Literacy Focused Community Partnerships Roberta P. Gardner,

Literacy Focused Community Partnerships Roberta P. Gardner, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Reading & Literacy Education Kennesaw State University

Roberta Price Gardner Assistant Professor Reading & Literacy Education [email protected]

Harbin Suzanne Director of Early Learning Initiatives suzanne.harbin@communityfoundationnwga. org

Christopher Cappelli Research Associate [email protected]

Literacy Focused Community Partnerships Promising Practices Family-school-community partnerships academic achievement (Sheldon 2003; Henderson, Mapp, Johnson, & Davies, 2007; Keehne,Waiʻaleʻale Sarsona, Kawakami & Au 2018). Whitfield County- community of practice, partnership journey, concrete examples Simplifying dimensions literacy focused community partnership

Addressing the Literacy Needs of Your Community Examining Your Vision Aligning Goals Implementing Strategies Who has a seat at the table ? Who is missing that needs to be there? Examining power dynamics collecting data and gaining feedback.

Anchor Institutions Libraries Health Agencies P20 Institutions Housing Agencies Museums Statewide Nonprofit Agencies RESA’s

Partnership Alignment What are the cultural dimensions of literacy that can be expanded through community partnerships? How strong are the existing partnerships? What’s next? What are some existing community events/relationships and how can partners collaborate to address goals for supporting literacy needs? Finding the right fit

Birth-Eight Development of B-5 Coalition Birth-5 / Birth-8 Professional Development

Family Engagement Access Engagement Resources & Support

Community-Wide Literacy: Readers to Leaders Linking healthcare to literacy Annual Book Blast Power Lunch Program Dalton State Recipes for Success MyON’s Free digital library.

P20 Collaborative Partnership Power Lunches Readers to Leaders adopted 3 Whitfield County School System sites as Power Lunch sites, where free age-appropriate books are distributed. Readers to Leaders. “We invite the children to take a free book, read with us, and do activities with us that relate back to the book we’ve read.”

Statewide Networks Peers in other Districts Dublin City-partnering with public housing developments to provide access to books and tutoring while diminishing transportation gap. Wilkes coalition includes civic support with plans for enriching and expanding their afterschool program Early Learning Center Rome . Preparation for 3 year olds operated by Berry College. South Rome Redevelopment Corporation, Rome city government, Rome City Schools, The Rome Rotary Club, the Seven Hills Rotary Club, Georgia Power, Berry College, Atlanta’s Purpose Built Communities and local businesses and community members.

Literacy Focused Partnership Coalitions Working with other organizations to develop new programs or bolster existing relationships Leveraging available resources – public and private; federal, state, and local Collaborative program of activities to support interventions What opportunities exist for cross-sector partnerships? What are the existing community events and how can partners collaborate to support literacy achievement?

Core Community Partners Assess, Collect, Connect 1. Assess relationships, purpose, structures, routines, and timelines 2. Connect cross-district partnerships 3. Collect local-level data

L4GA Partnership Networks Next Steps for L4GA Dr. Lizanne DeStefano Dr. Meltem Alemdar Christopher Cappelli Justina R. Jackson

Action Items Check email from CEISMC team regarding updating your Grant Personnel & Community Partner Contacts. Look out for the Partnership Survey in late September. Look out for an email from CEISMC team regarding a possible Site Visit in the Fall.

Questions ?

Thank You! Roberta P. Gardner, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Reading & Literacy Education Kennesaw State University [email protected]