The Library was an integral contributor to the Plan for School Readiness and the accompanying Ready to Read Plan (2012), which targets early literacy needs. The goal for these plans is for all children to enter kindergarten safe, healthy, and ready for sustained school success.

Several challenges were identified during the planning process:

• Lack of Coordination among Groups. While the community had multiple early literacy programs, we lacked a convener to coordinate and align the efforts. The Early Literacy Coordinator was hired in 2012 as a community-focused Library staff member to oversee the Early Literacy Workgroup of service providers and raise community awareness.
• Increased Demand for Library Programs. Working closely with our public schools, the Library’s strategic approach to programming created efficiencies in planning and delivering programs, making significant expansion of early literacy programs possible.
• Reach Children in Greatest Need. The Library’s Outreach staff identified in-home daycares in fragile communities and specific neighborhoods as critical needs. We successfully sought grants from the Spangler Family Foundation and IMLS to support these efforts.

The Library’s multi-layered approach combines several initiatives under one structure, overseen by three roles: the Early Literacy Coordinator, focused on coordination with other agencies ; the Children’s Services Coordinator, ensuring strong in-library services in our 20 locations; and the Outreach Services Manager, focused in communities of critical need. Some of the initiatives overseen by these three roles include: Read to Me Charlotte, which reaches families through multiple channels: hospitals, where parents of newborns receive a board book and information encouraging them to read to their babies; agencies such as the Department of Social Services and the C.W. Williams Health Center, where children can enjoy activities and books during their visit; and an online family reading calendar that suggests reading activities while reminding parents to read with their children. The IMLS Leadership Grant-funded Wee Read West initiative is a yearlong reading program in a high-need area of Charlotte where over 300 children and families in child-care centers and one school embrace reading activities while the area library establishes stronger relationships with participants. Jump Start Reading promotes and sustains early literacy experiences in high-need preschools and in-home daycares. Parents and teachers gain a better understanding of the importance of early literacy and children practice critical skills. The Montclaire Elementary Pilot, a weekly parent education/early literacy program, invites largely Spanish-speaking families of pre-K children in a Title I school to participate in workshops and participate in early literacy activities. This combination helps the family replicate skills at home to get ready to learn for school success. Recently, “For Me, For You, For Later™” early financial literacy programs were added as part of the PNC Grow Up Great™ initiative.

The impact of minimal/no early literacy skills on future school success is well documented: children entering school without them are unable to catch up to their peers and more likely to drop out in later years. Documenting the success of our early literacy initiatives is more important than ever. We measure both outputs and outcomes for our initiative, and the results of our initiatives shed a light on our impact. In FY13, 7,786 programs focused on building pre-literacy skills, attracting 125,870 children and parents/caregivers. Caregivers completed surveys measuring pre-literacy skills gained in these programs, and 97% reported being better prepared to develop pre-reading skills in their children because of attending these programs. We are adding a new measure for the Montclaire Elementary pilot program, with the goal of providing an objective numerical outcome to supplement our subjective parent perceptions. An evidence-based tool called “Get Ready to Read” measures gains in phonological awareness and print awareness in 3-5 year-olds. A pre-test was performed in January on a small sample and a post-test will be performed in early June. These initiatives have helped our community address some gaps in early learning; however, thousands of children are still in need of quality early literacy experiences. For this reason we continue to look at ways to replicate programs and operate strategically. Through multiple initiatives, we are developing a stronger partnership with our local school system and other organizations, ensuring that we remain a relevant and engaged urban library system.