News
Press Release, 7/7/16 New York City Council Increases Funding For City’s First Readers’ Partner Programs
July 7, 2016
New York City Council Increases Funding For City’s First Readers’ Partner Programs
New York City, New York July 7, 2016 – The Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) is pleased to announced that the New York City Council has increased its funding to City’s First Readers by $1 million. PCHP is proud to be continuing its work with City’s First Readers and delighted to receive an additional $100,000, making its total allocation for the 2016-2017 year $275,000.
The funds were provided due to the tireless effort of City Councilman, Stephen Levin, a true Champion for City’s First Readers, and with the support of the entire New York City Council, which has been providing strong support for enhancing early literacy supports across the city.
PCHP CEO Sarah Walzer thanked City Councilman Levin and the entire New York City Council for their generous support. “This increase in funding will allow PCHP and all our other partners in the City’s First Readers Initiative to continue to engage parents by providing them with the knowledge, skills, and materials they need to prepare their children to enter school ready to succeed, and then provide ongoing school and community supports as children work towards reading on grade level by third grade.”
The books and educational toys that families receive through PCHP are often the first reading and learning materials in homes. This increase in funding will allow PCHP to reach an additional 25 families across New York City with 1,150 home visits and provide them with 575 books and other critical literacy materials.
City’s First Reader’s is the New York City Council’s initiative to support parents in preparing their children for school success. PCHP is proud to be one of the nine partners – PCHP, Brooklyn Public Library, Jumpstart, Literacy Inc., The New York Public Library, Queens Library, Reach Out and Read of Greater New York, Video Interaction Project, and The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families – implementing this initiative, helping to ensure that the all children in NYC have the opportunity to enter school ready to succeed and ready to read.
About The Parent-Child Home Program: PCHP is a national early childhood literacy, parenting, and school readiness program. The evidence-based Program effectively bridges the achievement gap for underserved children through intensive home visiting (twice a week over a two-year period) with children ages two to four years old and their parents. Trained Early Learning Specialists model reading, play, and conversation activities using books and educational toys that are gifts to the family. Over five decades of research shows that PCHP increases parent-child interaction, improves children’s performance on IQ and school readiness assessments, and increases high school graduation rates by 30% – to the same level as middle class students. To learn more about PCHP’s history, please visit our website: www.parent-child.org.
Media Contact:
Parent-Child Home Program
Courtney Inman Tel: 516.883.7480
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