Community Collaboration Works for Early Learners and Their Families

by Linda Wacyk, Communication Specialist

Lowell Area Schools is one of a growing number of Michigan districts reaching out to young parents and care providers with information and resources to strengthen their child’s early learning years.

New parents who live in Lowell have a lot to celebrate. They bring their new baby home to a thriving community tucked into the Grand River Valley just east of Grand Rapids. It’s a community that offers rich culture, strong values, and good schools. Yet, the community offers new parents even more.

“We reach out to every family in our community, because we believe at some time or another, every family could use help parenting their children,” says Lowell’s Student Development Director Kathy Cole.

Each year under Cole’s energetic leadership, Lowell’s Tots On Track for School (TOTS) program serves more than 400 families who have children ages birth through five. With only a handful of staff and limited resources, the TOTS program offers an impressive range of services, including new baby “welcome” bags, playgroups, child development screenings, Parents as Teachers home visitors, parenting classes, and Cole’s newest project, a for-profit preschool for three- and four-year-olds.

“We looked at our data and discovered that about 20 percent of our entering kindergarteners had not had a classroom experience,” says Cole. “We asked ourselves, ‘What can we do to help these children be more successful when they begin school?’ Our answer was to start a preschool. Now, we touch the lives of 64 additional children and their families.”

The TOTS program operates out of the Bright Beginnings Early Childhood Center. The Center, converted from an elementary school, also serves as home base for Lowell’s Michigan School Readiness (MSRP) and Head Start programs (see page 3), as well as the school’s central administrators. Cole says having administrators so close to the action keeps them aware of the programs’ needs and of early childhood issues in general. In fact, Lowell Area Schools Superintendent Shari Miller is a strong supporter of Bright Beginnings.

“I have been so blessed to work for two superintendents who value early childhood education,” says Cole.

Like many early childhood initiatives, the TOTS program relies on collaboration between the schools, businesses, agencies, and other community leaders. Cole acknowledges that schools can’t tackle the challenges of addressing at-risk learners all alone. Like many other community-wide initiatives, TOTS enjoys the support of a generous local benefactor—the Lowell Area Community Fund.

Most TOTS programs include large doses of language and literacy activities. The staff hosts literacy workshops for local preschool teachers and invites home-based child care providers to take part. Cole has also led the effort to collect and share meaningful data to improve services and ease children’s transition to kindergarten. The TOTS program shares mountains of flyers, booklets, picture books, and educational toys with parents each year and distributes hefty “Countdown for Kindergarten” kits packed with good information about school readiness.

However, Cole and her staff offer much more than “stuff.” They offer a listening ear, a friendly smile, and a place for parents to find answers. Cole says her top goal is to make parents feel comfortable at school so they come back often, ask for help when they need it, and stay involved throughout their child’s learning years.

“We accept parents as they are and move from there. People don’t care what I know if they don’t believe I care,” says Cole. “Before I share any information, I first build relationships.”

To learn more about the TOTS program and Lowell’s other early literacy initiatives, contact: Kathy Cole, Student Development Director, Bright Beginnings Early Childhood Center, Lowell Area Schools, 300 High St., Lowell, MI 49331, (616) 897-8415, KCole@lowell.k12.mi.us.

School Districts Suggest No-Cost/Low-Cost Ideas for Early Childhood Outreach

With more K-12 budget cuts looming, it’s hard for principals and superintendents to consider reaching out to families with children birth to five years of age.

In response, members of the early childhood committee of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA) put their heads together last year and came up with some low- or no-cost ideas school leaders can use to reach out to young children and their caregivers. Here are a few of their ideas:

Develop and share lists of books appropriate for infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. Also present ideas about how parents with limited reading skills can use picture books with their children.

Collaborate with other organizations to promote reading to children and positive parenting.

• Enlist businesses, banks, libraries, service organizations, and other community groups to purchase and distribute books.
• Support public library and school partnerships for story hours and other approaches to promoting positive early reading, writing, speaking, viewing, and listening experiences.
• Partner with community parks and faith-based organizations to encourage literacy-based activities.

Use the media, other community agencies, and celebrities to publicize the importance of reading.

• Once a week, do a newspaper column with parenting tips, a recommendation of a favorite book for children, or a few lines from local “celebrities” about their favorite childhood book and their memories of reading with their parents.
• Host a Web site on which parents and others can find information and check out the types of children’s activities going on in the area.

Provide information and training to parents and caregivers.

• Use materials already available from the federal government, early childhood organizations, and other state and national resources.
• Host Family Fun Nights to help orient children birth to five and their parents to their local schools. Offer pre-literacy tips and activities.
• Organize free training for child care providers focusing on enhancing literacy development.

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