HISTORY

MountainStar was formed in 2001 in response to the community need for comprehensive services for distressed families with very young children. This need was identified in the 10-year Deschutes County Community Plan, and MountainStar began providing services to children and families in Bend in April 2001. Our Relief Nursery services include high-quality, therapeutic early childhood classes for children ages 0-3 years old, and the Outreach Program, which provides crisis intervention and ongoing services to high-risk families who are not enrolled in our classes. To further meet the needs of client families in crisis, over the years we have added child developmental assessments, home visitations, transportation services, emergency food boxes, services for limited English-speaking families, and referrals for mental health services.

Since our inception, we have increased the number of children served annually from 34 in the first year (2001) to 325 children and their families across Central Oregon. In 2013, Juniper Junction Relief Nursery became part of MountainStar as our Madras site, and we opened a program location in Prineville in 2016. In 2019, we started providing outreach and safety net services in Redmond and opened a full Relief Nursery Program in that community in fall 2020. Also in fall 2020, we opened three Preschool Promise classrooms (in Bend, Madras, and Prineville) as part of a long-term strategy by the Early Learning Division to increase the supply of high-quality, publicly funded preschool slots for low to moderate income families across Oregon. These preschool classes are available to families who are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Our intent is to utilize our expertise in trauma-informed practices to enrich these more traditional, early care and education services. Our goal is to provide early intervention that builds healthy, successful, and resilient children; strengthens parents; and preserves families through comprehensive and integrated early childhood and therapeutic family support services. In fall 2022, we opened a Preschool Promise classroom at our Redmond Center, and in January 2024, we opened a new center with therapeutic classrooms in La Pine. We also recently started providing outreach services to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

We are the only program in Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook Counties providing therapeutic classrooms, parenting education services, and family support targeted at protecting babies and toddlers who are at significant risk for abuse and neglect. The services we provide continue to be essential to the communities we serve throughout Central Oregon. There continues to be a need to provide outreach services, therapeutic classes, and wrap around support to vulnerable families.