Ryan Smith's Contact Details

Ryan Smith's Company Details

The Child & Family Network Centers

Alexandria, VA, US • 50 - 99 Employees
Social Services

For the past 32 years, The Child & Family Network Centers (CFNC) has been changing lives. We got our start when a group of seventeen dedicated mothers realized that their children had failed out of kindergarten because they didn't have access to high-quality early education. Determined that this would not be the case for any more children in their neighborhood, a teacher was hired, a classroom secured, and CFNC was born. Although we had a humble beginning, our impact has been anything but. CFNC has expanded to become the only nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Virginia that provides quality bilingual preschool and family support services free of charge to the working poor. CFNC operates in Alexandria's distressed communities with high concentrations of people who speak little to no English. We serve children who are considered "at-risk" for school failure by age four and their families, who live at or below 200% of poverty. Our core expertise is three-fold: (1) We reach families that are often left behind and not served by other programs; (2) we provide a full range of educational, family, and health services that are based on the needs of our clients and are offered free of charge. All of our services are bilingual and culturally sensitive; and (3) we provide programs that improve the quality of life for the entire community. CFNC makes dramatic strides in closing the achievement gap. The success rate of our services is so high, CFNC has been praised by President Obama's "Preschool for All" initiative as a national model for high-quality, bilingual preschools. We are also one of the first programs in the country to receive accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children—measured against the most concentrated and rigorous national standards for education, health, and safety.