New York Foundling Puerto Rico building $8.5M early education center in Cataño
New York Foundling Puerto Rico has completed the processes to convert the former Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón School in Cataño into an $8.5 million center for Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which will provide services to qualifying residents of the town, the entity’s director Carmen Villafañe confirmed.
The demolition and subsequent construction of the new Head Start and Early Head Start facilities is underway at what will eventually be the headquarters for most of the five Centers that the organization currently has in the coastal municipality.
“The new center…will be equipped with the latest technology for the benefit of the children and the population we serve,” said, Villafañe, who was accompanied by several executives from the organization who came to Puerto Rico from New York.
“Once the work is finished, we’ll have the opportunity to increase enrollment and there will be daily transportation services, which are currently limited,” she said.
Meanwhile, Cataño Mayor Julio Alicea Vasallo said the organization offers “vital services and care for mothers from their pregnancy and children in all stages of their growth.”
The future Center, which faces the Cataño bay, will continue to have a staff of nurses, social workers, speech pathologists and a multidisciplinary team to support the low-income families they serve.
It is also expected that the new center will make it possible to increase the number of participants who will receive early education with the Montesorri model, which is currently offered in three of the five centers that the organization operates in Cataño, officials said.
