Building community connections through enrichment
About Us
Sparking growth through volunteerism
We believe that children can understand the world and develop their knowledge and abilities by participating in enrichment opportunities such as Spark Growth! This program is designed to involve not just the children, but also their parents and families, in various reading and creative activities. By doing so, we make reading and art a means for them to interpret the world, create a sense of community, and contribute to society.
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We are of the opinion that children's reading and art knowledge and development, as well as parent-family involvement, can be significantly improved through the incorporation of these 5 practices into our enrichment program: Print, Presence, Intention, Time, and Words.
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Our goal is to motivate children to become enthusiastic readers, writers, and artists. We are committed to supporting children's learning by igniting their growth through our enrichment program, thus providing a service that fosters lifelong learners.
How We Help
The Spark Growth Reading and Art Enrichment Program is free for young children and their families in the Morongo Basin. Our volunteers are supportive and knowledgeable, with career and educational achievements.
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We travel to various schools, family daycare homes, and homeschool sites in the Morongo Basin, offering engaging activities based on research and tailored to children's developmental needs. Our activities and lessons align with curricular standards and goals and are conducted in partnership with site supervisors.
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Our program is designed to establish and maintain quality interactions, positive relationships, and ongoing communication with all participants. We are committed to working collaboratively and supportively with site administrators, instructors, childcare staff, and individual families.
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We aim to spark children's interest in reading and creativity through reading and art enrichment activities.
Meet The Management Team
Executive Director
Melanie Shannon, Executive Director, is passionate about helping children develop creativity and create positive connections in their learning environments. She has more than 20 years of experience teaching children and adults over the course of her career, including working in a citywide summer camps, local schools, church and childcare programs. Previously, Melanie was a college professor at the local community college, (Copper Mountain College) in Joshua Tree, California. Throughout her career she has discovered how to use her artistic talents to spend countless hours volunteering with dance studios, local elementary, middle schools and day cares. Involving herself with arts and crafts activities focused on enrichment and whole child connections. Her focus on art and literacy evolved after she began writing, illustrating and publishing children's books over the course of three years. Her attempt to donate books locally to child literacy programs revealed the fact that there is a deficit in the Morongo Basin for supplemental and supportive programs children need. This prompted a need for action. Which is where the proposal of her Mother's Master's work in a literacy program paired with art, music, and singing to create Spark Growth! outreach literacy and art program for the children of the Morongo Basin.
Director
Linda Mahany was born and raised in Yucca Valley. She graduated from Yucca Valley High School in 1991. Linda worked at San Bernardino County Probation at Central Valley Juvenile Detention Center (CVJDAC) for over 18 years. Working with high risk juveniles. Before working at probation center, Linda was an Emergency Medical Technician with Morongo Basin Ambulance for 5 years, working here in the Morongo Basin. Linda decided to volunteer with Spark Growth Program to work with children and help educate through the arts. Linda feels the program is a great way to get the youth involved in art and literature through fun activities and also helps get the parents involved with take home activities. With Linda’s past involvement with at risk juveniles, it is a great way for her to be involved and help by connecting with children. Linda hopes to try and help the students engage in positive activities to build and enrich their lives.
Volunteer Coordinator
Cyarah Stine, Volunteer Coordinator, is eager to provide opportunities to be apart of young children's growth. As a communications college graduate, Cyarah knows the importance of a strong and positive connections in the classroom. She has worked in the Morongo Unified school district as a Positive Behavior Instructional Assistant. She also has nine years of child care experience and three years of volunteer experience; mainly in the field of education and communication. Throughout her career, she has discovered the value of giving young children the proper tools to communicate and express their feelings. Cyarah's focus is on bridging the gap between community connection and service by selecting qualified volunteers for our program. Cyarah is enthusiastic about utilizing community members to guide children through creative enrichment activities. Her vision is to aid individual volunteers to invest in connecting with children while teaching language and art, which in turn builds a solid foundation for the future.
Program Assistant
Kevin Shannon, born into a military family, has been raised in Yucca Valley since 1985 and graduated from Yucca Valley High School in 1989. He has worked in various service industries throughout his career. His current position with Avidex Technologies, where he diligently works in various school sites installing audio and visual technologies to assist teachers and staff, showcases his unwavering commitment. Kevin volunteers with the Spark Growth Program, a community initiative he deeply believes in. He sees the program as a valuable gift to the community and his volunteerism as a way to give back. His current involvement with cadets in the Civil Air Patrol is another example of his commitment to helping children. Kevin's goal is to inspire students by engaging in positive activities that enrich their lives.
Board Members
MISSION STATEMENT
Spark Growth is a free Reading and Art Enrichment Program offered in learning environments in the Morongo Basin of Southern California. Its primary mission is to provide young children and their families the opportunity to participate in voluntary, inclusive, and hands-on reading and art activities.
This program is specifically designed to complement the educational endeavors of schools, daycare centers, homeschooling environments, and the efforts of parents, caregivers, and other family members in guiding and nurturing young children's reading and art skills development.
Spark Growth aims to spark children's interest in reading and creative skills. The program takes a 'whole child' approach, recognizing six vital domains of development for overall learning. It is intended to create engaging activities tailored to children's interests and abilities, nurturing self-confidence through consistent, positive support. Importantly, the program establishes genuine, trusting relationships with children, parents, caregivers, families, and adults, fostering a supportive learning environment.
PHILOSOPHY
We believe that children can learn and grow through programs like Spark Growth. In these programs, children and their families take part in reading and art activities together, which helps them understand the world and make meaningful connections in their community.
We believe that children's knowledge and growth in reading and art, along with parent-family involvement, can be positively enhanced through the use of these 5 practices we incorporate into our enrichment program:
1. Print: Having many books, and reading materials available.
2. Words: Using rich vocabulary and having meaningful conversations.
3. Time: Taking the time to notice and explain things in activities.
4. Intention: Planning inclusive, hands-on, and developmentally appropriate reading and art experiences and activities.
5. Presence: Being present mentally, emotionally, and verbally, with youth by viewing the world from a child’s perspective.
Our principal aim is to instill a lasting passion for reading and the arts in young individuals. We are dedicated to fostering the educational development of children by stimulating their cognitive advancement through our educational program. Our objective is to nurture a lifelong enthusiasm for acquiring knowledge that will endure for many years.
Transparency
Please click on the document link to view documents regarding Spark Growth Program.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Spark Growth is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, military or veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, age, protected medical condition, genetic information, disability or any other protected status in accordance with all applicable federal, state and local laws. Spark growth is opposed to any form of less favorable treatment and aims to create a culture that respects and values each other’s differences. Spark Growth sees these differences as an asset to our work as they improve our ability to meet the needs of the organizations and people we serve.