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School Readiness & Education

Education
Making Connections is working with community members and our partner organizations to ensure that residents, from birth through adulthood, have access to high quality educational opportunities. 

Of the nearly 38,000 residents in the Making Connections neighborhoods, more than one-third are children under the age of eighteen.  Eighty percent of all school-age children in our neighborhoods attend Providence public schools. Resident families want the education system to be accountable, appoint parents on key school decision-making committees, provide the community with access to school spaces after school, evenings and weekends, and ensure that teachers and administrators show respect and cultural understanding to families and their children who attend local schools.

With over 40 languages spoken in our community and many of our residents linguistically isolated, meaning there is no one fourteen years or older that is a native English speaker or who speaks English very well in a household, there is also a critical need for adult educational services. 

Currently, demand out-paces the existing supply of programs that teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL classes).  There are more than twice as many residents in need of these classes than there are available to meet their needs.

School Readiness
While there is no strict definition of school readiness, there are basic factors that go into preparing schools for entering children and working with children (0-5) and their families so that they are better prepared to enter school.   They include: basic health care, including childhood immunizations; economic security; basic nutrition; adequate housing; family support services; early literacy skills and high-quality early childhood programs.

We know that approximately half of the children living in our neighborhoods who enter kindergarten will not meet the literacy related benchmark for their age.  In order to ensure that more kids enter the school system prepared to thrive, Making Connections Providence has established a close partnership with Ready to Learn Providence (R2LP).  R2LP is a citywide initiative that has brought together the public library, the early childhood community, the school department, parents and a wide variety of community stakeholders who are collectively committed to laying a strong foundation for children's successful transition into school.

Making Connections, in partnership with R2LP are:

• Including community members in the planning and governance of R2LP;
• Training community members in the use of early literacy tools such as “Minds in the Making”, and Family Fun Kits; and,
• Ensuring that, through house parties and other strategies, hundreds of neighborhood parents have the knowledge and tools needed to improve their children's early literacy skills as they prepare for kindergarten.

Partners in Education and School Readiness:
Dorcas Place Adult and Family Learning Center (Access to ABE and ESL)
Governor's Task Force on Adult Education  (Access to ABE and ESL)
Providence After School Alliance (After School Activities)
Ready to Learn Providence (School Readiness)