Restrictive Factors:

Access to Literacy tools in geographic areas: Our numbers show that many of our children in NN are entering kindergarten without the neccessary literacy skills needed to be successful. There are parts of the city that have better access and there are parts of the city that are neglected. GIS Mapping has shown that south NN is well resourced, but many are not accessing the resources available.

Coordinated support from cross sector partners: Does the coordination effort need to come from a university level? More exploration must be had to understand the why and address the root cause. Access to resources restricts the positive trend of the curve. Assessing and addressing the local need will improve access and support the turn of the curve. 

Contributing Factors:

Parent access and time to read to young children: The working group reviewed the State of the Babies Report – has indicators built into it. Can we use this as a resource to decide upon what performance measures align with established indicators and community vision (common agenda)? There are many resources available to community members, connecting the dots between parents and community supports contributes to the negative trend. By focusing our work on early literacy, we are able to directly support families and turn the curve to improve overall kindergarten readiness. More research must be done to determine what %/age of parents read to their parents every day.  Focusing on early literacy and parents reading to their children daily, during and after COVID, will lessen the likelihood of COVID/Summer slide. Simultaneously, it will also encourage positive social emotional development for young children, as they spend quality time reading with parents and siblings.

Transition to VKRP testing: A contributing factor for the forecasted decrease in K-readiness is the lack of in class instruction and socio-emotional development time that children have had due to COVID-19 school closures and childcare center limitations. 

Messaging and Community Engagement: Community engagement has historically been a barrier between some community support agencies and the community. There have been inroads made to do local grassroots engagement in the community. Strategy will need to include the voices of parents to further improve access and thus flatten the curve. 

Positive Factors

• There are  resources  available in areas of the city of Newport News. 
• Organizations are on the ground building relationships and trust with local community to improve access to early literacy supports.  

Negative Factors: 

• There must be more information gathered related to whether or not access is an issue.
• We know that there is a Learning Lag - WIth the school closures due to COVID, we can look at PALS K scores to see if children are sliding from COVID and summer. Cross sector entities will join efforts to connect this information with strategy to flatten the curve and improve early literacy opportunities. 

Anticipated: 

Coordinated effort: Overall goal of group is to Build strategies to move indicators for child care deserts, social emotional wellness for children, and cost of care using RBA and Scorecard to measure progress. How does this align with what we see happening in our community and the direction that state, local and community actors are headed? How will COVID Pandemic affect future numbers? VECF Local Systems Building Strategy Map and Indicators - May 2020 - appendices lay out indicators, data, outcomes What’s most important to focus on right now? 

COVID-19 slide: There’s going to be a gap in the data for VKRP and PALS due to COVID affecting testing schedules. There will be an emphasis on assessment at the beginning of the school year https://www.vecf.org/what-is-smart-beginnings/#

Parents and Families: No strategy is complete without the voice of those with lived experience. This group is actively looking to include local community members and parents of young children to advise and support.

Books on Bikes: Provides books to neighborhood youth through a bike riding delivery program. 

National Black Child Development Institute: Gives books to local headstart programs and is a strong advocate for early literacy and equity. 

DeGood Foundation: The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is housed here and they are rapidly expanding to more zip codes. 

Mayors Bookclub: We need a representative from the city to improve visibility and access. 

School Districts: Data related to test scores and access to family liaisons. 

Local Childcare Businesses: VQI supports teacher training and SBVP is working with local childcare providers to gather parent voice. 

CHKD: Books are given to children at well child visits. How can we bring them in to provide more access and increase awareness? 

Little Free Libraries: Scattered throughout the city. There are some that arent documented on the website. ODU interns can support canvassing. 

Public Libraries: Connect with childrens library director to connect the dots with other resources. 

Research and evidence based?

Parent and Family Engagement: School districts and local human services agencies have family engagement specialists that build positive relationships with parents to provide tools to engage in early literacy supports. 

Home Visiting Programs: Healthy Families initiatives are proven to improve outcomes for young children and get them prepared to be successful in school and in life. 

Literacy provides a context for and links to other indicators regarding childcare deserts, social emotional development

Low Cost/No Cost? 

Doctors Offices sharing books (Reach out and Read)

Book delivery programs

Share importance with families of where resources are and how to access them.

YouTube videos on how to read to children? Can we strategically share videos on how to read to young children so that parents can practice at home?

Off the Wall

GIS Mapping to identify low access spaces then targeted marketing- Map the zip codes impacted by these projects and see where “literacy deserts” are to impact underserved areas of the region. Cathy’s daughter, Sophie is interested in supporting such a project. We will add resources to the google document for her to begin creating maps. It is still important for us to focus/track viable child care businesses. Can we add the list of open childcare centers on the GIS map? We must target our efforts but keep a pulse on what else is happening in the community.

“One School, One Book” – everybody on the Peninsula reading the same book via a coordinated effort to encourage across partner agencies marketing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_City_One_Book

Would area deep funders consider kick starting some child care sites? Would people step up to talk about employer based child care?

Information and research agenda

Map where are all the Little Free Libraries and overlay it with literacy deserts, library locations and DPIL participant zip codes

Peninsula READS – adult literacy potential support in the future.

HS facilities do not have a library that kids can check out books and take home. Future strategy could look like us mitigating that barrier. Similar to “Make Way for Books” in AZ https://makewayforbooks.org/ - child care/HS sites with book libraries. Corporate funders like Family Dollar and others fund these sorts of projects.

A common drive to store data, info on programs – ZoHo Connect – piloting and it has a common drive capability. In the mean time, we will use this google document to share data and other important reading materials. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dIMyEry1omh2IbTy9t94c2e5e8TGcUEpGtSduUEStM/edit?usp=sharing

Action Plan:

Implementing the following plan will support in turning the curve and improve K readiness in Newport News:

GIS Mapping to identify low access spaces then targeted marketing- 

• Map the zip codes impacted by these projects and see where “literacy deserts” are to impact underserved areas of the region. Cathy’s daughter, Sophie is interested in supporting such a project. We will add resources to the google document for her to begin creating maps. It is still important for us to focus/track viable child care businesses. Can we add the list of open childcare centers on the GIS map? We must target our efforts but keep a pulse on what else is happening in the community.
• Based on results from the GIS Mapping activity, connect local community leaders and support agencies with other literacy opportunities in Newport News to improve access to materials. Create marketing materials for distribution in targeted locations. 
• Use the data developed as a result of the mapping to expand the DPIL program into more areas of the city that is comprised of families with restricted access due to language, economic and transportation barriers. 

Engage Universities, schools and early learning centers to engage/support parents: 

• Engage contacts at CNU, ODU, TNCC and Hampton University to support parent training to prepare children for kindergarten. 
• Adjust SBVP Kindergarten readiness checklist to focus on early literacy supports in conjunction with targeted training for parents. 

See Attached Maps