NEW PARENT-CHILD LITERACY PROGRAM PROVIDES EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

How would you like to receive two gifts a week, every week for the next two years?

That's what children in a new program administered by NOAH will be getting beginning July 1.

NOAH's Family Services Division was selected by the Children's Services Council to manage a new parent-child literacy program to help children in the Glades communities. The program will serve 25 families in its first year and an additional 25 in its second year, said Gladys Givens-Barber, the director of NOAH’s family services.

"Home visitors will be going into the families’ homes twice a week for 30 minutes each visit and the children will be presented with a toy or book to generate and promote positive parent-child interaction," Givens-Barber said.

The program is for families with 2- and 3-year-old children, and the books and toys are for the families to keep as gifts. "It creates opportunities for the growth and reinforcement of positive child-parent interaction and reaches those children who may not get a chance to get early childhood opportunities and get them ready to learn on par with kids who do have those early learning opportunities," Givens-Barber said. "There has always been more need than funds to engage those parents who do not have wherewithal to provide early childhood education."

The trained home visitors will provide a model of verbal interaction learning through reading, play and conversation for the parent and child together. 

The program will replace NOAH’s Healthy Start in-home care coordination program that has served Glades residents for years, but ends on June 30. Some of the families served in the care coordination case management program may be eligible for the new literacy program, but they will have to go through a screening process. 

The program will allow NOAH to keep its current staff levels as the Healthy Start program fades. The new literacy program will consist of one on-site coordinator and three home visitors. A contract is expected to be signed by May 1, and staff will be trained in the new program during May and June. 

"The program is what they call evidence-based and that means it’s been researched for a number of years and it has proven to have positive results," Givens-Barber said.

Return to Newsletter »