SMITH COUNTY CHAMPIONS FOR CHILDREN INC
Because Children Matter
Mission
Champions for Children in Smith County is dedicated to empowering children to reach their full potential by providing education, mentoring, tools, and support to caregivers, teachers, and families.
Ruling year
1997
Executive Director
Katrina Torrez
Board President
Pam Cunningham
Main address
6141 Paluxy Dr
Tyler, TX 75703-5976 USA
EIN
75-2669405
NTEE code
Adult, Continuing Education (B60)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
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Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Champions for Children seeks to provide an opportunity for all children in our community to reach their full potential. We do this by equipping daycare centers to provide high quality care and access resources and materials to provide a developmentally appropriate learning environment. In addition, Champions serves children with challenging behaviors at school or at home through specialized services, mental health counseling, and an Autism Education and Resources program.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Teacher Training Program
The purposes of the childcare training program are 1) to make expert and research-based training geared towards best teaching practices and classroom management available; 2) to send master teachers into childcare classrooms to mentor and to advise on setting up classrooms that address children's physical, social-emotional and intellectual development; 3) to demonstrate techniques that address behavior and learning challenges; and 4) to make toys, equipment, and educational products affordable and available to those teachers who do not have access to them in their childcare center.
Specialized Services and Counseling
Our specialized services include individual child observations and assessments, Brain Gym®, Nurturing Pathways®, and Irlen® Screening. Our counseling program includes mental health services and an Autism Education and Resources prorgram.
Resource Room and Lending Library
Our Resource Room and Lending Library are open to daycare centers and the public. We stock the Resource Room with curriculum and teaching aids to help children learn and grow. Our Lending Library
Where we work
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Smith County (Texas, United States)
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Tyler (Texas, United States)
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of individuals attending community events or trainings
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Teacher Training Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This is the total number of participants to attend trainings through Champions for Children.
Number of groups/individuals benefiting from tools/resources/education materials provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Champions for Children aims to help ALL children in our community reach their full potential. We do this through training daycare teachers, providing a public resource room and lending library, and providing specialized services and counseling for children.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Champions for Children has been in existence since 1996. It was started to provide training for daycare teachers in order to provide high quality childcare in our community. From there, Champions began mentoring and coaching new daycare teachers to ensure that they had someone to help them work through classroom management strategies. From there, Champions began offering observations and Child Success Plans specialized services like BrainGym® to help children who needed additional strategies for being being successful. In 2019, Champions hired a Licensed Professional Counselor to continue serving children with even greater needs. In 2020, Champions brought on a 2nd LPC-Intern alongside a Billing Specialist to continue serving the Mental Health Needs of children in our community.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Champions for Children has 3 Child Behavior Specialists on Staff. They have many years of experience in the daycare setting and studying Child Development and are approved trainers by the state of Texas. Two are adjunct faculty at Tyler Junior College. The 3 Child Behavior Specialists provide high-quality training, perform individualized observations and Child Success Plans and provide our specialized services.
In addition, Champions has 1 Licensed Professional Counselor and 1 Licensed Professional Counselor-Intern. These two professionals significantly add to our capacity for helping ALL children in our community reach their full potential. Our counseling team is able to test for anxiety, depression and ADD/ADHD as well as screen for Autism.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2019, Champions hosted 180 trainings with 4400 participants from daycare centers around Texas.
In 2019, Champions completed over 900 appointments through our Specialized Services and Counseling Program.
In 2019, 533 individuals utilized our Lending Library and Resource Room.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people’s needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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SMITH COUNTY CHAMPIONS FOR CHILDREN INC
Board of directorsas of 7/29/2025
Chelsea Cohen
Dekota Finney
Delores Price
Carolyn Morales
Elizabeth Olivier Director
Emily Lopez Director
Francisco Lopez
Haden Riggs
Haylee VanDyke
Kristen M Senkyr Director
Michael Vasquez
Monique Hammond
Pam Cunningham Board President
Tom Perkins President
Tracy Coza
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
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