Written by Krystin Dean
The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy and the Get Georgia Reading Campaign are pleased to release the grant awardees for the 2022 Collective Impact Grant initiative, including six Georgia Family Connection Collaboratives.
The purpose of this initiative is to improve the early language and literacy skills of Georgia’s children, by sustaining community coalitions to increase early language and literacy access, professional learning, awareness, and education. The Deal Center will continue to invest in communities that use the collective impact framework to address at least three of the four pillars of the Get Georgia Reading Campaign: Language Nutrition, Access, Positive Learning Climate, and Teacher Preparation and Effectiveness by using The Basics principles and strategies to support social, emotional, and cognitive development of children from birth to age 3.
The recipients of the 2022 Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant Initiative: Sustaining The Basics to Communities in Georgia will receive up to $10,000 to support implementation of The Basics principles and strategies and engage with the BLN.
The 10 awardees are as follows:
Advocates for Children, Bartow County
Cobb Collaborative
Cook County Family Connection
Early County Family Connection
Glynn County Family Connection
Lumpkin Literacy
Quitman County Family Connection
Troup County Family Connection
The University of West Georgia COE Early Learning Center
United Way of Central Georgia
The Basics was founded in 2016 by Dr. Ronald Ferguson, director of the Harvard Achievement Gap Institute (AGI). Originally called The Boston Basics, it has expanded from a citywide effort to an international coalition of more than three-dozen communities, now called The Basics Learning Network (BLN). Dr. Ferguson’s approach, grounded in the latest research in early childhood learning, brain development, behavioral science, and community change, represents a strategy for whole communities to support vibrant learning and brain development among infants and toddlers.
The Basics principles and strategies are simple, powerful, and highly accessible, equipped with a Community Toolkit that provides a rich constellation of implementation guides, videos, and written resources for organizations and staff members to inform and support parents and caregivers around their use. Additionally, collaboration between members of the BLN engages partners with an ongoing research agenda, promoting documentation, evaluation, and ongoing communication for continuous learning and improvement.
The vision of the Deal Center’s Collective Impact Grant initiative is that all children growing up in communities in Georgia have access to strong systems of family, community, and educational support in early language and literacy development so that they can be successful in school, the workforce, and life.
Through a partnership between The Deal Center and the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley under the 2019 Collective Impact Grant Initiative, Columbus became the first community in Georgia to adopt The Basics in May 2019. The partnership with and funding from The Deal Center has propelled growth, cross-sector collaboration, and implementation of The Basics Chattahoochee Valley. The Basics Chattahoochee Valley will again be partnering with The Deal Center during the 2022 Collective Impact Grant to provide technical support and thought partnership as we expand The Basics across Georgia.
The 2022 Collective Impact Grant initiative will bolster the educational and developmental outcomes of Georgia’s children in our most distressed communities and enhance community capacity by providing funding for the BLN of Georgia to sustain the great work they started in 2021. Additionally, each of the original BLN of Georgia communities will be required to mentor new community organizations as they join the Basics Learning Network and begin implementing The Basics principles and strategy.
