Even Start Family Literacy Program

What is the Even Start Family Literacy Program?

The federally funded Even Start Family Literacy Program is a school-community partnership that helps break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy or adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified family literacy program. Even Start is implemented through cooperative projects that build on high-quality existing community resources, creating a new range of services for children, adults, and families. The Program helps children and families achieve the academic standards set forth by the State and uses instructional programs that are based on scientific reading research to...

• enrich language development, extend learning, and support high levels of educational success for children from birth through age eight and their parents;
• provide literacy services of sufficient hours and duration to make sustainable changes in a family;
• provide integrated instructional services for families, where children and their parents learn together to develop habits of life-long learning; and
• support families committed to education and to economic independence.

What does Even Start provide?

Adult Education provides parents with basic skills, including English, life skills and the opportunity to earn a high school credential.

Early Childhood Education provides opportunities for children to learn from birth and focuses on the education of very young children from birth through age eight. Family literacy programs work in the areas of physical development, social-emotional development and cognitive development and emphasize children's eventual success in school.

Parent Education provides parents with a wide variety of learning topics including parenting strategies, how to be advocates and role models for their children, and strategies to support their children's learning.

Interactive Literacy Activities provide a time "to increase and facilitate meaningful parent-child interactions focused primarily on language and literacy development in a high-quality learning environment where they can learn and play together." (Jacobs, 2004, p. 1977).

Home Visits provide a means for delivering literacy instruction in a familiar setting and to emphasize that parents are the child's first and most important teacher.

Who is eligible to participate in Even Start?

• Families who reside in the Northside Independent School District attendance area and have children birth through age eight
• Families in which at least one parent does not have a high school diploma, requires English classes or wants to improve basic education skills
• Families who receive food stamps, Medicaid, TANF, or other services for low income households