Get Delaware Reading campaigns recognized as Bright Spots
The national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading recently announced that United Way of Delaware’s Get Delaware Reading campaigns in Sussex, Kent and New Castle counties have been named national 2021 Bright Spot communities for innovative responses to the instructional challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis.
The recognition highlights 54 communities across the United States that implemented innovative responses to the COVID crisis, including new or adaptive roles, programs, organizational relationships and collaborations, policies and/or resources. In particular, the CGLR recognizes communities for crafting solutions that are especially effective, replication-worthy and/or deserving of being sustained during the post-COVID period.
Recognizing the seriousness of learning loss during the pandemic, especially for students of color, the Get Delaware Reading campaign:
• Collaborated with Stubbs Early Education Center to provide students with education/literacy packets
• By the end of the current school year, will have provided more than 70,000 books to students in 14 schools in seven school districts through the My Very Own Library program
• Collaborated with the Delaware Department of Education to provide 6,000 literacy kits which include school supplies and grade-level literacy materials
• Launched the Virtual Reading Angels program in which volunteers videotape themselves reading a book and post those videos online for children to watch and/or to read along
• Is launching a pilot program with Nemours BrightStart and Reading Assist to provide professional development and intense literacy instruction to teachers to work with students throughout the summer months.
When Delaware public schools closed last March, United Way quickly raised funds to help establish or maintain 27 educational learning pods in some of Delaware’s most underserved communities. Working in partnership with 21 community-based organizations, the Longwood Foundation, the City of Wilmington, numerous corporate and individual donors, and Delaware’s school districts, the pods facilitated access to the internet and computers while ensuring continuation of meals, and consistent adult coaching and supervision. These professionally staffed, safety-compliant learning pods now help keep more than 750 Delaware students from falling behind. Each learning pod works in collaboration with local school districts to ensure students are engaged with the standard curriculum.
“Ensuring that all Delaware children, especially children of color, are reading on grade level by third grade is a UWDE strategic priority. COVID presented significant challenges, but through collaborative efforts with community-based partners in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties, we now offer children and their families the tools they need to succeed. We appreciate this national recognition as a Bright Spot community. We look forward to sharing our experiences and learning from other Bright Spot communities about navigating the challenges of COVID-19,” said Michelle A. Taylor, president and CEO, United Way of Delaware.
“With the team efforts of United Way and First State Community Action Agency, we’ve planted seeds of inspiration, imagination, and social interaction in children who were beginning to lose hope. This is a team effort, which stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. This is our daily motto, which we strive to perfect,” said Karen Man, First State Community Action Agency, Georgetown.
“My Very Own Library has given students access to resources that our school library could not provide and has been a school-wide initiative that has helped unite our hybrid and remote students,” said Corey Dietrich, assistant principal at North Georgetown Elementary School.
