How can we deploy literacy supplies and education?

Tri-County Family Connection is leading by example in three Georgia counties: Montgomery, Treutlen, and Wheeler.  

They’re deploying their literacy team directly to childcare centers, equipping students and their parents with tools and materials, and reading interactive, vocabulary-building books to children.  

“Helping our youth and community has always been a burning desire within our organization,” said Tri-County Family Connection Executive Director, Theotis Summerset, Jr. “Tri-County Family Connection understands that the strength of who we are as a nation lies within the people in our communities.” 

Their work is just one example of how we can implement evidence-based language and literacy practices in our community—and the Deal Center is here to help. 

Their grant-funded project, HeadStart, works to get language and literacy tools, materials, and strategies directly to students and their families. Their literacy team brings teaching strategies directly to staff in early childhood care centers, and they distribute interactive and high-quality reading materials to children learning to read. 

When they visit classrooms, they’re reading with children. They incorporate interactive activities in their reading, let aspiring readers guide the experience, and help students identify similarities and differences between objects or ideas within stories.  

“When we’re reading, we reinforce the importance of allowing the children to infer and make predictions of what the characters in the books are going to do next,” Summerset said. “It’s interactive.” 

To follow up, HeadStart sends students home with alphabet and number cards. An activity accompanies these cards, which gives parents a ready-made study kit requiring just seven minutes of parents' time.  

“The challenge is so great, and it seems to increase with each passing year,” Summerset said. “But the burning desire we have as an organization to help all we can is the fire that keeps us going.” 

The Deal Center can support your community’s efforts to make an impact on literacy in Georgia. HeadStart is funded in part by our Community Coalition Grant Initiative, a collaboration with Get Georgia Reading. Visit our grant pages and join our mailing list below to receive updates on grant openings and applications.