Status Report Q2 2025
ACTION TEAM UPDATES
Out of School Time Team Selects Pilot Sites
This past quarter, Raising Readers Nashville has been focused on standing up its Out of School Time Action Team. A Design Sprint with more than 20 partners was held at the end of April resulting in strategies to strengthen and align Out of School Time programs as well as increase engagement between MNPS and families. The result of that intensive two and a half day meeting was the development of two pilot projects both of which will work to see an increased instructional coherence from home to school by coordinating with RRN’s Family and Caregiver Engagement Team, MNPS and their families. Aswell as working with OST providers to coordinate curriculum, training and evaluation primarily focused on student literacy.
The first Action Team meeting was held June 24 and seven OST programs and four elementary schools were identified to be a part of the pilot. If you are interested in being a part of this exciting action team, please contact Peter.Sherrill@unitedwaygn.org.
The Childcare Landscape Study Action Team Launches Survey
In March 2024 , RRN in partnership with the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education, completed Phase I of the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study. Phase I of the study examines child care supply and population metrics that inform demand at the local level across the county. The executive summary offers the five key takeaways from Phase I of the study.
Now, with support from the Nashville Metropolitan Council Women's Caucus and funding from the Metro Nashville budget, this Action Team is working on Phase II of the research study to determine the true cost of child care across the county.
Currently, the Policy Impact Center is gathering data and information from child care directors via a survey.
RRN Begins Self-Assessment of Family Engagement Strategies
In June RRN began the deployment of our Family Engagement Self-Assessment to create a baseline measurement of RRN’s family engagement status. The Self-Assessment tool was designed by Action Team 6 and Elevate Consulting during the 2023-2024 Implementation Phase during the development of the RRN Family Engagement Guide. Adapted from the Indiana Family Engagement Self-Assessment, our tool is designed to capture how well RRN teams execute their family engagement strategies. After completing the self-assessment, RRN teams will commit to progressing to the subsequent phase of family engagement for at least one indicator. The assessment will be deployed annually to measure the collaborative’s progress in engaging families.
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RRN Partners with NEEC to Accelerate Discussion About the Child Care Crisis
In our role as a community accelerator, RRN provides or mobilizes resources, support, infrastructure, and facilitation to advance proven strategies, in partnership with other agencies. This May, RRN co-authored “How Much Child Care Can Nashville Actually Supply? Early Findings and Next Steps from the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study,” a new white paper from the Nashville Early Education Coalition. This white paper, produced in partnership with the Prenatal-to-3Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University, takes a close look at how much child care Davidson County can actually provide — and where it’s falling short. RRN will be the co-author on a forthcoming white paper about our efforts to stabilize the childcare landscape.
RRN and Partners Attend GELF SELECT Conference
RRN Director Megan Godbey and RRN Associate Director Julie Gwinn attended the recent GELF SELECT Conference in Franklin, TN. The conference featured two days of keynote speakers, networking activities and break-out sessions, one of which featured a few of our partners. - Caroline Lewis, Reading Programs Coordinator with Book'em, Brooke Siegel, Manager of Imagination Library of Middle TN and Brandon White, Director of Education at UWGN presented a session on Engaging Volunteers to Strengthen Literacy Efforts.
Join the Work!
RRN now has three levels of engagement for partners. We can’t do the work without the support of our partner members. If you are interested in serving on an action team or infrastructure team, please complete the Partner form here and indicate your team interest, or email Peter.Sherrill@unitedwaygn.org with questions.