DEVELOPING LITERACY
IN ANSON COUNTY’S YOUNGEST MEMBERS
A
nson County Partnership for
Children has been enriching the
lives of local children for 25 years.
It was formed in 1996 as part of the overall
Smart Start initiative under Governor Pat
McCrory. Smart Start was created in 1993
as, “as an innovative solution to a problem:
Children were coming to school unprepared
to learn.” Their mission is to help ensure that
all NC children enter school healthy and
ready to succeed.
North Carolina policymakers established
Smart Start as a public/private partnership
that reaches children during the most
crucial years of development, with the intent
that they arrive at school healthy, motivated
and ready to succeed. The goal is to ensure
that every child in Anson County has the
opportunity for a brighter future.
The power of Smart Start is that it delivers
outcomes by giving communities local
control to determine the best approach to
achieving them. “The great thing about
Smart Start as a network is that we are
allowed to personalize our programming
to best meet the needs of the community.
Here, in Anson County, we work hard
with literacy and we run several literacy
programs, along with other family support.”
said ACPC Executive Director Caroline
Goins.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is one
of the Partnership's most well-known
programs. “We have over 1,000 children
in the county signed up for that. That gets
books in the homes of kids. The books are
mailed to them as soon as they sign up and
they receive them until their fifth birthday.
That way, they'll have, ideally, 60 books in
their home,” said Goins. Studies show that
a personal library of that size can increase
literacy skills tremendously.
“We also work with the local pediatrician
in the county and do Reach Out and Read.
That is a program where the pediatrician,
every well-child visit, they give the child a
book and talks to the parent about what's
developmentally appropriate and prescribes
reading,” said Goings. Anson Pediatrics has
been have been doing that program for over
six years.
“In addition to that, we partner with the
Anson County Schools and all NC Pre K
sites and all Kindergarten students in the
86 • PROGRESS 2020
county receive books through our Raising a
Reader program,” explained Goins. Created
in 1999, Raising a Reader has reached over
1.7 million readers since it's inception and
keeps 15 million books in rotation. It is a
national nonprofit whose mission is to help,
“...families with children from birth to age
eight develop, practice and maintain home
literacy habits essential for school and life
success.”
Reading together as a family promotes
healthy brain development, furthers
language acquisition, and helps families
build meaningful bonds. “The exciting
thing about that program is that there's also
parent involvement workshops, so it's really
a family involved program,” said Goins.
The Partnership also has a Mother Read
program. The purpose of the program is to
not only to get them more comfortable and
show them ways to increase literacy skills
in simple ways, like while they're grocery
shopping, but also the ways they in which
they can incorporate it into their daily lives.
“We've had great success with that,"
explained Goins who added, “We had
one grandmother, who's raising her
grandchildren, grow three levels with that
class. We start with children's books and
then integrate poetry and such. We enjoy
those programs and the communities
support it.”
The partnership also maintains over 6,000
items in their resource center downstairs.
“We have books, puzzles, gross motor
development tools as well as multi-cultural
baby dolls and board games,” said Goins.
Story Time is held down there once a week
on Wednesdays and is for children ages 3 –
8.
One of the Partnership's fundraising events
is the annual Barn Blast. This year's Barn
Blast was held on
Friday, Jan. 31st. They have been doing it
for 15 years now. One highlight of the Barn
Blast is the Sponsor a Child program. This
program honors a child who has passed and
raises money for the Imagination Library.
This year they honored Datreon “Day Day”
Amir Lowery, who's life ended a month
before his first birthday.
Goins grew up in Anson County and feels a
deep connection to the community, “I feel
like I've been involved for years because my
mother retired from the school system and
became a Pre-K teacher. I've always been
very passionate about what this organization
does for the community,” said Goins.
“I've been able to see our children grow that
started in our programs and that they're
now thriving in elementary schools,” said
Goins, “That's one of my favorite parts about
the job.”