Status Update: Q2 2023
BACKBONE UPDATES
Peabody’s new early childhood research center takes the lead
We are excited to announce that the partnership lead for the state-wide Bright Start TN program is transitioning to Peabody’s new early childhood research center at Vanderbilt University. This move will increase the capacity for the Raising Readers Nashville Action Teams to focus efforts on current objectives and strategies, and Peabody’s research center will manage responsibilities around data, research, and policy analysis. Peabody’s research center builds on the work of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Center (PN3), an existing Raising Readers Nashville partner. Because of the existing relationship, this transition maintains continuity in the collective work currently underway.
SELECT Conference
Megan Godbey, Director of Raising Readers Nashville, served as a panelist at the 2023 SELECT Conference, hosted by the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation. Megan participated in both the Bright Start panel as well as the Bold Leadership panel, an interactive conversation with some of the state's key leaders around bold decision making, dealing with failure, and engaging in meaningful partnership in early literacy. In this panel, Raising Readers Nashville was featured as a partnership model for other communities looking to build collaboration.
Backbone adds staff
We’re excited to welcome Jordan Owens to the backbone team. As senior manager of strategy and partnerships, Jordan will be serving partners in facilitating Action Team meetings, driving partner recruitment efforts, and supporting co-chairs in advancing strategies.
ACTION TEAM UPDATES
Defining family engagement
Action Team 6 has completed their work in creating a definition around family engagement for Raising Readers Nashville. With this complete, they will be moving forward to develop a clear set of steps for engaging families, creating a shared structure for all teams as we move forward.
Child care facility expansion guide
The first draft of this guide is complete. Work to this point has included extensive data gathering from state and local sources, as well as insight and experiences from current providers through interviews. The team recently held an in-person group review and discussion, and is now diligently editing and refining the guide, with the goal of publishing by the end of the year.
Building community
Action Team 4 has kicked off their naming and identity process for their collaborative of early childhood educators. The collaborative will create community among educators, serve as a guide in connecting and navigating available training resources and events, and support opportunities for coaching and mentoring.
Strides in increasing book access
Data collection has been completed to develop a “current state” book distribution map, which Action Team 7 is using to increase equitable book access for families in Davidson County. They have also reviewed data around six neighborhoods with low library circulation rates, and will be piloting book access strategies in the communities around the Thomas A. Edison Elementary School in Antioch and Napier Elementary School in the Napier neighborhood of Nashville.
Date set for first health provider meeting
Action Team 5 will be holding their first convening of early childhood service providers on Aug 30, to identify gaps and address common needs across providers. They are looking to grow their invite list, see below for a call to action.