Fran Keogan, Project Manager at Literacy, Inc (LINC), explains the basics of the LINC/GRTR! partnership in New York.

Parents Lead the Way
Parents are their child’s first teacher and every parent plays an important role in helping their young child prepare to enter kindergarten. Literacy, Inc. (LINC), a nonprofit organization in New York City that works in low income neighborhoods to increase family reading time, shares this belief with the National Center for Learning Disabilities and has recently partnered with them to bring Get Ready to Read! to parents and families in New York City.

With the assistance of our Community Literacy Networks, groups comprised of concerned community residents who share an interest in ensuring that all children read well, LINC recruited active parents from local neighborhoods to be Get Ready to Read! Trainers. On training day, 23 parents showed up ready to learn about Get Ready to Read! and ready to share this important resource with other families in their neighborhoods. Over the past 10 months, 11 parent trainers completed 46 Get Ready to Read! workshops in 30 different schools, daycares, shelters, and organizations. The trainers gave valuable feedback about their experience as trainers and about the materials as a resource for their community. They expressed a new understanding of teachers as well as an insight on how to better prepare their own children for reading success. 

LINC's parent trainers typically work in community settings outside of schools and classrooms, having little interaction with classroom educators. Through the LINC project with Get Ready to Read!, LINC parent trainers had the unique opportunity to work with early childhood educators on a project that strengthened the connection and communication between the classroom and the home. Cynthia, a parent trainer from Brooklyn, stated, "Teachers asked a lot of good questions that I wouldn't have thought of. They were coming from a teacher's point of view instead of a parent's, and it took me a while until I realized that and it clicked." This parent trainer says she will be able to use this new information to help other parents relate to their child's teacher in a more productive way.

Another parent trainer, Bundalyn from the Bronx, recounted a comment from one of her parent participants that shows the value of the screening tool. The parent remarked, "I already teach my child to read and spell but I have never sat down with him to see what he actually knows." One thing is for certain, through LINC's partnership with NCLD, parents became more empowered to help their children becoming successful readers.