Overview

Between 2006 and 2008, the Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children (BTWIC) offered the BookEnds Early Literacy and Social Development Initiative to teachers and parents at local pre-school and early education programs.  BookEnds was designed to enhance the academic, social, and emotional well-being of low-income children, ranging in age from 3 months to 6 years of age.  Central to the BookEnds model is the core belief that parents and early childhood educators are the critical “bookends”, ensuring that children receive the stable, nurturing, and consistent care which they need for the most healthy and positive social and academic outcomes.  BookEnds was started in response to two important and correlating realities—the increased awareness of the impact that parental engagement has on the improved academic outcomes for children and the important role that early childhood educators and caregivers play in sculpting children’s futures.

Accomplishments

BTWIC was able to strengthen and build key community partnerships for program continuation by providing the resources to partially support a Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator  who also serves as a trainer.

BTWIC was also able to ensure full and substantive participation across diverse linguistic communities of parents and providers by providing the resources to fund on-sight translation services and translated materials for all workshops and monthly correspondence (i.e. newsletters, booklets, etc).  More than two-thirds of the families served by BookEnds represented multi-cultural, multi-lingual and underserved communities that speak a language other than English as their primary language and 25% were living at or below the poverty line.

Lastly, BTWIC was also able to establish BookEnds as a model parental engagement and early literacy development program that can be shared with key stakeholders and colleagues in the field by providing the resources to further develop and package a modular curriculum.  The curriculum is available for use by non-profits engaged in early literacy development.

Is BTWIC still running BookEnds?

The BookEnds program was completed and discontinued in December 2008 due to a strategic shift in the BTWIC mission toward a focus on systemic early education policy change.  The curriculum is available for use by other non-profits engaging in parental involvement strategies for early learners.

Since its inception, BTWIC has aspired to positively impact the quality of early childhood literacy through its emphasis on both programs and policies.  We are exceptionally proud of the work we have been able to accomplish in both of these areas.  We are increasingly impressed by the quality of programs which are being offered by agencies in the community for whom program development and implementation is core to their mission.

At the same time, we are even more convinced that the efforts of BTWIC are best directed towards helping to ensure that there are policies in place which support the creation and ongoing work of these and future programs for children and their families.   In our future endeavors, we will seek to be an added value by continuing to advocate for early literacy legislation that supports change and access for young children and their families.