Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
It took probably two years, or maybe even three years,
to come to the place we are now with P4J because it started before the grant.
But it wouldn't -- it wouldn't be as great as it is if we didn't have them on board.
[ Music ]
I’m Sharon Grover.
I’m the head of youth services at the Hedberg Public Library in
Janesville, Wisconsin, and that’s where we are today.
When I came here six years ago, we had a thriving story time program,
and it was just wonderful.
People did all kinds of terrific early literacy kinds of things.
I felt as if we needed to let our families know that, not only were they having a
good time and having fun, but that their children were actually learning something
and that they could help expand this outside of story time.
I knew the reputation of Saroj Ghoting and Betsy Diamant-Cohen,
and I thought it would be great to have them come do some training for us.
And that’s how the grant came about.
And it provided for a two-day training that included not only the early literacy pieces
and how to promote them to parents, it also included a day where we talked about
collaborating with community partners to get the word out to the community that
the library can help you with this.
The actual grant title is Early Literacy, a Community-Based Partnership.
And so we reached out to Head Start, the other six libraries in the
Arrowhead Library System, to the P4J and early childhood teachers
in the school district, and the library staff in the public schools.
Another community partner turned out to be our Literacy Connection.
So my advice and experience is, stick with it.
Keep sending those emails.
Keep getting yourself invited to whatever meetings out there you can.
Because, in the end, now we’ve come back full circle.
The gist of it is, if you can find one well-connected community partner,
then you've got your base, and you can expand from there.
You find that one key player who is well-connected elsewhere,
and between the two of you, you find the rest of your partners.
And it’s not necessarily easy, but it is absolutely rewarding.
[ Music ]