The Mann family is a family of seven, including five children ranging ages one to 11.
They have had four children enrolled in our Early Head Start program for the past several years. Eemya, now 8, started in our Homebased program in August 2014. Faith, now 5, first enrolled in our home-based program in August 2014 before transferring to the center in June 2015. The two youngest, Leona and Emanuel, were both enrolled in July 2019. The father, Mr. Emanuel Mann, has had several jobs so that mom, Chantila Yates, could stay home and care for the children. The family had begun to encounter some issues due to the father working on the road for many consecutive days and long hours away from the family. At one time the family was renting a house to own that required a lot of money to fix it up. Family Advocate Jamillah Abdullah referred them to Family Foundations of Northeast Florida. The family was able to receive family counseling and also learned how to budget and save money. Jamillah and Home Visitor Corinthia McKenzy helped them come up with a plan to repair their credit, save money to purchase their own truck, and start their own business. It wasn’t long before the family was able to get affordable housing which saved them a great deal of money. Mrs. Mann is one of the most involved and engaging parents at Westside EHS, and she always encourages Mr. Mann to spend time in our center as well to help ensure that the family ties are being strengthened. At one time, mom was our parent committee president and dad was the leader of our male involvement program. Both mom and dad have attended many family events, parent meetings and parent trainings such as budgeting and finances, health, safety and nutrition, my father’s reading chair. They have helped plant in the garden and help serve and clean up after events. Mr. Mann was even the Santa during Holiday Outreach one year. Just recently, Westside Early Head Start facilitated a trauma training for families, spoke about the ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study, and showed a resilience training. Both parents attended and were also very instrumental in getting all the other parents on board and engaged in the presentation. Good news- Mom has secured a job with the Duval County court system as a Guardian Ad Litem to help children’s voices be heard. And dad purchased his truck and is awaiting its delivery! This family has worked hard to be able to help fulfill their dreams. With help from the Family Advocate and Home Visitor at Early Head Start, Housing Authority, Family Foundations, and Complete Debt Solution, their dreams became a reality. None of this would have been possible without the teachers at Westside EHS that made the family feel safe by leaving their children in their care so the family could start their journey in becoming self-reliant. Eemya is now a rising 2nd grader and doing very well. Faith completed Kindergarten this year and will be starting first grade in August ready to soar! Emanuel has moved on to Head Start with our partner agency LSF. Leona remains in our program at Westside with teachers Ms. Caryon and Ms. Yvose where they will be working with her to individualize strategies based on her Ages and Stages questionnaire results, which at the moment show she is progressing along at a normal rate. We are so proud of this family for all their efforts to build their independence and stay on a path to healthy self-reliance. Way to go Mr. & Mrs. Mann!
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