NEWS + UPDATES
BLP Partners with WIC Farmer's Market
The BLP - WIC partnership remains one of our strongest and most fulfilling.
From June-September, the Barrow Literacy Partnership (BLP) partnered with the Barrow County Health Department’s WIC Farmer’s Markets to promote early literacy at each of the market pop-up events. At our September event alone we spoke with 42 families about early literacy and gave 67 books to children. We also shared information about our local public libraries and helped 15 families sign up for free PINES library cards. We loved getting this opportunity to connect with families and look forward to attending the farmer's markets again in 2023.
BLP Wins Tanger Outlet Grant
This grant from the TangerKids program will be used to purchase new books for children in our target groups.
The Barrow Literacy Partnership was recently awarded a $500 grant from the Tanger Outlet Center in Commerce, GA as part of the TangerKids grant program. The grant will be used to purchase quality children’s books to be given out children birth to age five in Barrow County who are clients of the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program at the Barrow County’s Health Department; Barrow County School’s Child Find children; Pre-K lottery applicants; children in foster care; children in the Head Start program; children in Barrow County daycare centers; and children at Medlink Winder and Barrow Pediatrics.
A New Home for BLP Thanks to BCSS Staff
BCSS Staff Pictured (L to R): Rey Dumas, Keith Wampler, Bobby Williamson, and Danny Gibby. Not pictured: Frankie Hill.
The Barrow Literacy Partnership has a new, central work space at the Center for Innovative Teaching campus thanks to some hard-working BCSS maintenance employees! We are grateful to these superheroes for giving us a place to store books and work on projects. Pictured (L to R) Rey Dumas, Keith Wampler, Bobby Williamson, and Danny Gibby. Not pictured: Frankie Hill.
Winder Elementary Book Club Helps Out
Led by Tammy Privette, kids from Winder Elementary Book Club stuffed bags for BLP families
The Winder Elementary Book Club members packed October & November BLP bags with early literacy and PRLS public library information. Tammy Privette is the WES club sponsor, the WES Media Specialist, and an integral member of the Barrow Literacy Partnership. Each of these BLP bags & an age appropriate book will be distributed to young children and families served by the WIC Program at the Barrow Co. Health Department. We appreciate the work of WES Book Club, other BLP volunteers and the many BLP partnerships helping to reach Barrow’s youngest citizens.
Milestone: Over 50,000 Books Distributed
The BLP has given out more than 50,000 new and gently used books to children 0-5 in Barrow County.
The Barrow Literacy Partnership passed a huge milestone in early 2022, surpassing 50,000 new and used books donated to children in Barrow County. The BLP started in 2016 with a mission to use collaborative partnerships to increase early literacy development and school readiness for children 5 and under. Research tells us that reading aloud is the single most important thing parents can do to make sure their child enters school ready to learn to read. By increasing the amount of books the children in our target groups have access to in their homes we are helping equip their families with the tools they will need to build a foundation for lifelong academic success. By providing each family with a library card we are making sure they consistently have access to high-quality resources and knowledgeable professionals who can help them support their evolving needs as their children grow. We are proud to be part of making a difference in our local community. If you are interested in joining us on our journey beyond 50,000, we would love to have you! We are always seeking out new partners, new volunteers, and new contributors for handmade birdies or donated book drives. Visit our Get Involved page to contact us!
L4GA Grant Leads to New Opportunities
BCSS is the recipient of the L4GA grant. The BLP will act as the early literacy implementation team.
The Barrow County School System is a 2021 recipient of the Literacy for Learning, Living, and Leading (L4GA) grant from the Georgia Department of Education. The L4GA initiative aims to improve literacy outcomes for children from birth through grade 12. The Barrow County School System will receive $1,074,696 to implement its innovative literacy plan and will pair community-driven action with research-proven instruction in the classroom. Grant funds will provide children from birth through 12th-grade access to text, both within the classroom and outside the classroom. The BLP is a crucial part of the early literacy implementation for the L4GA. Our involvement in the grant will consist of distributing books to children throughout the county, providing parent workshops to support early literacy development, and leveraging our partnerships to make sure we are continuously pouring books into the community and serving our target audiences.
BLP Attends Early Literacy Summit
BLP partners joined other educators at the 2022 Governor's Summit on Early Language and Literacy
5 members of the BLP attended the 2022 Governor's Summit on Early Language and Literacy in June, hosted by the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy. The Deal Center is on a mission to improve the early language and literacy skills of Georgia’s children by providing research-based professional development for organizations working with children from birth to age eight. By attending this conference our partnership is able to gain crucial insight into newly-released research and practices meant to support our work in Barrow County. This year's summit takeaways were all about leveraging partnerships, ways to support language as the missing link, the importance of play, and promoting early literacy for our youngest children. BLP co-chair Ellen Petree said her attendance at the summit was "affirmation of past successes and a reminder about using our collective gifts in pursuit of common goals. Partnerships are important in allowing each to work in their strength areas. It was great to spend time with a new partner, Leslie Peek, and reenergize long standing partnerships. I loved the guided discussion time spent together after each guest speaker to dream, envision and action plan together. The future looks bright!"
ECRR Workshops for Families
3 family workshops were held in June to encourage parents and children to read, write, sing, talk & play with books
As part of our partnership with the L4GA Grant and Barrow County Schools, the BLP hosted 3 Fun with Books family workshops in June of 2022. 17 families joined us to enjoy a great meal and a fun evening exploring how we can read, write, sing, talk, and play our way to better early literacy skills and a love of reading. Our workshops were developed using resources from Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR,) an early literacy education program developed by the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children. Over the last 20 years ECRR has used research-based methods to teach parents and caregivers how to support the early literacy development of their children. Using the classic book Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone, our families participated in a book walk, shared reading, discussion, retelling the story, and singing a fun song based on the actions of those messy-mittened kittens. Along the way we discussed how each of the 5 early literacy practices (read, write, sing, talk, play) helps their child get ready to read. When the night was done, each family took home 4 new books and resources about how to do these same actions at home. If you are interested in hosting, assisting, or attending one of our early literacy workshops, please contact Kelli McDaniel via email at kmcdaniel@prlib.org.
