Donna's input

Mission Statement for ECRR program for the Catawba County Library System:

The Catawba County Library System is dedicated to help parents and caregivers of children from birth to five years with informative resources emphasizing the importance of early childhood literacy. Youth Service staff will implement the early childhood literacy program, “Every Child Ready to Read” resulting in a path for reading readiness and lifelong love of reading in the young children we serve.
Goals:
1) Youth Service staff will implement the Every Child Ready to Read program into our weekly story times, emphasizing the six skills to early childhood literacy.
2) Build collaborations with community organizations to teach ECRR workshops to parents and care givers of young children. (Parenting Network, Children’s Resource Center, NC Cooperative Extension and 4-H, Community Schools program, Sweethearts, Smart Start, Chamber of Commerce, Catawba County and Newton/Conover Schools, Parents as Educators program, CVCC, etc….)
3) Publicize what we are doing with ECRR program- Brochures, posters/flyers, web-site, family fairs, school events, power point presentations, news articles, etc….
4) Develop materials (literacy prop boxes) that enhance our teaching of the ECRR program.
5) Seek funding to help support the growth of the ECRR program in the Catawba County Library System. (Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Smart Start, Gates Foundation, etc…)We will need to have some record of accountability to support our asking for funding) Develop survey?

Some ideas that we can do to implement the ECRR program:
1. Observe each other’s story times to see how we are using the tools we learned in the workshop
2. Meet or communicate regularly base to see how the program is or isn’t working for us and to make sure we are all using the program in a consistant manner.
3. Develop 4 to 5 literacy prop boxes to use in story times and workshops based on classic books like “The Hungry Caterpillar”
4. Develop 3 to 4 story times with books, finger plays, songs, and activities that can be shared between branches as a fall back or in early use of the program
5. Present power point programs out in the community to let them know about the ECRR.
6. Research other libraries on the internet and see what they are doing with ECRR
7. Set goals to see where we want to go with the program after being used for 6 to 12 months.
8. Make sure we all have a clear understanding of the program (reading the book, reviewing the workshop materials, practice the readymade dialog and materials, and workshop already put together in the program. Robin may have order some of these materials and we can get them off the internet)
9. Teach workshops to care givers and parents
10. Give out brochures, handouts, and other information to parents at the end of each story time and outreach.
11. A Youth Service staff person serves on a board of one of our partnering agencies.