READ Wayne launching website
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 31, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/PHYLLIS MOORE
Donna Phillips, librarian at Wayne County Public Library, explains features of the proposed READ Wayne website, under construction to provide resources for parents and families. It is expected to go live by the end of September.
The READ Wayne initiative still has a target date of June 2019 for the Family Learning Center in the southern end of the county.
In the meantime, organizers say efforts are focusing on developing a website and shoring up other programs to improve school readiness and literacy skills.
"Since the summer we've gotten a lot of projects in place within the community," said Jane Gable, who came on board in October as project manager for READ Wayne. "Our initiaitve is for early learning, birth to grade level, to give children opportunities to have the skills they need before they go to kindergarten. That's a pretty wide range but that's the focus."
READ Wayne actually began in 2012, spurred by research indicating that 66 percent of fourth-graders in the U.S. were not reading proficiently, or 82 percent if they live in poverty. Dr. David Tayloe Jr., president of Goldsboro Pediatrics, was concerned with how young children locally compared.
Statistics from Wayne County Public Schools at that point revealed that 52 percent of kindergarten students lacked the language skills necessary to begin learning to read and 51 percent of fourth-graders were not reading at grade level.
From that, Tayloe initiated a coalition of community partners committed to working together to ensure all children learn to read and succeed in school.
Since then, the group has gone through an evolution, from the name change of SOAR Wayne in 2014-2015 to its present moniker since 2015.
In 2017-2018, Wayne County became the sixth county in the state to become a Grade Level Community, joining the Grade Level Community Network. Efforts were made to update action plan goals, strategies and data, all under the umbrella of three pillars: closing the readiness gap, reducing summer slide and reducing chronic school absence.
United Way of Wayne County has been an active partner in the process, with its board of directors voting in June 2018 to align with the initiative. Money was appropriated from a legacy gift to fund two part-time employees, a project manager and assistant.
One of the most important outcomes determined early on was the need for a Family Learning Center, which would not only focus on the early learners but their parents as well.
Dudley was determined to be an ideal locale for such a center, the organizers said.
"That's the area that does not have any services for families," Gable said.
Donna Phillips, librarian at Wayne County Public Library, said efforts have begun to secure a site.
"There are not a lot of buildings, existing buildings, there," she said. "We wanted to start small with a pilot project so that we could really master what we're doing and have good outcomes so we thought it best to start on a small scale.
"We became aware of a building that actually sits behind the former Southern Bank building in Dudley. We are currently working with some good folks in the community to help us assess what it would cost to retrofit that building so that we could start with at least two classrooms, early childhood classrooms, and then a parent classroom for adults."
The vision is to have a "two-generational approach" to learning, she said.
They are also considering bringing in a modular unit that would be designed specifically for this project.
Another requirement, she added, would be playground space.
While the emphasis will be on children as well as the adult component, the ultimate goal is to help children be successful and the families move to self-sufficiency, Gable said.
"Although we're starting at birth, it's really a workforce preparedness initiative," Phillips said, adding that the business community will be a valuable asset. "Business people get this. They understand fullly because these are their employees who we'll be serving."
While the physical existence of the Family Learning Center is down the road, there are other ways for the community to tap into resources and give READ Wayne a more visible presence, the women said.
"We want people to bump into the message no matter where they go in Wayne County -- start reading to your baby, from birth, and keep reading to them even when they can read to you," Phillips said. "We are developing a lot of things that folks will bump into, like 'Welcome Baby Baskets' that are being created that will have a book in it, instructions for mom and dad on what your baby is learning, about Baby and Me programs at the library or the Reach Out and Read program at Goldsboro Pediatrics or the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (at Partnership for Children) and how to sign up your child.
There have also been reading boxes set up around the county, said Patty Graham, community engagement director.
The effort provides access to books through a variety of locations such as doctor's offices, schools and other places families frequent, under the concept of "take one and read while you wait."
Among the locations already implementing this are Pizza Inn and Arcade in Pikeville and in Goldsboro at Pizza Inn, Brew Masters, Lantern Inn, Western Sizzlin, PT's Grille and La Paz Restaurant. Other sites can be found on the United Way website, unitedwayne.org.
But perhaps the biggest thing under construction right now is a website.
"There will be some web presence on the United Way site -- the READ Wayne website," Phillips said. "We're building the site, Patty's done some initial work. The public can't see it yet but we hope to have it by the end of September."
The new site is expected to offer information that will be useful to parents and families as well as ways to donate, volunteer and participate in the communitywide efforts.