糖心vlog

Beyond Our Gates, a 糖心vlog community impact effort, is supporting nine San Joaquin County agencies with a combined $75,000 in mini-grants to focus on early childhood literacy.

The grants, through funding from the James Irvine Foundation, will support programs that include videos to help with distance learning, children鈥檚 literacy programs for Black families, screening for adverse childhood experiences and more.

Two of the agencies supported through 2020鈥�21 mini-grants are Family Resource and Referral Center (FRRC) and Read to Me, Stockton!

鈥淭he resources being made available to early educators and child care providers through the Irvine Foundation this year will continue to advance our collective countywide goals of having all children able to read by the third grade,鈥� said Kay Ruhstaller, executive director of FRRC. 鈥淲e鈥檙e grateful to Pacific鈥檚 Beyond Our Gates for the organizational support that makes this funding opportunity available locally.鈥�

鈥淭he Irvine Foundation鈥檚 mini-grants have made a huge difference in the ability of Read to Me, Stockton! to continue sending free books to Stockton's youngest children,鈥� said Ann Johnston, program founder. 鈥淭he funds allow us to send books to children from birth to age five with the goal of giving them early literacy activities to help prepare them for kindergarten. Parents report their children can't wait for the books to arrive each month and read them over and over again.鈥�

For more information on Beyond Our Gates, contact Pacific Community Relations Director Mike Klocke at聽mklocke@pacific.edu.

$10,000 mini-grants

• Mary Magdalene Community Services:聽The Ready for Third reading program focuses on Beyond Our Gates鈥� ages of influence, birth through third grade. The grant will fund programs for Black families with a focus on early literacy.
• Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC):聽The Foundations of School Readiness Campaign will be offered at all CAPC preschools and toddler centers to screen for and identify ACEs鈥攁dverse childhood experiences. CAPC will develop toolkits for each classroom that help develop calming and coping strategies.
• LOCkER: The program, under the auspices of the San Joaquin County Office of Education, will fund 36 videos with creative content to help distance learning efforts throughout San Joaquin County. LOCkER stands for Learning Outside of the Classroom Enrichment Resources.

$7,500 mini-grants

• Read to Me, Stockton!:聽This program seeks to give children ages birth to 5 years old an early introduction to books. Free books are mailed each month to registered children in all Stockton zip codes.
• Family Resource and Referral Center:聽The center鈥檚 Preschool Pathway to Reading by Third program will use the funding for laptops with a DVD reader to utilize online learning resources. The goal is to help children engage in activities that will lead to enhanced literacy development.
• Tau Chapter, Delta Kappa Gamma:聽The Books for Babes program gives a 鈥淏aby鈥檚 First Book鈥� to all families of newborns at San Joaquin General Hospital and St. Joseph鈥檚 Medical Center, and emphasizes the important of reading to children from birth. The Tau Chapter has had this effort since 2002. The program has paused during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Evolution Skin Care Salon:聽The Beauty and Literacy program will combine an emphasis on literacy and taking care of one鈥檚 self. There will be a focus on literacy for children during visits to the salon by parents and guardians.
• SJCOE Educational Foundation:聽The grant will fund literacy training enhancements for teaching candidates with San Joaquin Teachers College who are in need of more work on literacy-based areas such as phonics and comprehension.
• Visionary Home Builders:聽The grant will be used to place Little Free Libraries at Visionary Home Builders sites and for programs to emphasize early literacy.