This is the inaugural edition of the Moonshot Moment E-blast, designed to keep Moonshot Moment participants up to date on the successes that are happening in our collective pursuit of 90% literacy by 2018. The E-blast will feature a new story each week from one of four targeted areas: Invest in our Teachers, Principal Leadership, Community Engagement and National Conversations. If you have a story to share, contact me at jennifer@moonshotmoment.org.
Schools Can't Do It Alone - Community Engagement
"Early Learning Advocates" Forming Plan To Get Kids Kindergarten Ready
Michael Kint, Cynthia Falardeau, Kim McCorrison and Pat Houston (seated) lead the Early Childhood Advocates at the March 19 meeting.
Cynthia Falardeau, Executive Director of The Education Foundation of IRC knows all about supporting education, but is now expanding her reach to focus on getting kids prepared to enter kindergarten. Michael Kint from the United Way of Indian River County, Kim McCorrison with the District's VPK program and Pat Houston with the Early Learning Coalition round out the team of leaders in the Early Childhood Advocates group.
"The reality is that for this goal to be realized, community in the broadest sense must be involved. Schools cannot do it alone. That's the whole Moonshot Moment...everyone's got to figure out what role they can play."
-- Michael Kint, United Way of Indian River County
The Early Childhood Advocates have voluntarily self-organized around the mission of having all children in the pre-natal to 5-year-old age group kindergarten-ready. This group has engaged more than 10 other agencies and organizations, including the medical community, in their quest to overcoming barriers to literacy in the youngest of children. The advocates have identified the ideal state of conditions for kindergarten readiness in Indian River County once they reach their goal in 2018, while also analyzing the state of conditions that exist here today.
Next on the agenda is identifying challenges and barriers to early learning, organizing into work teams to address them and getting the right agencies and people involved to tackle the issues.
If you have a passion or skills with children ages 0-5, jump on board with this group as they work to get all of Indian River County's children kindergarten-ready by 2018!
Thank you for supporting Moonshot Moment. Together we can make a difference! Please visit www.moonshotmoment.org for more information on Indian River County's quest to become the literacy capital of the United States.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Croom Moonshot Moment Coordinator
Thank you to those "Early Learning Advocates" supporting the Moonshot Moment 90% Literacy Goal:
