Thompson Valley Preschool Honored for Outstanding Work

Denver, CO - Loveland's Thompson Valley Preschool received an Outstanding Asset Builder Award at a statewide summit hosted by Assets for Colorado Youth in Copper Mountain on April 4-5. The preschool was honored for its innovative strategies to infuse developmental assets into an early childhood learning environment.

Lisa Sadar, the program director for Thompson Valley Preschool, accepted the award.

Said María Guajardo Lucero, executive director of Assets for Colorado Youth, "Because building developmental assets in youth is more a philosophy than a prescribed program, we can be creative in how we embrace the assets. At Thompson Valley Preschool, the staff has been both creative and innovative in its strategies to adopt the assets."

As a way to promote the assets among parents, the preschool made asset presentations part of its parent orientation meetings. The staff also tied assets into its book loaning program, inserting a flyer into each of its library of books that described which asset categories were represented in the story. When the children checked out the books to take home for their parents to read to them, the flyers helped remind the parents of the assets and allowed them to see the assets in context in the stories.

Assets for Colorado Youth (ACY) is a nonprofit organization that champions positive youth development by increasing developmental assets in youth. Developmental assets are a research-based set of opportunities, values and positive relationships that all young people need in their lives to succeed.

For more information, visit the ACY Web site: www.buildassets.org, or call Thompson Valley Preschool: 667-6552.

# # #