Opportunity, Inc.'s year-round, early-learning program uses proven techniques that create and strengthen the abilities and resources of each child entrusted to the center. Our comprehensive, fully-accredited curriculum of school-readiness training, fine and performing arts, recreation, enrichment programs, health and nutrition is specifically designed to prepare disadvantaged children to begin public school on equal footing with their classmates. Our ultimate goal is to develop in our students the academic skills and the strengths of character needed to survive the challenges they will face during adolescence, to enter college, to graduate with distinction, to obtain gainful employment and to become role models in their communities.

ACADEMICS: Opportunity Early Childhood Center follows a flexible, research-based curriculum to support each child’s academic growth. Our syllabus is based on seven domains of learning, literacy, mathematics, science, the arts, social, developmental, emotional and physical health, and designed to meet the immediate, individual needs of the whole child.

FIELD TRIPS: This aspect of the curriculum is based on monthly themes. The children enjoy a variety of age-appropriate field trips to libraries, museums, zoos, parks, and other areas of interest, which are coordinated with in-house activities and concepts. These enriching experiences, standard to most pre-kindergartners, are new to most of our children and provide them a sense of, and a link to, the global community.

KINDERGARTEN READINESS: The DLM curriculum addresses the need for high academic standards in preparing children for kindergarten and lifelong learning. Research has shown the DLM curriculum to be the leader in creating positive outcomes from kindergarten readiness programs.

FINE ARTS: In our fine-arts program, students learn to express themselves through visual arts, music and movement. They satisfy their sensory curiosity and experience the thrill of accomplishment as they discover hidden talents.

DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENINGS: We create and apply individual strategies to a range of developmental screening systems to best determine and meet the needs of each child. Studies have proven that the early discovery and onset of treatment of special needs can favorably and dramatically alter the course of a child’s future.

OUTREACH SERVICES: With support from community-based agencies, Opportunity, Inc. is able to deliver, at no cost to its clientele, an impressive range of outreach services. Families who have availed themselves of these services have realized otherwise unattainable successes, which include increased incomes, new businesses, home ownership, continued education and medical attention, among others.
Special initiatives include, but are not limited to, an annual Christmas party and toy program sponsored by Bloomingdale's, gifts from the Breakers and other groups, Thanksgiving food drives, Easter egg hunts, music enrichment, special-guest appearances and donor-sponsored activities. Each year, members of the Board of Directors of Opportunity, Inc., The Young Friends and other supporters “adopt" the center's neediest families, providing them clothing, shoes, school supplies and other essentials.

HEALTHY ME: The Healthy Me Program is an integral part of our daily curriculum. It encourages good health, nutrition and safety habits and discourages obesity-producing behaviors. To accommodate this program, Opportunity significantly expanded programming in each of those areas for all its children and their families. A vegetable garden, created behind the playground, reinforces the classroom experience and promotes smart choices and behaviors that will serve them well throughout their lives. We plan to launch new initiatives annually that expand on these messages and continue offer access to the food banks SHARE and Angel Food for affordable “safe food”.

PARENTING-SKILLS TRAINING: We continually scrutinize the needs of the entire family, researching and implementing outreach programs to maximize their accessibility to our clients. We offer parenting and family classes covering a wide range of topics, some basic, and some complex. The life-skills classes are open to the community at large, not just families of Opportunity, Inc. students. We have developed a comprehensive parenting/counseling program to complement the techniques used during the school day. Dinner and babysitting services are available to facilitate parent participation. The primary philosophy is driven by the premise that, no matter their backgrounds, if parents are involved in their children’s' educations, their children are more likely to:

• Adapt well to school and attend regularly
• Have better social skills and behavior
• Earn higher grades and test scores
• Enroll in higher-level programs
• Graduate and go on to higher education
• Succeed

MUSIC TOGETHER: Music Together is an internationally recognized, early childhood music program for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and the adults who love them. It follows a research-based, developmentally appropriate, early-childhood music/movement curriculum that strongly emphasizes adult involvement. Our teachers have received special training to conduct this program.

LINKS TO LITERACY: “Links to Literacy” develops skills that are most closely linked to achievement in literacy during the early elementary years: oral language phonological/phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, reading skills, and inventive spelling. Learning to appreciate books, listening comprehension and writing are critical aspects of the program. The center's lending library makes available to parents a wide-ranging collection of books, videos and periodicals emphasizing literacy, parenting and life skills in a variety of languages to encourage family reading. Monthly field trips to the library at The Society of The Four Arts support this program.

PROFESSORS OF CURIOSITY & DISCOVERY: A multiple-discipline, highly sensory approach to science, this course targets benchmarks of emergent literacy, language and communication. Incorporating science concepts and experiments, a variety of art materials, as well as social-studies concepts, it reaches many of the benchmarks of mathematical and scientific thinking, together with those for social studies and the arts.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY: Certified occupational therapists periodically visit the school to evaluate the students' fine motor skills. If a child is diagnosed with special needs, the therapists devise an individual action plan and coach the teaching staff to apply the techniques that will lead to improvement. The therapists also provide professional development sessions, further training the Opportunity, Inc. staff in classroom management, observation and identifying referral indicators.

The following support services are engaged to further enhance the work of Opportunity, Inc.:

• Early Childhood Wellness Program: This program, sponsored by Parent Child Center, Inc., focuses on increasing the ability of children to grow, develop, and learn in ways that enhance their physical, social and emotional health. ECW provides trained therapists to serve the social and emotional needs of our children. The aim of these services is to diminish or eliminate the barriers to learning caused by social/emotional challenges. It is expected that the benefits will continue to increase as more children are served, exposing challenging issues at earlier ages. A registered nurse attends to physical health issues, screening for vision, hearing, dental, physical growth, and health screenings with follow-up care and referrals as indicated. The screenings help identify those children who may have potential problems that could interfere with learning and school readiness at a time when intervention will be effective.
• Referral Services - Referrals to agencies such as Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, the Center for Family Services, Child Find, the Children’s Services Council, Healthy Mothers / Healthy Babies, Legal Aid Society, Child Find, Early Steps, the Mental Health Association, Palm Beach County Health Department, Palm Beach County School District and others are ongoing.

Other continuing partnerships include: Quality Counts (a voluntary, early care and education improvement system); Early Learning Coalition (education for our teachers, scholarship grants), Family Central (financial support for families), National Accreditation Commission (operating standards) VPK (education standards), Dress for Success (provider of professional clothing for clients' interviews and job placements).