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Read to Succeed
The United Way of Metropolitan Nashville's Read to Succeed (RTS) project is a community literacy initiative designed to prepare economically disadvantaged children to succeed in school. Initiated in 2002 with support from the Ingram Charitable Fund, the program received an Early Reading First Grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2004. RTS currently works with a total of 9 early childhood centers serving approximately 900 children, ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. We spoke with Project Manager Samantha Wigand about this exemplary program.
What is the mission of Read to Succeed?
Our mission is to ensure that economically disadvantaged children enter kindergarten with the language and literacy skills necessary to succeed in school. The research shows that if kids fall too far behind by third or fourth grade, they probably won’t catch up. We want to make sure kids are on track when they enter school so they won’t fall behind.
Where does your program operate?
Read to Succeed was initiated in 2002 in four inner-city child care centers in the Metro Nashville area. With our Early Reading First grant, we’ve now extended the program to five additional centers.
What types of support do you provide?
We provide research-based early literacy curricula, as well as books and other materials that correlate with the curricula. We’re currently setting up writing centers, listening centers, and classroom libraries in every classroom. We also offer more than 30 hours of professional development per year for all the directors and teachers at each of the sites we serve. Each center has its own Literacy Coordinator, who provides onsite coaching, mentoring, and technical assistance, and coordinates family literacy activities such as the book lending program.
How does the book lending program work?
To begin with, we send 4–5 books home with each child each week; the families take the books home for a week and then bring them back and get another set. After about eight weeks, the books are put into a lending library so parents can check them out. The lending libraries are open during centers’ drop-off and pick-up times, so parents can easily access them.
What do you think were the strongest aspects of your Early Reading First application?
Our application was greatly helped by the fact that we’d been piloting the Read to Succeed program for two years, and we’d been doing an evaluation of the program all along. This gave us the chance to see what was working, what wasn’t working, and how we needed to adjust the program as we extended it to the five new sites. During the pilot phase, for example, we discovered that we needed a Literacy Coordinator at each center. By the time we made our proposal, we had details like that in place that we wouldn’t have known to include if we hadn’t piloted the program first.
What advice would you give other literacy programs applying for Early Reading First or other grants?
Design the program in consultation with an evaluator. We worked closely with HEROS, Inc., a non-profit evaluation and research group. Dr. Karen Edwards provided background research on best early literacy practices and made sure our outcomes would be measurable. Don’t wait until the RFP to start planning and writing your grant proposal. Call the program officer as often as you need to and ask as many questions as you have!
For more information about the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville's Read to Succeed Project, contact Project Manager Samantha Wigand at samantha.wigand@unitedwaynashville.org. For more information about HEROS, Inc., visit http://www.heros-inc.org/.
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