Happy Anniversary!  The month of May marks one year that we have been celebrating success here on our blog and Facebook!  It has been so much fun and so rewarding to do this monthly recap of all the good things that have gone on at our agency.  It gives us the opportunity to share our accomplishments with clients, volunteers, community supporters, funders, and stakeholders.  It also gives us a very public way of congratulating our phenomenal staff on their achievements and expressing our gratitude for their hard work!  Here are some of the great successes we had during the month of May:

• We were awarded a grant through the Scott County Youth Grantmaking Council!  We received $800 to purchase updated iPads for classrooms at our Scott County Head Start Center.
• Great job Head Start staff!  Tammi Marshall (Curriculum/Transition Coordinator), Sarah Cicenas (Hanover Center Director), Jennifer Baldwin (Scottsburg Center Director), and Michele Hopper (CLASS Mentor Coach) are CLASS Re-Certified!  CLASS stands for the Classroom Assessment Scoring System^® and is used internally by Head Start Program and externally at the federal level to measure quality of student-teacher interactions in our classrooms.
• Our annual financial audit by an independent auditor went awesome yet again this year!  We continue to be designated a low risk auditee.  Fiscal responsibility and good stewardship of the funds entrusted to us are key values for our organization, and we are very pleased with the results of this year’s audit.
• Our annual CACFP audit went great!  CACFP stands for Child and Adult Care Food Program and is provided through the US Department of Agriculture.  The program assists us in providing healthy and nutritious meals to preschoolers in our Head Start Program.  This program’s audit is conducted annually and is unannounced.  We were incredibly proud to have confirmation that we are effectively administering this important program!
• Families had a great time at Vine and Canvas!  This event was the first in a series of free family oriented events offered by OVO through support provided by the Women’s Giving Circle of Jefferson County and the Community Foundation of Madison and Jefferson County.  Mother/daughter and mother/son pairs enjoyed a 2-hour canvas painting class at the Little Golden Fox in Downtown Madison.  Beautiful art and special memories were made by all!  We are now looking forward to our next event, Latin Vibes, a free 90 minute Latin fusion dance class on June 9th.
• We accepted 148 applications for the Jefferson County Section 8 Waiting List!  The list was open May 15-19th and brought individuals and families needing assistance with affordable housing to our Administration Office.  We were also incredibly happy to be featured in the local newspaper, The Madison Courier, with a half page story!  Between radio blasts, news coverage, and social media posts, our outreach paid off, and almost 150 families were able to take the first step to a Section 8 rental voucher!
• Congratulations Stormy Moore (Teacher Assistant/Bus Driver at our Madison Head Start Center) on passing her CDL bus testing!

Make sure to check out all of our recent blog posts or take a look at our Facebook page!  We have a lot of exciting upcoming events!  Read all about them, and share them with your family and friends to keep them informed and up-to-date on all things OVO!