RALLY Jacksonville! Frequently Asked Questions

What are the goals of RALLY Jacksonville!?

1. To achieve the following:Make literacy and reading a core value in Jacksonville;
2. Enhance the quality of school readiness programs;
3. Create neighborhood early literacy zones; and
4. Measure and share results and progress.

 

How will we make literacy and reading a core value in Jacksonville?

We have a four-part strategy:

1. Mayor Peyton's Book Club will engage families with four year olds in a captivating year long adventure of reading together. The will help build literacy as a core value in the home. 
2. RALLY Jacksonville! volunteers will be recruited from corporations, civic and faith groups to read to children in childcare centers. This will dramatically increase the quality and quantity of reading experienced by children in these centers. Our volunteers will in effect serve as ambassadors for creating literacy and reading as a core value throughout the community.
3. Book drives sponsored by the United Way Day of Caring, the Jaguars Foundation, Holland and Knight Charities and Rotary, as well as other philanthropic groups will result in 1,000,000 books to be distributed to childcare centers.
4. The Mayor and will be actively promoting community awareness on the importance of literacy and the work of the Jacksonville Early Literacy Council.

 

Why does Mayor John Peyton have a book club?

In order to make literacy a core value in Jacksonville we need to help families create literacy as a core value in their own homes. Mayor Peyton's Book Club will increase family awareness of the importance of reading with their children every day. It will provide books for families, and research shows that children who have access to more books in the home will be better prepared to enter school ready to learn. Mayor Peyton's Book Club will help families and children discover the joy of reading and make it a part of their everyday lives.

 

Why is the book club targeted to children entering kindergarten in the next school year?

Actually, RALLY Jacksonville! has several components that will touch the lives of children of all ages and their families. However, Mayor Peyton's Book Club is intended for pre-kindergarteners to help them become "Ready Readers and Ready Learners" during the year before they enter kindergarten. If children enter school ready to learn and equipped with the building blocks of literacy, they get a jump start to their entire educational career. Up to 13,000 pre-kindergarteners will become excited about learning to read and learning about our city by joining Mayor Peyton's Book Club and receiving a RALLY Jacksonville! back pack and monthly books focused on our city.

 

How do you join the Mayor Peyton's Book Club?

In September, pre-kindergarten children and their families will be invited to attend  Jacksonville! events at neighborhood libraries where the child and family will receive a back pack that contains the introductory materials and the first book.

On a monthly basis, successive books will be either be mailed to club members or available for pick-up at various neighborhood libraries.

 

Why did we create our own books?

The books in the series weer written specifically to develop emergent literacy skills for pre-kindergarteners. Each book also includes a parent page that instructs adults about the specific skills emphasized in the book as well as strategies and games that will engage children in learning the skill. Because the books are written for Jacksonville's children, we have featured special landmarks throughout the series that will help them learn about their community.

 

How will volunteers be involved?

Corporations, civic and faith groups are invited to adopt childcare centers and deploy their members to serve as RALLY Readers! We currently have  23 groups with about 230 individual volunteers working with 23 centers. We urge the volunteer readers to read with the children for an hour once a week from October through May. 

 

How will this initiative help improve the quality of school readiness centers?

Since most parents work these days, 80% of children under five spend time in childcare centers. It is therefore critical to help these centers shift from providing custodial care to providing quality early education to prepare children for school. RALLY Jacksonville! has three components to improve centers:

1.  The Quality Rating System for preschool programs will help parents become more aware of the importance of choosing quality program for their children's future success in school. It will also create a way to promote and measure key program quality components such as director and teacher development, literacy rich environments and parent involvement.

2.  The Career Ladder for Preschool Practitioners will increase and improve the instruction available to prepare high qualified preschool teachers and directors.

3.  PEER Teams deploy 48 early literacy coaches and preschool experts to work with 125 centers and reach nearly 11,000 low-income children. While there are 62,000 children ages five and under in Jacksonville, those served through this initiative face the most challenges in being learning and reading ready. 

 

Where will the Neighborhood Early Literacy Demonstration Zones be located and what will they do?

There will be six demonstration zones each located in Intensive Care Neighborhoods. They will provide the opportunity to pilot best practices for communities to produce children who are ready to learn and ready to read. The first demonstration is located at the Don Brewer Early Learning and Professional Development Center in east Jacksonville. The Brewer Learning Center serves about 98 children.

The second demonstration is the S. P. Livingston Family Involvement and Learning Community in the S. P. Livingston Elementary School attendance zone.

The other projects are in the planning stages.

 

What will you evaluate and why?

This is an effort that has multiple strategies, so it will be evaluated in several different ways. Polls and surveys will tell us how well we are achieving the goal of making literacy a core value in Jacksonville; a new easy to understand quality rating system will measure the quality improvements in early learning facilities; standardized testing will show more children are reading on grade level after they enter kindergarten; participation levels will be tracked for Mayor Peyton's Book Club; and each neighborhood project will have its own evaluation measures designed to gauge success.

 

Where do I call if I need more information about RALLY Jacksonville! ?

Call the Jacksonville Children's Commission at 630-4754. The Commission will be the implementation arm for RALLY Jacksonville! and serve as the clearinghouse for volunteers and others who are interested in following the progress of the initiative.

 

Who are the partners in this initiative?

The Mayor's Office, the Jacksonville Children's Commission, the Early Learning Coalition of Duval, Episcopal Children's Services, Jacksonville Urban League Head Start, the Duval County Public Schools, University of North Florida and the Florida Institute of Education, the Schultz Center, United Way, the Community Foundation, the Jacksonville Public Library and Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ).