SKOKIE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Early Literacy Intergenerational Program Proposal

March 3, 2015
Introduction:
According to the 2012 Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM), of the
65,074 people in Skokie, 2,373 are between the ages of 0 and 3. As of 2014,
1,284 children (ages 0-5) in Skokie were enrolled in childcare. Research
indicates that children in day care receive less one-on-one exposure to
reading (Green 2006). Interactive participatory personalized reading makes
a difference in language development (Literacy, Bonding and School
Readiness 2005). Literacy development begins at birth and is closely linked
to a babys earliest experiences with books and stories. Babies learn
language through social literacy experiences parents[or others] interacting
with them using books. The American Library Association goes on to
explain that early positive individualized experiences with reading are
associated with language acquisition throughout the early years of
childhood. (ALA Early Literacy 2015).
In an effort to meet Skokie Public Librarys (SPL) strategic focus improving
kindergarten readiness through engaging toddlers, preschoolers, their
parents and caregivers with early literacy activities and also expand Youth
Services and Community Engagement Departments capacity to serve the
community, we propose to send trained SPL volunteers to read, rock, sing
and share language with the youngest childcare attendees at Skokie child
care centers. These children will have literacy-devoted one-on-one
interaction with volunteers. SPLs goals to both partner with targeted groups
in the community (daycare centers and adult volunteers) and address
broader community issues such as, kindergarten readiness, would be met
by this program. The SPL volunteers would benefit from the training and
expertise of our early literacy librarians by gaining valuable new skills, and
connecting with staff at the daycare, bonding with infants and young
children, and making a difference in their own community(Volunteering and
Its Surprising Benefits 2015). While daycare staff meet essential basic
needs of the infants, daycare centers will benefit from having trained SPL
volunteers offer personalized and differentiated literacy and language
development interaction and socialization for ages 0-3 in the classroom
setting.
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SCC Early Childhood Centers and Skokie Public Library Volunteers

In working with Skokie preschools and child care centers Youth Services and
Community Engagement Departments identified an early literacy need in the
community. Infants through pre-school age children have less one-on-one
interaction when in child care centers and would benefit from being read to
and rocked during the day while at childcare centers (Green 2006).
Consistent volunteer adults will read, rhyme, sing and socialize with infants
ages 0-3. Such interactive one-on-one relationships are critical because they
are associated with language and literacy acquisition as the child develops.
We propose utilizing our SPL volunteer pool and an appropriate community
childcare center partner to pilot this initiative.
After observations and discussions with Swift Child Care Early Childhood
Centers (SCC), we would like to target SCC as our partner in the community
for an early literacy intergenerational initiative. SCC serves children ages 6
weeks through 12 years with approximately 250 children at their three sites.
The ratio of caregivers to attendees (see chart below) is such that SCC
attendees would benefit from having SPL trained volunteers work on a oneon-one basis with the children.
Caregiver to Child Ratio
1:4 (infants)
1:5 (toddlers)
1:8 (2 yr. olds)

Site 1
8260 Elmwood
8 infants

Site 2
8106 Lincoln
8 infants

15 toddlers (18
mnths +)
14-16 2 yr. olds

10-12 (toddlers and

2s)

Site 3
8064 Lincoln
14 (toddlers and
2s)

SCC has an excellent reputation in the community. Sixty percent of the

families at their facility are members of the Skokie community and will
attend Skokie public schools. While SCC caregivers provide quality toiletry,
hygiene and feeding care for the children the management identified a need
to enhance their programming with more personalized reading and rocking
experiences in their center. With this pilot program, SPL volunteers would
have the opportunity to have uninterrupted literacy interactions with the
infants through age three. SCC currently has 73 children under the age of 3
who would benefit from this program. SPL has a small existing applicant pool
of volunteers interested in reading to young children and has the potential to
recruit more interested volunteers.
Logistics and Program Details:
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SCC would welcome volunteers dedicated to one-on-one literacy and

language interactions with the infants and toddlers. The volunteers will be
recruited and selected by the SPL volunteer program from those who show
an interest in reading to children and meet the requirements in SPLs job
description. Volunteers will be asked to complete a health clearance and an
onsite SCC orientation. The volunteers will also complete a training session
at SPL with both SPL staff and SCC staff. SPL staff will address the early
literacy components of the program and SCC staff will emphasize the policies
unique to SCC.
Volunteers will commit to a three month time period during which they will
visit SCC consistently once a week for 2 hours to read, sing, talk, rhyme and
rock with the children. SCC is responsible for scheduling and tracking
volunteers. Volunteers will record their hours in Volgistics, the librarys
volunteer database, using SCC iPads. Volunteers will rotate between the
infant and toddler rooms. Preferable times to schedule volunteers are
9:30a.m.-11:30a.m. or 3:30-5:30p.m. SPL Youth Librarians will select
appropriate materials that will be checked out and stored at SCC for use by
the volunteers.
Volunteers will meet with the designated Youth Services representative every
six weeks to monitor progress. The Community Engagement Department will
contact SCC every six weeks for a progress report. We will identify the
outcomes to be measured in collaboration with SCC and develop appropriate
assessment tools.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we propose this exciting new early literacy initiative as a way
to partner with a strong member of the community to meet the needs of an
underserved sector of the population. Through interdepartmental
cooperation at SPL and community partnerships we will be able to engage
with and enrich the lives of the youngest members of our community while
providing an opportunity for our SPL volunteers to be a part of this exciting
enterprise to share their love of books and language while bonding with the
children of SCC.

Things still to be worked out include:

Outcome measurement and assessment tools to evaluate the program

will be developed.
Training packet to be put together for volunteers will be developed
once specific needs for the volunteers have been determined.
Long-term goal to create a new collection of Lapsit BookBags; for the
short-term, materials from the current SPL collection will be checked
out to be stored at SCC.

References Used:
"Early Literacy." United for Libraries -A Division of the American Library
Association. Accessed January 28, 2015.
http://www.ala.org/united/products_services/booksforbabies/earlylitera
cy.
"Early Literacy-Brainwonders and Sharing Books With Babies." Zero to ThreeBrain WondersBoston University Medical Center, Erikson Institute, and Zero to Three.
January 1, 2003. Accessed January 28, 2015.
http://www.zerotothree.org/BrainWonders.
Green, Stephen D. and Rick Peterson. Language and Literacy Promotion in
Early
Childhood Settings: A Survey of Center-Based Practices. Early

Childhood Research and Practice. Volume 8 Number 1, 2006. Accessed

February 26, 2015. http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v8n1/green.html
"IECAM." IECAM- Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map. January 1, 2014.
Accessed January 28, 2015. http://iecam.illinois.edu/cgibin/iecam/search.asp.
Kaplan, Matthew. "Launching Intergenerational Programs in Early Childhood
Settings: A Comparison of Explicit Intervention with an Emergent
Approach." Penn State Inter-generational Programming-Research on
Intergenerational. Accessed January 28, 2015.
http://extension.psu.edu/youth/intergenerational/research/researchon-intergenerational-programs-in-early-childhood-education-settings.
"Lapsit Bags." Ready to Read Resource Center-Anchorage Public Library.
Accessed January 28, 2015.
http://www.readytoreadak.org/kits_lapsit.html.
"Literacy, Bonding and School Readiness." Florida State University Center for
Prevention & Early Intervention Policy. April 15, 2005. Accessed
January 28, 2015.
http://www.cpeip.fsu.edu/resourceFiles/resourceFile_83.pdf.

Tomlin, Carolyn. "Early Childhood NEWS - Article Reading Center-Providing

Programs That Meet Infant and Toddler Needs." Earlychildhood NEWS Article Reading Center. January 1, 2008. Accessed January 28, 2015.
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?
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ArticleID=621.
"Volunteering and Its Surprising Benefits : Helping Others While Helping
Yourself. Accessed February 18, 2015.
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/work-career/volunteering-and-itssurprising-benefits.htm.