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Parent-Child Home Program CEO announces a Commitment to America at the Clinton Global Initiative America 2012
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, created the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005 to “inspire, connect, and empower a community of global leaders to forge solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges”.Recently, Sarah Walzer, CEO of The Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP), a nationally replicated early literacy and school readiness program, was invited to present PCHP’s Solution for Bridging the School Readiness Gap at the CGI America 2012 event. Walzer announced the organization’s intentions to pilot a new addition to PCHP’s curriculum: bringing technology literacy and access into the homes of young families struggling with poverty, limited educational opportunities, and language and literacy barriers.
The evidence-based Parent-Child Home Program utilizes trained home visitors to model reading, play, and conversation activities during twice-weekly visits with two- and three-year-olds and their parents. Using books and educational toys that are gifts to the family, and often the first educational materials in the home, the Program helps build language-rich home environments, develops pre-literacy skills that are essential for school readiness, and increases positive parent-child interaction.
Recognizing that technology familiarity and literacy has become an integral part of school readiness for all parents and children,PCHP plans to develop a technology curriculum to be introduced to families in their second year of the Program to ensure graduates are ready for all aspects of school.
PCHP is currently working to identify what types of technology aremost appropriate to use with the families and are most accessible in their communities, what type of media and applications would provide the highest quality educational content, and how the technology can connect parents to each other, to Program staff, to information about their children’s schools, and to life skills for themselves.
The Parent-Child Home Program believes that bringing technology into the homes of families struggling with poverty, isolation, and limited literacy, will bridge the 21st century school readiness gap for the children while empowering parents to be their children’s academic advocate and first and most important teacher. When brought to scale and rolled-out to its 110 partner agencies, this curriculum will reach 7,000 families, impacting at least 14,000 people (one child and least one parent per household).
To view the full commitment to America, click here and search Commitments.
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