Partner Spotlight: Reading Connections

One in five people in Guilford County struggles with basic literacy skills. Reading Connections transforms our community by improving literacy and promoting educational equity for people of all ages.

“We’ve been in operation for more than 30 years and started as a way to provide extra literacy support for adults, but now it’s grown into much, much more,” said Alison Welch, Reading Connections family literacy manager. “We started the Family Literacy program in 2006 and work with parents, caregivers, and their children. We want to help parents know how they can support their children in becoming ready for kindergarten.”

Welch made the point that literacy is cyclical – which is why Reading Connections takes a multigenerational approach and partners with organizations like Ready for School, Ready for Life.

Reading Connections plans to enroll 150 families in its Guilford County program this year. In the 2020-21 academic year, 68 percent of the parents in the program reported reading more to their children, which is key to breaking the cycle of illiteracy.

“Research shows that children who start kindergarten behind their peers are less likely to experience success in school and read on grade level by third grade,” Welch said. “Working with Ready Ready and its program The Guilford Basics helps us explain to parents that early brain development is critical for future success in school.”

Reading Connections’ Family Literacy program provides six 15-week sessions during the school year at Title 1 elementary schools and community centers in Guilford County. Because parents are their children’s first teachers, the program incorporates literacy instruction for adults and children.

“A lot of the strategies included in The Basics Guilford are also included in the Motheread Fatheread curriculum we use in our program,” Welch said. “Encouraging parents to be actively engaged when reading with their kids, letting children turn the pages, repeating key phrases, or pointing at pictures are good examples. We had a Ready Ready staff member give a training in The Basics and Active Reading with our parents and loved how she emphasized that you don’t have to be reading the words on the page to engage your child in a story.”

Staff Profile: Heather Adams

“I’ve always had a passion for working with children. From very early in my work with children, I understood that a strong foundation sets them up for success,” VP of Public Will-Building Heather Adams said. “After my daughter was born, I shifted my drive away from the classroom and into early childhood development.”

After nearly 15 years as Executive Director of the Rockingham County Partnership for Children, Adams joined Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) as Director of Engagement and Literacy Initiatives. Her projects included areas such as family engagement with the Guilford Parent Leader Network, strategic planning for The Basics Guilford, and leading a community-wide design team for the Ages 3-5 stage of our work. She celebrated her second anniversary at Ready Ready just last month.

“Now my role is building momentum across Guilford County for the work Ready Ready is coordinating,” Adams said. “Our goal is population-level change, and it impacts the whole community. That means we must reach out to our incredibly diverse community and help them understand why we’re building a system of care for the very youngest children and their families.”

Photo of Heather AdamsReady Ready’s work focused on prenatal to age three is scaling up to full implementation. In addition, the next stage adds strategies focused on children ages 3-5 and then 5-8. “Our hope in stage two is that we’ll see a reduction in disparities, improved outcomes for children at kindergarten entry, and success in school by third grade. As we build public will and momentum, I think we’ll be a much more visible organization in the community.”

A recent empty-nester with her daughter in her second year of college, Adams enjoys making connections with the community. One key activity – running. A former marathon runner, Adams finds running to be both a work-life balance release and an effective fitness routine. “I have found a lot of community running the streets and trails of Greensboro and Guilford County. When you’re pounding the pavement with friends, there’s lots to discuss while you enjoy the scenery.”

Ready for School, Ready for Life Awards Continuous Quality Improvement Grants

The grants help organizations improve to better serve Guilford County families.

(Greensboro, N.C., August 25, 2022) – Ready for School, Ready for Life (Ready Ready) has awarded $652,000 in grants to programs from 13 organizations serving families in Guilford County to participate in its second cohort of the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process. Ready Ready has partnered with The Duke Endowment and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work on these grants to make participating in the CQI Cohort II financially possible.

“CQI is a team-based process of collecting, analyzing, and using data to improve service quality. This data helps identify efficiency, effectiveness, performance, and outcomes to provide the resources our community needs,” said Ready Ready CEO Charrise Hart. “We are glad to have such a good response from community partners who want to be involved in Ready Ready’s system-building work.”

To date, Ready Ready has had 13 programs complete CQI training. Four more are currently participating in a cohort process. CQI Cohort II launches in September 2022 and will wrap up in March 2023. The CQI Cohort II programs are:

  • Backpack Beginnings
  • The Barnabas Network
  • The Center for New North Carolinians
  • Children and Families First (formerly Guilford Child Development)
  • Greensboro Housing Authority
  • GuilfordWorks
  • The Kellin Foundation
  • Out of the Garden Project
  • Positive Direction for Youth and Families
  • Room at the Inn
  • Triad Goodwill
  • Women’s Resource Center of Greensboro
  • YWCA Greensboro

Each program will dedicate 3-4 team members who will participate in monthly learning sessions with other programs and CQI facilitators from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Between sessions, team members will complete assignments and receive coaching from their facilitators.

“Through this work, programs will build their capacity to apply a CQI framework,” said Jacqueline McCracken, Ready Ready’s vice president for strategic impact. “This work is focused on the Model for Improvement, a powerful and flexible method that promotes a structured process for experiential learning.”

Through the CQI process, the programs will build the capacity to use program data to identify challenges or opportunities for improvement related to family experience or satisfaction. Through experiential learning, programs will gain the tools they need to generate higher performance-building capacity while serving Guilford County families and children.

“Every child deserves a great start in life, but not every child starts from the same place,” Hart said. “By using this process, the organizations in CQI Cohort II will be able to enhance the important work they are doing to assist Guilford County families with the resources, support, and information they need to give their youngest children a strong foundation for success in school and life.”

Media contact: Stephanie Skordas, Director of Marketing & Communications, stephanies@getreadyguilford.org or 336.579.2977 ext. 2015