Children who begin kindergarten behind their peers in literacy and reading skills often have a tough time catching up. Early literacy skills have been shown to predict reading ability throughout school, the likelihood of graduating high school, attending college, and future career opportunities. Reading to children daily has been documented as a contributing factor to long-term literacy and school performance.

Thanks to a generous grant from the San Diego Foundation, in partnership with Dr. Seuss Foundation, Basic Assistance for Students in the Community (BASIC) will expand its Cradle to Graduation (C2G) educational programming to include early literacy education through the Latino Family Literacy Program (LFLP).

Over the next 12 months, BASIC will offer 40 local families with children ages 2 – 5 an opportunity to improve kindergarten readiness for their children. The award-winning LFLP program, which currently has trained providers in 20 states throughout the United States, is proven to increase literacy and is uniquely designed for Latinx communities. The goal is to help families understand the importance of reading at this early age so that parents develop successful skills and a daily routine for their children – our future students! Given our community’s low scores in standardized testing for reading, BASIC hopes the program will offer a long-term boost to local student literacy rates and provide a strong foundation before students begin kindergarten.

Parents enrolled in the program will attend ten weekly 90-minute sessions. Together parents and kids will learn English and Spanish vocabulary for such things as numbers, letters, colors, singing, and rhyming. Bilingual books - Spanish and English - are introduced weekly, and parents take them home to read to their children and have them as part of their home libraries. Parents are provided information based on Preschool Standards to make reading and vocabulary fun for both the parent and the preschooler. Sessions will be conducted by program headmaster Eddie Rivera, Martha Deichler – who has prior experience with LFLP, and Andrea Urquidez. The first session for 20 families is planned to begin in early September, and a second session for sometime in February.

For more information regarding the LFLP program and enrollment, or if you are interested in helping through volunteerism or donation, please contact Eddie Rivera, BASIC Development Director, at BASICdvpDirector@gmail.com, or call at 442-358-6519.