreation, and private center). We added an additional component as well, which was the opportunity for each intern participating to earn a digital micro-credential in foundations of early learning. This digital micro-credential requires a 2 hour initial training, at least 20 hours in the field working with young children, and received a minimum of 20 hours of reflective coaching from a qualified program supervisor. Upon receiving this credential, a badge certificate is issued through Credly, and this badge can be shared on LinkedIn, on their resumes, and in other digital platforms.

When young people are mentored working in quality early learning sites, it sparks a love of teaching young children in them and provides information about the different pathways they can pursue for a career in this field. Additionally, it gives the supervisor who mentors the young person the ability to share their love of the work, provides them with a potential new employee if the young person is able to stay on, and teaches them valuable skills in reflective coaching, and passing on their best practices for working with young children.

Further information about our Home Run quality early learning program can be found here https://www.wshomerun.org/quality-early-learning.

And information about the Home Run internship program is here https://www.wshomerun.org/internships