On August 3, 2009, R2LP welcomed its fifth AmeriCorps team. After a month of training in early childhood development, early literacy instruction and data analysis, the 35 members began their work in libraries, early-care settings and R2LP offices to enhance the literacy skills of the city’s youngest children. (Click here to see full list of this year's members and their assignments.)
Members assigned to libraries serve as Early Literacy Outreach Aides. They work toward increasing the number of families and family child-care providers who use the library, and they participate in the library’s early literacy programs.
AmeriCorps members placed in child-care centers work as Early Literacy Activity Coordinators under the guidance of highly skilled center directors and head teachers in R2LP’s target neighborhoods. They design and lead activities that help elevate the role early childhood literacy plays in the overall curriculum.
AmeriCorps members also work directly with family child-care providers to enhance instructional expertise. These members play a critical role in the delivery of the HeadsUp! Reading program, collaborating with program facilitators and serving as HeadsUp! Reading coaches. In addition to their work in the classroom, AmeriCorps members visit the settings of family child-care providers to help them integrate newly acquired skills into their curricula.
Still other members work in the R2LP offices, supporting staff in family engagement, administration, data and research, and literacy instruction.
R2LP’s AmeriCorps program, one of the largest in the state, is funded through Serve Rhode Island, formerly called the Rhode Island Service Alliance. The program runs from August to June, with the first month devoted to training at R2LP. At the end of their service, members not only walk away with a wealth of skills and experience, but also a $5,300 educational award. The living allowance members will receive for the 2010/2011 year of service is $11,800.
For more information, call Nazly Guzman, director of AmeriCorps, at 490-9960, or e-mail nguzman@provplan.org.
Click here to see pictures of the graduation program for the 2008/2009 team.
