Guided by the values of kehillah (community) and tikkun olam (repairing the world), Gan HaYeled Preschool has used a City of Madison grant over the last two years to provide vital social-emotional training to local educators and families.

Below, Gan Director Marla Becker shares a moving update on how this initiative is breaking down barriers, building deep community connections, and teaching our youngest children to be safe and kind.

 

At Gan HaYeled, we believe that nurturing children's social and emotional development is a shared responsibility that extends beyond the walls of a classroom and intertwines beautifully with Jewish values. Over the past two years, we have been grateful to receive a grant from the City of Madison that has allowed us to partner with families, educators, administrators, and community agencies to provide workshops focused on social-emotional learning. Through these partnerships, we are proud to support the mission of BE HEART Madison (Believing, Empowering, Honoring Emotions and Relationships Together), a community-wide initiative that promotes the implementation of the Pyramid Model for Promoting Social-Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children framework across organizations and settings throughout Madison.

Through this grant, educators have access to free trainings led by the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health, gaining tools to support young children who need intensive social-emotional and behavioral interventions, as well as training to facilitate family workshops. We also host Positive Solutions for Families workshops, which provide caregivers with practical strategies grounded in the Pyramid Model framework, helping children develop emotional literacy, friendship skills, problem-solving abilities, and healthy ways to regulate and co-regulate strong feelings.

One recent example of this work took place at the Catholic Multicultural Center, where Spanish-speaking families gathered for a seven-week Positive Solutions for Families series facilitated by Rissel Sanderson of Play and Learn (Madison Metropolitan School District) and Francelia Lara Zuniga of 4-C. Through the grant, dinner, childcare, transportation, gifts, and learning materials were provided, ensuring that families could fully participate. What began as a group of strangers quickly became a supportive community, with both adults and children forming meaningful connections. At the end of the series, one child asked, “When will I get to see my friend again?”

Moments like these remind us that social-emotional well-being is not only about individual growth—it is about strengthening our kehillah (community). Together, we contribute to tikkun olam (repairing the world) by creating environments where children, families, educators, and community partners can thrive. At Gan HaYeled, our program-wide expectations are simple: We are safe, and we are kind. By working together across our community, we hope to help children carry these values—and the responsibility to care for one another—throughout their lives.

Written by Marla Becker, Gan HaYeled Preschool director