Goals

1. Develop a public awareness campaign
2. Connect parents to resources that are available in the community
3. Start a Mayor's Book Club

History/Background

In response to NLC's 2003 Congress of Cities Conference where cities were challenged to make early childhood success a priority, Longmont Mayor Julia Pirnack established Bright EYES (Early Years Education Stewards) to focus on ways in which the community could expand and improve child care and early education opportunities for Longmont's families.

Under Mayor Pirnack's leadership, Bright EYES unites representatives from the City of Longmont (including the Chief of Police), the school district, a hospital, and several Longmont children's service agencies. In accepting the challenge, the city's Youth Services Division was reorganized to include functions related to strengthening opportunities for young children and was renamed the Division of Children and Youth Resources.

Progress on Goals

Public Awareness Campaign:  Longmont hired a marketing consultant to help coordinate a campaign to raise public awareness about the importance of the early years.   The city will use the Born Learning materials to educate parents and the general public.  NLC arranged for a webinar on Born Learning for the CSP sites.  A separate communications plan is in progress to target policymakers and opinion leaders.  The plan will be complete in 2006, and the launch may coincide with the opening of the Family Resource Center. 

Connecting Parents to Resources:  The Division of Children and Youth Resources has been developing a database of children and youth programs and resources for local parents. Longmont modeled its database after a Palo Alto, Calif., resource database, which the YEF Institute showcased at its Cities Supporting Parents of Young Children Leadership Academy.

Because several other CSP cities are interested in constructing parent resource databases, Mayor Pirnack made a presentation on their database at the CSP cross-site meeting during the 2005 National Summit on Your City's Families.  Once the on-line database is ready to launch, peers from other CSP sites will review it for content and ease of use.

Longmont's database will include over 180 resources that parents can access through the Internet or by picking up one of the print copies available throughout the city.  While participating in the CSP initiative, Longmont successfully secured $2,500 in public funds to construct 10 kiosks at which to distribute information. Construction has begun, and they anticipate placing the kiosks in libraries, schools, and a new family resource center. 

Mayor's Book Club: Longmont models the Mayor's Book Club after Jacksonville, Florida's initiative. Jacksonville Mayor Peyton's Book Club is a part of RALLY Jacksonville, which was also showcased at the CSP Leadership Academy. The book club is a year long adventure with families of four-year-olds to help build literacy as a core value in the home.  Longmont has received $3000 from Wal-Mart and is currently looking for additional funding from several private sources.

Two college interns have committed their time to support the Mayor's Book Club. They have offered to spend an entire year working to launch this new initiative. The two new staff persons will be talking with and learning from city staff in Jacksonville about how they successfully carried out their literacy initiatives. 

Other Progress

Mayor Pirnack successfully secured just under $1 million to renovate a city facility into a Family Resource Center. On September 8, 2006, the Family Resource Room opened to the public and on September 11, three sessions were offered for young children. The Family Resource Room will also provide information and training for Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) Care providers. The plan is to meet and provide training on topics of interest twice a month for 13 weeks.

One of the main objectives of the education team is to build strong neighborhood networks.  One strategy that will be used to engage immigrant populations is to go door-to-door to locate families in need of services and to build trust. To address school readiness, staff may provide more intense training and outreach for FFN Care providers. In addition, a "How to Access the School System" support class for Latino families will be made available to parents.

The center, which will have a strong outreach component to engage young families, will include four comprehensive school-readiness pre-school classrooms and space to provide services to parents to address children's health issues, social/emotional development, language development, and cognitive skills. The results of a Youth Development Survey should provide some informative guidelines on how best to deliver services.

Longmont is working to engage parents by implementing the Incredible Years program through Head Start and school district pre-school classrooms. The Incredible Years is a research-based program that combines parent training, teacher training, and child social skills training approaches for reducing children's behavior problems and increasing social competence at home and at school. The city has set aside $12,000 to fund the project.

The city is planning an Education Summit which will address the importance of reaching parents and children early in development, and this Summit may energize the early care and education efforts citywide.

Longmont is a community in Boulder County, which just received a $960,000 Early Learning Opportunities Grant from the federal government.  They are hopeful this grant will allow them to hire and train "cultural brokers" who work with families to insure young children receive developmental screenings and then follow through on any referrals.