Fiscal Year 2021
Annual Report
MESSAGE FROM THE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Partners, Donors, and Friends, As the 2021 fiscal year comes to a close, it is prudent to reflect on how our world has changed and the new sense of normalcy we are all navigating. I am deeply grateful for the staff of the Deal Center, the Governing Board, Georgia College leadership, our partners and colleagues, and Former Governor Nathan Deal and First Lady of Georgia Sandra Dunagan Deal, who persevered to make certain our vision — to propel every Georgia child to read proficiently and beyond —continued uninterrupted during the ongoing pandemic. Included in this annual report are metrics and front-line stories demonstrating the ways in which the Deal Center has evolved to reflect our vision and mission. We are proud to share how our work has become more cohesive, collaborative, coordinated, and connected as we create and implement a fully transformed system that will facilitate and promote our quest to embed evidence-based early language and literacy practices in organizations working with children birth to age eight. To this end, we have transitioned from individual projects and programs to leading evidence-based, system-wide recommendations and improvements. This shift represents the Deal Center’s commitment to lead the charge to: • • • •
Embed evidence-based practices Provide research-based professional development Conduct original, ground-breaking research studies Improve the early language and literacy skills of all Georgia’s children
The creation of a fully transformed birth to age eight system to put all children on the path to reading success entails a number of approaches, including collecting empirical evidence for the Deal Center’s quality improvement process, education for families and caregivers, and professional learning for the workforce in communities across the state. One such example is the Literacy Mentoring for Leadership Program (LMLP) Impact Study. These newly analyzed data, explained within the annual report, are leading our team to additional studies that aim to improve student literacy outcomes and achievement in the context of teacher education pedagogy, knowledge, and development. As the Deal Center continues to grow, our team is proud to share these and other ways in which we are laying the foundation to improve our state’s early literacy outcomes by transforming training for the infant, toddler, and early childhood workforce. In this report, you will find information about our collaborators, including state and local policy leaders, educators, community partners, parents, and researchers. This year, the Deal Center incorporated the theme “Literacy Changes Lives: Advocate for Literacy Equity for Every Child in your Community and State” into our work. We were proud to host this year’s annual Governor’s Summit on Early Language and Literacy (virtual format), in which we showcased the culmination of fiscal year 2021’s events, activities, and initiatives through the results of innovative research projects and cross-sector collaborations supported by the Deal Center. We are especially grateful for our colleagues, donors, and friends, and hope that you enjoy learning more about our growth and success. Many thanks to each of you for your continued support. Sincerely,
Dr. Theresa Magpuri-Lavell EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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ABOUT
THE DEAL CENTER In 2017, the Deal Center was created by the Office of Former Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia Legislature to be Georgia’s research and training facility for the advancement of early language and literacy development.
VISION
MISSION
Passionate commitment. Integrity. Collaborative thought leadership. Respect. Our values guide our efforts. These values are at the heart of every program, every event, every project, and they keep us focused on our vision — propelling every Georgia child to read proficiently and beyond.
The mission of the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy is to improve the early language and literacy skills of Georgia’s children by providing research-based professional development for organizations working with children from birth through age eight.
GOVERNING BOARD Commissioner Amy M. Jacobs, Chair Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning Arianne Weldon, Vice Chair Georgia Family Connection Partnership, Get Georgia Reading Campaign Dr. Keisha Callins Mercer University School of Medicine/ Community Health Care
Dr. Theresa Magpuri-Lavell Executive Director
Cheryl Cooper-Smith Program Manager
Kimberly Scott Administrative Office Manager
Wendy Cornelisen Georgia Public Library Service Dr. Lucky Jain Emory Children’s Center Lisa Kinnemore Georgia Board of Education Dr. Joe Peters Georgia College & State University
Garrett Cook Data Analyst I & Collective Impact Grant Project Coordinator
Elizabeth Panther Administrative Assistant II
Martha Ann Todd Technical College System of Georgia Joy Hawkins Governor’s Office of Student Achievement 2
Katrina Davis Program Assistant
2021 IMPACT
DEAL CENTER QUICK FACTS
120
Literacy Changes Lives
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COUNTIES IMPACTED BY RESEARCH, PERSONAL LEARNING, & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
ATTENDEES & 10 WEBINARS AT THE 2021 GOVERNOR’S SUMMIT ON EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
10 COUNTIES AWARDED $25,000 EACH FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT GRANT
211
CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS GIVEN
596
ATTENDEES AT 8 VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS
LITERACY CHANGES LIVES: ADVOCATE FOR LITERACY EQUITY FOR EVERY CHILD IN YOUR COMMUNITY AND STATE
PROPELLING EVERY GEORGIA CHILD TO READ PROFICIENTLY AND BEYOND
$1,495,497 IN GRANTS AWARDED INTO GEORGIA’S COMMUNITIES
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FISCAL YEAR 2021
BUDGET INFORMATION The chart below illustrates the Deal Center FY21 operating budget, of which 57% was allocated to community outreach, 4% was earmarked for research-related costs, 8% for professional development, and the remaining 31% spent in overall operations.
31%
57%
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
OPERATING
4% PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
8%
$781,702.59
OPERATING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH RELATED COMMUNITY OUTREACH TOTAL BUDGET
$188,380.00 $107,300.00 $1,408,094.63 $2,485,477.22
Foundations Account Donations for FY 21 = $13,100.00. 4
RESEARCH RELATED
THE DEAL CENTER
SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
To ensure successful pathways for literacy development for all children birth to age eight, the work of the Deal Center entails professional learning for the adults who are raising and working with our children, research to study whether the quality improvement process is working, and engagement at the community level. At the Deal Center, we focus on improvement rather than on program adoption. We aim to close the research to practice gap that seems to plague the adoption of evidence-based practices. The outcome of our work is to improve the quality of early language and literacy training so that educators, librarians, day care workers, healthcare and behavioral health professionals, grassroots community organizations, parents, and caregivers have the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to propel all children to read. Currently, we are focused on transforming the early literacy training for the infant, toddler, and early childhood workforce so that our impact can truly make a difference. Ultimately, the quest of the Deal Center is to embed evidence-based practices for early language and literacy development and align the delivery with the organizations working with children birth to age eight because these practices have demonstrated the potential to change children’s lives and trajectories. We believe literacy changes lives, and we work to bring this promise into practice and policy. This year, we are proud to share the ways in which we have evolved to move toward strategic, statewide, and measurable initiatives.
RESEARCH
We conduct our own research and support others in the field to find sustainable and scalable solutions. We collect and share evidence-based research and best practices in the fields of early language and literacy development, process improvement, and professional development.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
We provide research-based professional development for organizations working with children from birth through age eight.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
We promote community engagement through research and professional development grants for the advancement of early language and literacy.
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2021 IMPACT RESEARCH
RESEARCH
IMPROVEMENT SCIENCE
Leading to a Bright Future for Georgia’s Children Perhaps the Deal Center’s most significant and impactful research to date resulted from the outcomes of our Literacy Mentoring for Leadership Program (LMLP) Impact Study. The study, that spanned over the course of two years, is a data-driven assessment of kindergarten through third grade educators across the state. The goal of the study was to determine the level of teachers’ pedagogy, measured by a standardized language and literacy knowledge assessment. Higher scores would indicate Georgia’s teachers are being trained uniformly and consistently, are using evidencebased methodology implemented in the classroom, and that these practices are translating to high student outcomes. Uniformly lower results would indicate the opposite. After conducting four separate assessments of 405 educators between fall 2018 and fall 2020, we analyzed and compared all scores and found tremendous variability among educators (20%-90% raw scores). While it would have been ideal for the data to have revealed high levels of mastery across teachers, discovering this variability is critically important in several ways. It represents an unprecedented opportunity to determine root causes of the wide range of scores, thereby laying the foundation for additional studies. Once causes have been identified, a reduction in variability — and higher assessment scores — can be achieved through interventions and process improvements. These improvements will ultimately lead to better student outcomes across Georgia. In this spirit, we are delighted to announce the Deal Center and the University System of Georgia’s USG’s Reading Study: A Study of Educator Preparation in Early Reading Instruction. This two-year, in-depth examination of educator preparation will be framed in the context of faculty knowledge and instruction of the foundational skills of early reading. We aim to answer research questions that will provide insight into the variability of Georgia’s educator assessments, including universally taught course content, faculty knowledge levels, and preparation and readiness of new graduates. Using empirical evidence, this study will shed new light on the variability of early reading practices across the state. Based on the data and outcomes, our team will focus on equalizing and improving educators’ knowledge base and in-class teaching methodology. Ultimately, the Deal Center is working to situate itself and other organizations as training hubs for Georgia’s teachers. It is our hope and an integral part of our mission to support a uniform, data-driven, high-quality educator experience across the University System of Georgia. We sincerely hope you share in our enthusiasm and excitement as we embark on this next step of the Deal Center’s journey!
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RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Acting as a source for research that leads to impactful language and literacy development
RESEARCH
Being guided by the frameworks of improvement science
Our work is grounded in the research strategy to collect, conduct, and share evidence-based research and best practices in the field of early language and literacy development. Additionally, we actively support partner organizations in an ongoing effort to add to the literature base and make improvements in early language and literacy research and recommendations. Our specific goals will help achieve our vision to propel every child to read proficiently and beyond by the end of third grade.
Disseminating and increasing accessibility to the research supporting evidence-based practices
Promoting implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practices 7
2021 IMPACT
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING Through the Deal Center professional learning initiative, we provide research-based professional development for organizations working with children from birth through age eight. The Deal Center is transforming infant, toddler, and early childhood educators throughout the state by offering virtual learning opportunities and continuing education.
No Small Matter This spring, the Deal Center, in partnership with the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), the Georgia Department of Education, and the Get Georgia Reading Campaign, hosted two virtual screening of the documentary film No Small Matter. This event targeted civic clubs, business leaders, and legislators across the state with the goal of providing the audience with information about the importance of early childhood education. By better informing these stakeholders, they were then able to engage their individual communities about the importance of investing in early education and care. The screening was followed by a panel discussion of community leaders, featuring Representative Katie Dempsey, Michael O’Neal, Dave Peterson, and Paul Fisher and was moderated by Stephanie Blank.
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2021 Annual Governor’s Summit on Early Language and Literacy The 2021 Governor’s Summit on Early Language and Literacy was presented virtually. Because we believe at the Deal Center that Literacy Changes Lives, the Summit’s theme was advocacy for literacy equity for every child in our community and state. This year’s summit convened state and local policy leaders, educators, community leaders, parents, and researchers to: • • •
The impact of cross-sector collaborations The alignment of organizations and systems The implementation of evidence-based practices to improve outcomes for children birth to age eight
Together with our national and state presenters, we provided insight on transforming ideas to practice, thereby equipping participants to return to their communities with practical, innovative solutions to improve literacy equity. One hundred twenty (120) individuals participated in real time and the summit was available on-demand through July, 2021.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Virtual Learning Series for Early Language and Literacy: An In-Depth Look at Reading Foundations The Deal Center launched a robust virtual learning series for professionals and educators in 2020 and it continued into 2021. These events, offered in real time and on-demand, highlighted recent research, guidance, and insight from some of the nation’s leaders in early language and literacy development. From October, 2020 to summer of 2021, we offered eight (8) workshops on topics ranging from phonemic awareness to neuroscience to reading foundations and fluency. The number of attendees totaled 596 (non-unique) individuals and we were able to provide professionals and educators with 211 continuing education units. We are proud to report that several colleagues joined our series from outside the state of Georgia! The eight-part workshop concluded with the 2021 Governor’s Summit on Early Language and Literacy on June 16, 2021. EVENT PRESENTER
TITLE
# OF ATTENDEES
Dr. Lucy Hart Paulson
An In-depth Look at Reading Foundations
89
Dr. Lama Farran
How Neuroscience Can Teach Us about Language and Reading in the Developing Brain
67
Dr. Susan Chambre
Supporting Language and Vocabulary Development for Early Learners
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Dr. Pam Kastner
Phonemic Awareness and Proficiency: Sound Instruction Foundational for Skilled Reading
95
Dr. Mary Dahlgren
A Road Map to the On Ramp of Sight Word Automaticity
105
Dr. Pam Kastner
Decodable Text: Text Tools for Building Skilled Readers
45
Dr. Jan Hasbrouck
Reading Fluency: Understanding, Assessing, and Developing this Essential Skill
35
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2021 IMPACT
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT The Deal Center is actively involved in coordinating and facilitating community coalitions across the state. We continually promote community engagement and partnerships through research and professional development grants for the advancement of early language and literacy. Two examples of this work are the Research Grant Initiative for Early Language and Literacy Practice and the Empowering Communities Through Collective Impact Grants for Early Language and Literacy initiative.
HOW THE DEAL CENTER IS MEETING ITS STATEWIDE GOAL Collective Impact Grant Initiative; Bringing the Basics to GA Bartow, Cobb, Cook, Early, Glynn, Lumpkin, Quitman, Troup, Carroll, Bibb
Literacy Mentoring for Leadership Program (LMLP) Baldwin, Twiggs, Dawson, Richmond, Bleckley, Toombs, Burke, Warren, Dougherty, Clay, Glascock, Randolph, Terrell, McDuffie
Research Grant Initiative for Early Language and Literacy Practices This fiscal year, the Deal Center awarded and administered grants in the amount of $50,000 each to three USG institutions and to one state agency. The purpose of this funding is to provide these organizations with the ability to form a collaborative research effort focused on better understanding how evidencebased practices (EBPs) are adopted, put into place, scaled, and sustained. The research goals include a better understanding of the steps necessary to implement EBPs, helping to propel Georgia children to read proficiently by third grade. Georgia Department of Public Health and Emory University School of Nursing, Impacting Early Language Development through Talk With Me Baby Training for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals: Exploring Curriculum Delivery Modalities for Universal Access University of West Georgia, NICU Shared Reading Research Planning Georgia Southern University, An Inclusive and Responsive Approach to Decoding Print with Young Learners in Hybrid and Virtual Learning Environments Georgia State University, Supporting Early Childhood Teachers’ Literacy Instruction During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Trauma Informed Professional Learning Approach 10
$200,000
THE DEAL CENTER IS CURRENTLY FUNDING 4 RESEARCH GRANTS AT 3 USG INSTITUTIONS AND 1 STATE AGENCY IN THE AMOUNT OF $50K EACH
2021 IMPACT
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH GRANTS BIRTH TO AGE 8 FRAMEWORK
PRIMARY AUDIENCE
GRANT FUNDS
GA Public Library Service Primetime and Summer Literacy Programs
Infants and Toddlers Preschool K-3rd Grade
Parents/Caregivers Community Organization
$25,000 $93,000
Social Emotional Engagement Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS) Training to Enhance Language and Literacy Instruction
K-3rd Grade
Educators
$127,075
GC Montessori Academy
Infants and Toddlers Preschool
Educators
$10,000
Research Grants for Early Language and Literacy
Infants and Toddlers Preschool K-3rd Grade
Higher Education State Agency
$50,000/grant 3 awarded for a total of $150,000
University of West Georgia, NICU Shared Reading Research Planning
Infants
Parents/Caregivers NICU Staff
$27,890
Empowering Communities Through Collective Impact Grants for Early Language and Literacy - Bringing the Basics to Communities in GA
Infants and Toddlers Preschool K-3rd Grade
Educators Parents/Caregivers Community Organization
$25,000/grant 10 awarded for a total of $250,000
Get GA Reading Campaign
Infants and Toddlers Preschool K-3rd Grade
Educators Parents/Caregivers Community Organization
$275,000
DECAL Lifting Infants and Toddlers through Language-rich Enviroments (LITTLE) Grants
Infants and Toddlers
Educators Parents/Caregivers Community Organization
$253,700
Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) RESA
K-3rd Grade
Educators
$257,158
Emory University School of Nursing - Talk With Me Baby Technology
Infants
Higher Education Parents/ Caregivers
$24,500
GRANT INITIATIVE
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2021 IMPACT EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES
THROUGH COLLECTIVE IMPACT GRANTS EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, BIRTH TO AGE 4
POLICY MAKERS
FAMILY AND CAREGIVERS
K-3 EDUCATION
SYSTEMIC CHANGE REQUIRES COLLECTIVE IMPACT WITH CROSS-SECTOR COLLABORATION.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
TECHNICAL COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION PROGRAMS
FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
HEALTH CARE PUBLIC HEALTH LIBRARIES
BUSINESS COMMUNITY
BRINGING THE BASICS TO COMMUNITIES IN GEORGIA The purpose of this grant initiative is to enhance early language and literacy skills by creating coalitions that work to improve access, professional learning, awareness, and education for Georgia’s children in the community in which they live. The ten recipients, representing the same number of counties across the state of Georgia, were awarded up to $25,000 each to assist in the implementation of The Basics, Inc. (https://thebasics.org) principles and strategies that support social, emotional, and cognitive development from birth to age three. The recipients of the 2021 Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant Initiative:
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•
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
EXPANDING
OUR HORIZONS
OUR CONTINUED GROWTH AND INVOLVEMENT As we evolve as a Center, we continually revisit our 2018 – 2023 strategic plan: Literacy Changes Lives, Promise to Practice to Policy. We base all of our activities, initiatives, projects, and collaborations on the goals and objectives established in the plan, including the development of a cohesive team, with fully capable improvement initiatives, effectively operating to move the needle in literacy by 2023. We are proudly committed to:
Be mission and data-driven, based on the needs of Georgia’s children, our strategic plan, and the empirical evidence. Grow from an initial individual basis to a more statewide, cohesive plan that includes system recommendations and changes. Make measurable impacts and outcomes. Make meaningful contributions to the literature.
AS WE BEGIN FY22, THE DEAL CENTER STAFF IS WORKING ON A NUMBER OF EXCITING INITIATIVES. Findings from the USG Reading Study, to better understand how to equalize and improve educators’ knowledge base and in-class methodology Impact data from implementation of The Basics Inc., a proven community strategy to support learning and brain development among infants and toddlers The launch of Shared Reading for Babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), to embed early reading practices throughout NICUs across Georgia The 2022 Governor’s Summit on Early Language and Literacy, to build partnerships, collaborations, and research teams throughout Georgia Website redesign and migration, to repurpose and better showcase our work
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MESSAGES FROM OUR PARTNERS Arianne Weldon, Get GA Reading “In an effort to advance the mission to positively impact early language and literacy, the Language as a Missing Link and Missed Opportunity partnership with the Sandra Dunagan Deal Center highlights the importance of language as the primary vehicle for frequent, positive social connections. These connections with caregivers, educators, and peers, are critical for educational attainment, emotional and mental health, and positive quality of life.” “We are working toward a new, proactive approach for all who interact with children — across the early years through the early grades — that employs language as a well-being indicator. Because engagement is a gauge of language development, we can tell if a child is invested or “socially connected,” independent or “following rules and routines,” and initiating or expressing their thoughts and feelings. Our partnership with the Deal Center has made it possible to provide communities across Georgia with easily-accessible tools to understand and apply engagement as a gauge for language development. These practices help eliminate the gap between our knowledge of the impact of language and our practice and policies: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8561402” Sara Lee Crumbs, Quitman County Family Connection “The Deal Center Collective Impact grants have given our collaborative the chance to elevate our county’s families as they discover new and interesting ways to engage their children in early learning activities. One example that exemplifies success of our partnership was relayed by a parent during a phone evaluation session about our work with the local Head Start/Early Head Start program. “Quitman County Family Connection was sharing the five principles of the Basics of Boston with Dr. Ronald Ferguson with our families. During an interview, the parent shared with us how excited her child was when they read together at home. She even showed our team pictures of a “book nook” she created for her child to enjoy the books gifted through both the Winter Literacy Celebration event and donations from the community. This was so exciting for me to hear, and validated our efforts and beliefs in The Basics program and early learning.” Dr. Debbie Alexander, Executive Director, CSRA RESA CSRA RESA’s sense of urgency to ensure grade level reading is grounded in research. According to The Campaign for Grade Level Reading, a national study “Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation,” shows that students who do not read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma than proficient readers. Poverty compounds the problem: students who have lived in poverty are three times more likely to drop out or fail to graduate on time than their more affluent peers. This urgency is also deeply connected to a commitment to build the capacity of well-trained reading teachers in our schools. Our partnership with the Deal Center has allowed us to work collaboratively to galvanize state and local action to advocate for equitable access to literacy and evidence-based practices that align with the science of reading to improve early language and literacy outcomes for children birth to age eight. Dr. Susan Brasher and Dr. Jennifer Stapel-Wax, Emory University “Dr. Susan Brasher and Dr. Jennifer StapelWax, representing Emory University Schools of Nursing and Medicine, first formalized their partnership with the Deal Center in 2019 in partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health through the funded project “Impacting Early Language Development Through Talk with Me Baby (TWMB) Training for Nurses: Exploring Timing, Setting and Feasibility of Implementation and Sustainability.” This project examined barriers and facilitating factors to TWMB coaching and training, including acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of this approach. Through the support of the Deal Center, they were able to make significant discoveries using implementation science to evaluate timing and delivery of TWMB. The research team learned valuable lessons on ways to better adapt TWMB training and integrate the concepts of healthy brain development and early language transactions into prelicensure nursing programs to better equip the next generation of nurses. Outcomes of this project included enhanced training of 240 prelicensure nursing students and the subsequent families they cared for in the hospital and community settings that benefited from this knowledge on early healthy brain development and rich language transactions. (continued)
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In 2021, Drs. Brasher and Stapel-Wax further solidified their partnership with the Deal Center through a second funded project titled, “Impacting Early Language Development through Talk With Me Baby Training for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals: Exploring Curriculum Delivery Modalities for Universal Access.” In this project, they continued to enhance the delivery of TWMB to prelicensure nursing students. They also extended the reach of TWMB to enhance universal access of TWMB to include nurses and allied health professionals (AHPs) working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Considering the brains of infants and toddlers are growing rapidly and in great complexity in relationship to the environments around them, now, more than ever, is an important time to enrich the social and language interactions between caregivers and infants. Outcomes of this project include insight into ways to improve the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs of nurses and AHPs on ways to empower families of vulnerable neonates in the NICU to better engage with their babies socially, emotionally, and linguistically. The training developed in this project informed ways to increase accessibility of TWMB to nurses and AHPs through a subsequent project titled “A Population-Based Approach to Implementation Science: Leveraging Technology to Achieve Universal Access for Nurses to the Talk With Me Baby Training.” This project, funded by the Deal Center, leverages an online and accessible learning platform to extend the free TWMB training concepts of early languagerich transactions to all nurses, AHPs, and prelicensure nursing students beginning locally and extending nationally. Zoe Myers, Cook County Family Connection “When Cook County Family Connection was selected to partner with The Deal Center under their Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant, it was the perfect fit to support collaborative efforts to improve literacy and early learning. With 60 diverse and passionate partners, Cook County Family Connection serves as the community table where partners join together to connect, collaborate, and create changes to improve literacy and education, food security, and access to healthcare in their rural South Georgia community. “Because of the funding, training, and technical assistance we’ve received from The Deal Center since 2019, our partners have achieved substantial results in advancing literacy and early education,” says their Executive Director Zoe Myers, “The true power of collaboration hinges upon synchrony between partners. We already had strong partnerships with Georgia Family Connection, Healthcare Georgia Foundation, Get Georgia Reading, and Georgia DECAL; our partnership with The Deal Center expanded and strengthened that collaborative system that helps us make a difference in the lives of young children.” In addition to expanding their collective capacity and establishing a cross-sector Early Education Leadership Team, the Cook County collaborative partnered with their local school system to implement The Baby Hornets initiative, which connects families into the Pre-K pipeline. Partners built a children’s library in the poorest neighborhood of their county; they created Lobby Libraries in lobbies and waiting rooms of public agencies where children could access free books. They also distributed thousands of storybooks each year through drive-through events, doorstep deliveries, and book distributions. Their partners organized and hosted community literacy events including a week-long celebration of the Georgia pine tree, in which hundreds of children participated in reading and storytelling events, art and painting sessions, and educational events that centered around the children’s storybook Forever Loblolly. Understanding that early learning is impacted by social determinants of health, Cook County Family Connection provided professional trauma-informed care training for their early education partners to help them identify childhood trauma and create strategies to build resilience. “We are working to create better systems, policies, and environments that support literacy and early learning,” added Zoe Myers, “and our partners at The Deal Center are an essential and critical part of that collective impact process”..
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MESSAGE FROM THE
FORMER FIRST LADY OF GEORGIA Former Governor Nathan Deal and I admire and respect the challenging work accomplished this year by the Deal Center’s leaders, partners, supporters, and employees. Our special thanks go to Amy Jacobs, Governing Board Chair, and her outstanding board members for all the time, knowledge, and experience they have shared to guide plans, adjustments, and outcomes for the Deal Center to successfully overcome the challenges of the current pandemic. We also would like to thank our forward-thinking Executive Director Dr. Theresa Magpuri-Lavell, her staff, friends, and educational colleagues for helping to find virtual solutions when in-person meetings are not safe. Together, they were able to provide an outstanding virtual series of presentations by some of the nation’s leaders in early language and literacy development. These events were offered both in real -time and on-demand and highlighted the most recent research, guidance, and insight about best practices to improve reading and associated outcomes. What a fabulous opportunity to learn from the best. Research and analysis continued through the awarding of monetary grants to various valuable partners, such as the Georgia Public Library Service, SEEK-S, Emory School of Nursing for Talk With Me Baby, Georgia Southern University for decoding print, DECAL’s Little Grant Program for Infant and Toddlers, and various community impact grants, just to name a few. Because we believe that Literacy Changes Lives, we strongly support the goals and work of the Deal Center. We are grateful for the labor and monetary contributions of those who believe as we do that reading begins at home by talking to your babies and continues to preschool, grade school, and throughout life. Every child and adult should experience the joy and love of reading. Our thanks to all of you who seek to make that possible.
Sandra Dunagan Deal
FORMER FIRST LADY OF GEORGIA
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT The Deal Center is looking toward building a robust system to transfer early literacy and language development practices to parents, educators, and all who mentor and interact with our most precious asset: our children. Please join us on our path forward!
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With your help we can continue our mission of providing research-based professional development for organizations working with children from birth through age eight. In spite of the world-wide pandemic that has challenged our normal practices, we are adapting and adjusting with the support of our staff, Board of Directors, state-wide partners, and volunteers. We maintain our focus on our main function areas of Research, Professional Learning, and Community Engagement. We are continuing our training, teaching, and feedback programs in our commitment to propelling every Georgia child to read proficiently and beyond. To donate directly to The Deal Center please visit our website at alumni.gcsu.edu/ supportthedealcenter or return the included donor card to Georgia College at the address below. Georgia College University Advancement Campus Box 113 Milledgeville, GA 31061-0490
PARTNERS
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LITERACY CHANGES LIVES
TURNING THE PROMISE INTO PRACTICE AND POLICY Propelling every Georgia child to read proficiently and beyond!
Georgia College 202 North Clarke Street Campus Box 130 Milledgeville, GA 31061 478.445.8500 www.galiteracycenter.org galiteracy@gcsu.edu