Trade Association Commits to Raising Awareness of the Importance of Talking and Reading with Young Children
At the fifth Clinton Global Initiative America meeting, Too Small to Fail – a joint initiative of the Clinton Foundation and Next Generation, which aims to help parents, communities and businesses take meaningful actions to improve the health and well-being of children ages 0 to 5 – announced three new commitments to action to use local community settings to help raise awareness of the importance of talking, reading and singing to young children to help improve early language and brain development, and ensure every child is given the best possible chance to succeed in school and compete in the 21st century global economy.
These new CGI America commitments will impact children, families and communities in Tulsa, Oakland and northwest Arkansas, as well as nationwide. Among those commitments is “Wash Time is Talk Time: Early Literacy Promotion in Laundromats.”
Too Small to Fail, the Coin Laundry Association and its partners have committed to engage parents through approximately 5,000 self-service laundries in underserved communities by providing them with information and tools to support their children’s early brain and language development. Too Small to Fail will create a “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” toolkit with engaging resources to help families turn laundry time into meaningful opportunities to talk, read and sing with their children.
The CLA – through its charitable foundation, LaundryCares – will distribute and promote awareness about the kit among its 2,000 members and various cross-platform communication channels, including PlanetLaundry magazine, which reaches approximately 15,000 laundries serving an estimated 7.5 million families weekly with a median household income of less than $30,000.
Other organizations committed to this project include Current Initiatives’ Laundry Project, Jumpstart, First 5 Alameda County, the University of Arkansas College of Education & Health Professions and Encore.org.
Nearly 500 volunteers from Laundry Project will distribute these resources to families during its “free laundry day” events in low-income communities across the country. Jumpstart will train Laundry Project and Encore.org volunteers to engage families in early learning and literacy activities. With the support of these volunteers, Jumpstart and First 5 Alameda County will host monthly story times and distribute “Talking is Teaching” messages and materials to families in laundromats.
Events will begin on October 22, 2015, where F5AC and Laundry Project volunteers will kick off Jumpstart’s annual Read for the Record campaign in laundries in Oakland, and distribute free children’s books donated by Jumpstart. Jumpstart also has committed to distribute “Talking is Teaching” materials to families through its 4,000 national volunteers. In addition, the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions will distribute “Talking is Teaching” resources in northwest Arkansas laundromats and hold monthly story time events with families. They also will conduct a pilot evaluation of the “Talking is Teaching” resources to determine any shifts in attitudes, knowledge, and behavior related to children’s early language development.
The other two new CGI America commitments are “Play Time is Talk Time: Early Literacy in Playgrounds” and “Promoting Children’s Early Math & Language Development.”
For the past two years, Too Small to Fail has worked with trusted community messengers such as pediatricians, nurses, librarians and faith-based leaders to deliver its “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” campaign information and tools to parents. These new commitments expand Too Small to Fail’s reach among families in low-income neighborhoods across the country through new community touch points – self-service laundries and playgrounds – and work through a new set of messengers – community volunteers – to distribute “Talking is Teaching” materials to young children and families.
Parents, particularly those in underserved communities face many structural barriers to engaging more with their young children. Therefore, it is critical to support parents where they are in the everyday places they go with their children.
The commitments specifically focus on helping parents make the most of everyday moments and routines to talk, read and sing with their children. For instance, with the average laundromat visit taking two to two-and-a-half hours, laundry time offers a valuable yet often overlooked opportunity for parents and local volunteers to engage in language-rich activities with children.
To learn more, visit toosmall.org and TalkingIsTeaching.org.
The Clinton Foundation convenes businesses, governments, NGOs and individuals to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change. Next Generation promotes solutions to two of the biggest challenges confronting the next generation of Americans – the risk of dangerous climate change and the threat of diminished prospects for children and families.
To view the entire press release detailing these three new commitments to the Too Small To Fail initiative, click here.
