Wonderspring is pleased to welcome Patricia Claybrook to its Board of Directors. Patricia serves as CEO of Jidan Cleaning, a commercial cleaning company. She previously worked in in pharmaceutical sales and as the Director of Market Development for VITAS Hospice.
Patricia was was selected as the Philadelphia Business Journal’s chosen “Minority Business Leader” and one of South Jersey Magazine’s “Business Women to Know.” She earned her Bachelor’s in Sociology from Franklin and Marshall College. She attended the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Entrepreneurial Program in 2013 and the Turner School of Construction Management in 2014. Most recently, Patricia graduated the Pipeline Accelerator Program at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business in 2019.
Patricia has also served on the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of Central &Southern New Jersey, the Board of Directors for the Franklin and Marshall College Alumni Association, and the Board of Trustees for the Food Bank of South Jersey.
Wonderspring, a nonprofit provider of high-quality early education and out-of-school-time programs, announced that it will be offering services at a new Havertown location in partnership with the former St. Faith Preschool and Kindergarten. The new site, located at 1208 Allston Road in the Brookline section of Havertown, will be known as Wonderspring Havertown.
Currently licensed by the PA Department of Education, Wonderspring Havertown will offer preschool for children ages 3-5 from the hours of 9am-3pm. It will be led by the current Director of St. Faith, Beth Dougherty, who has served at St. Faith for 12 years as both a teacher and Director. The former St. Faith teaching staff is also expected to remain at the school.
Founded in 1964, Wonderspring has served hundreds of children in its many early childhood centers in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties and its multiple school-age sites. Wonderspring’s programs are designed to tap into a child’s natural curiosity through age-appropriate curriculum that encourages growth, exploration and creativity. The organization’s commitment to quality is evidenced by the fact that its centers operate at a PA Keystone STAR 4 level and its school-age programs are nationally recognized by the Council of Accreditation.
According to Dougherty, “St. Faith has been serving the community as a nonprofit organization for over 50 years. The school’s curriculum is selected to foster the love of learning and self-confidence in a nurturing and caring environment.”
“Wonderspring and St. Faith are natural partners,” says Zakiyyah Boone CEO of Wonderspring. “Both have a long history of providing high-quality early education utilizing evidence-based, child-centered curriculum. I am thrilled for the opportunity to partner with the staff of St. Faith to continue to provide these services for children and families in Havertown and the surrounding area.”
Wonderspring Havertown will begin serving children on September 7th. The organization will host an open house at the new location on August 24th from 3-5pm and invites families and their children to tour the facility and meet the staff.
Wonderspring is excited to announce that it is among the first recipients of the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey (UWGPSNJ) Partnership Grant Program. Grantees were selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants across a nine-county footprint and each received a grant of $50,000.The Partnership Grant Program, part of a comprehensive strategy to end poverty and expand opportunity, is a departure from United Way’s past grant programs.
The program’s application process focused on what United Way can learn from organizations, not strictly on the organization’s demonstration of outcomes. By design, small organizations with deep roots in their communities or expertise in an emerging topic were selected alongside larger nonprofits.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with United Way to end the cycle of poverty that plagues our region by ensuring that children have access to high-quality early education that prepares them for success in school and beyond,” said Wonderspring CEO Zakiyyah Boone.
The mission of the Partnership Grant Program is to further high-trust relationships, productive knowledge sharing, and diverse perspectives. To support this, the decision process prioritized diversity of the group as a whole, including fields of practice, geographies served, size and age of organizations, and leadership diversity. The process was designed to prioritize learning and foster relationships, and to support grantees in their poverty fighting efforts.
Wonderspring CEO, Zakiyyah Boone was admitted to the Forum of Executive Women. The Forum brings together and leverages the influence of professional women to expand the impact and power of women in the workplace and beyond. Its vision is for women to achieve equitable representation in leadership influence and power in the workplace.
The Forum works to:
Make the voices of women leaders he
Provide a venue for the exchange of views and information
Advance parity in the corporate world
Support members for leadership roles
Further diversity, equity and inclusion
Promote the contributions, skills and visibility of Forum members
Mentor junior women as they advance in their careers
Serve as a source of influential contact, business referrals and remarkable friendships
The Forum advocates for pay equity and recently released a Pay Equity Playbook and report that provides leaders and organizations with a valuable resource for advancing the conversation on achieving full participation and compensation parity for women, people of color and underrepresented groups.
“The childcare workforce is largely comprised of women who are vastly underpaid,” says Zakiyyah. “It is my hope that as a Forum will provide both the resources and platform for me to be a more effective advocate for pay equity in our workforce.”
In May, a large group of volunteers from PNC bank came to Wonderspring’s Powelton Village center to clean our outdoor play area and plant flower and vegetable gardens. It was an amazing day and through the hard work of the PNC volunteers, the play area was transformed.
Since that time the staff and students at the Powelton Village center have been faithfully watering and caring for the gardens. The students have loved watching the plants grow and predicting which plants will bloom first. This week they literally saw the fruits of their labor. They were able to harvest radishes, cilantro and spinach, which was then shared with our families. Soon they will be able to harvest the snap peas and lettuce to share as well.
The children have learned so many wonderful lessons about plants and how food is grown in this process all while having fun outside. Thanks to PNC for making these gardens possible.
Check out the pictures below to see the transformation of the gardens.
