Jump Start: Outreach to Pre-school Caregivers

The "Jump Start" program, grew out of a need for more pre-school services to the numerous under served children in the Humboldt Park/West Town community in Chicago. The community has a total of 10,153 children five years of age and under. Nearly 40 percent, of 3,926, of these children live below the poverty line. About 5,750 households are headed by a single parent, and funded through the State Library using Library Services and Technology Act funds, 54 percent of the population age 18 and older have less than a high school education. About 30 percent of the same population has eight or fewer years of education and job training, shelter, counseling, clothing and food, housing assistance, translation services and evaluative and referral services.

According to the 1990 census, 59 percent of the population is Hispanic and 26 percent is African-American. 56 percent of the population speaks predominately Spanish at home. In 1990, 47 percent of the population had moved within the last five years. It was to this community of children, spending their formative years living in poverty, learning English and moving from location to location, that "Jump Start" was created.

The staff of the Humboldt Park and West Town Branch libraries have long been aware that many preschool age children in the area were being under served. We were often unable to meet requests for specific materials by pre-school workers and students in child development classes. The need for materials in two languages and the education and economic levels of the community meant our collections were never adequate for the requests we received from these groups. The demand for materials supporting school work assignments and decreasing book budgets combined with high inadequate, but staffing levels prevented regular visits to the 18 day care agencies and Head Start schools within the Humboldt/West Town community. In addition, many day care centers do not use the library on a regular basis because directors do not want to bring children out during inclement weather or into crime-ridden neighborhoods. In January 1998, a three-year old was shot in front of his house while riding his new Christmas bike.

Project Plan

"Jump Start" took a three-pronged approach to addressing the needs of the neighborhood. Picture book collections were to be expanded with a significant influx of funds. Outreach efforts to day care agencies would be expanded. The main component of this outreach would be educational workshops offered to child care workers within the community.

These would be combined with book promotions and encouragement to borrow new books and use our "Bookstart" kits created by earlier LSCA grant. Finally, we hoped to reach those who would be future day care and social service workers in the community. This was accomplished by taking the book workshops to the local high school and junior college and by building a special teacher's resource reference collection.

The training of those who work or will work with pre-school children seemed a natural extension of the services already offered by the library and an efficient way to meet the needs of the area's large pre-school population. We envisioned the public library being the center of education for the entire community. We hoped future day care and social service workers who became familiar with the library during their training and education would return as library users during their careers. For years students had been coming to the library with reading lists of picture books required for classes in early childhood education. It seemed logical to have collections that would back up any efforts to educate these students in the value and use of children's literature. Most of these student's were taking classes at St. Augustine, a bilingual junior college located only a few blocks from the Humboldt Park Branch Library. Josephinum High School and all girl

• Ann Huntting, Manager, West Belmont Branch Library, Chicago Public Library. Ms. Huntting was the Assistant Manager of the Humboldt Branch during the project described in the article.

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Catholic school, was also targeted, because they have a young mother's club and offer parenting and child development classes to their students. With so many social service agencies serving the community it was assumed that many of the graduates of St. Augustine would seek work with these agencies or with area day care centers. Whether students were going to be child care workers, mothers themselves, or already mothers we wanted them be exposed to the best of early childhood literature in both English and Spanish.

Workshops & Evaluations

As spelled out in the grant application, the project brought workshops to area child care providers and future workers in the social service and educational fields. The project funded nine workshops on making and using puppets, music and crafts. Additionally library staff gave six workshops to parents, literacy volunteers day care staff and home day care providers. Due to the number of centers targeted, each center could only be offered one program. Many centers wanted more than one program. Puppet making and music were the most popular workshops funded by the grant. The Spanish language presentation to home day care providers and the workshops with literacy volunteers were the most successful workshops offered by the library staff.

Grant funded workshops were very highly rated. Workshop participants either strongly agreed or agreed with statements regarding workshop content, presentation, effectiveness and appropriateness for pre-school children. They also responded positively to the inclusion of Hispanic elements. About 77 percent strongly agreed and 23 percent agreed to the statement, "The workshop presented me with ideas for incorporating Hispanic themes and/or bilingual material in my work with pre-school children." All but one of the workshop presenters were bilingual. Marilyn Price, who is not Spanish speaking, was selected because of her extensive experience in puppetry and presenting workshops on making and using puppets. Her workshops were known to be of excellent quality, and workshop participants agreed by giving her the highest overall ratings. "It was wonderful! I learned a lot!" said one participant. "The workshop is perfect and with a professional presenter," said another. Many attendees mentioned time. Although one said the music workshop was too long, but most wanted longer workshops. "We would like to see more workshops like this." "Very interesting and fun workshop." "Everything was wonderful!" These were the conclusions drawn by the majority of participants.

Other areas we chose to evaluate were the presenter's speaking voice, usefulness of content, and appropriateness of material for preschool children. Again, the responses were overwhelmingly positive. In summary, 78 percent of the participants strongly agreed with the statement, "The presenter spoke in a clear and easily understandable way," and 22 percent agreed. 76 percent of the participants strongly agreed with the statement, "The content presented was informative and helpful," while 22 percent agreed. About 78 percent strongly agreed that "The content was appropriate for use with children ages 3 to 5," and 19 percent agreed. The 2 percent who disagreed were in one art workshop. 72 percent strongly agreed and 27 percent agreed with the statement, "The workshop presented me with practical ideas I can use in my work." The one notable area of concern was the comments from three participants who marked the art workshop as inappropriate for three-to-five year olds. However, most participants expressed the opposite view. "The material can truly be used in the classroom," said one music workshop attendee. Another participant summed up the general response well, "Overall, I was impressed with the workshop. [The] presentation was very well prepared!"

Overall, the art workshops were rated lower than the puppet and music workshops. Participants responding with strong agreement to statements on the art evaluations totaled 53%, while 82 percent of the music and 88 percent of the puppetry responses were so marked. The teachers may have been expecting step-by-step crafts, while the workshop presenter took an approach that taught art concepts and encouraged creativity. Also, the puppetry and music workshops were probably a rare treat for child care workers, whereas craft ideas are, most likely, often presented at workshops.

We also added a question regarding the "Book Start" kits to the evaluation. These bilingual kits, created by an earlier grant, offer books music cassettes and finger plays on common themes used by teachers. They are available for month-long loans to day care and Head Start agencies. We had asked workshop leaders to mention the kids and hand out brochures about them. A little more than 80 percent of respondents said they received a "Book Start" kit. We have observed a slight increase in their use since the "Jump Start" workshops were held.

The questionnaire contained one additional question intended to encourage the workshop presenters to

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promote the library, "Were you invited to visit the Humboldt Park and West Town Libraries to borrow the new picture books in English and Spanish?" We had mentioned the grant and the additional books several times to day car directors in the process of booking the programs and during the preliminary planning for the grant. Our initial surveys indicated that if we were to reach a significant number of child care providers, we would have to accommodate them by holding the workshops onsite. The weakness to this approach was that the child care providers would not see the new books or visit the library. Although we had stressed the entire program in our talks with day care directors, we were unsure if this information had been passed on to their staff. Therefore, we asked the music, puppet and craft workshop presenters to mention the grant and the availability of the many new pre-school books in both English and Spanish. We wanted to make sure all the participants in the workshops were aware that the library was sponsoring the event and had additional materials in support of their centers. About 90 percent of respondents said they were invited to the library to view these materials, and 10 percent said they were not. There were no workshops where all respondents said they were not informed of the library's collections. Obviously, these responses indicate something else, perhaps whether or not participants were paying attention. If they missed the original announcement, the question itself served to inform them.

The staff at Humboldt and West Town libraries presented several workshops on selecting and using picture books. These ranged from small events attended by a few day care staff members to a presentation to home day care providers, which was attended by 27 people. The presentation to the Spanish speaking home day care providers, who have an extensive organization under the umbrella of the Cook County Child Care Initiative, was given in Spanish. The attendees were most appreciative. As with all workshops, it could easily have run on with participants looking at books and asking questions. If the workshops suffered from any fault it was that they tried to touch upon too many aspects of pre-school children's literature. However, on the evaluations, 100 percent of the responses were positive, with 53 percent agreeing with statements and 47 percent strongly agreeing. The highest satisfaction was with the Hispanic elements presented, with 58 percent strongly agreeing with the statement, "The workshop presented me with ideas for incorporating Hispanic themes and/or bilingual material in my work with preschool children." Also highly rated were the content and practical ideas presented, with 58 percent strongly agreeing with the following two statements: "The content presented was informative and helpful," and "The workshop presented me with practical ideas I can use in my work." The statement, "The content was appropriate for use with children ages 3 to 5" was strongly agreed to by 42 percent of attendees, while the statement, "The presenter spoke in a clear and easily understandable way" was agreed to by 17 percent.

The Spanish presentation to home day care providers used an entirely different evaluation form that solicited open comments. The following questions received a 100 percent positive response. "Did this program help you to understand how to select a book that would be appropriate to read to a pre-school child?" "Do you think, after this program, that you could select a book that would be appropriate to read to pre-school children?" "Do you have a better understanding of picture book illustration and what makes a well illustrated picture book?". About 94 percent gave a favorable response to the question: "Do you have a better understanding of the themes that are appropriate for reading aloud to pre-school children?" The words "excellent" and "very much" were used throughout the evaluations.

This was the most rewarding workshop from the librarians' point of view. We were able to combine our Spanish speaking ability with our expertise in children's literature to reach out to a previously unserved group. The audience was very receptive. Their comments on evaluations were: "Everything was excellent." "I can recommend this [workshop] for another class," When asked what they liked most, they commented on the large selection of books, the fact that the books were appropriate for pre-school children, and the use of some books that could be used in their certification process. Some had comments about additional elements they would like to see in the presentation. These included how to handle difficult children, more time, some art and craft activities for young children and more up-to-date books published in the last 10 years. Additional comments made concerned the desire to know where to buy Spanish books for pre-school children and to have the library give another presentation. Also mentioned was the effectiveness of Mr. Arroyo's presentation in giving concrete ideas that would be useful in a home day care setting. Attendees also found Mr. Arroyo's preparation, presentation and control of the material and audience excellent. Mr. Arroyo's fluency in Spanish and presentation style allowed us to effectively reach home day care providers whose only language is Spanish.

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Several features made the programs attractive to the day care centers. We were careful to match the programs to the centers' needs. Before scheduling, centers were contacted about what times were best and which of the programs they preferred. Performers were contacted and asked about their availability. We were able to offer programs in either English or Spanish or both languages. We then tried to match day care center needs with the performers. This process involved a lot of work for library staff in phone calls, faxes and follow-up letters, but for the most part it worked very well. Only one day care center would have liked a music workshop but had to take the art workshop because that was all that was left. Most day care centers preferred Friday afternoon programs, and we were able to accommodate them. Some had mostly English speaking staff, and some most Spanish speaking staff. Others didn't particularly care what language the program was in and were happy with a mix of the two languages. As was noted in the grant, preliminary calls to day care agencies indicated that getting away from the agency for a workshop would be a problem. Directors were very pleased that we were bringing the workshops directly to them. In the case of the home day care providers network, the workshop was held outside of Chicago at Concordia University in River Forest, a location that provided plenty of parking and was familiar with the group. The long drive involved for the librarians was offset by the large turnout and positive feedback. This workshop was also notable in that it reached a group that spoke only Spanish. It is rare that outreach efforts directly reach monolingual audiences.

Collections

A reference collection was developed and shelved in an attractive area of the main reading room. The location means that for the most part the materials will be reserved for adults. Had the collection been placed in the children's room the books would easily become disheveled and mixed with the circulating children's collection. This would have caused confusion as children brought the books to the desk for check out. Now students in child development classes can come in and find the books they need in one area. They can sit and study them in an area of less activity than the preschool children's section. Most items are duplicated, often with eight to 10 copies, in the children's circulating collection. The reference collection includes classics of children's literature and books from St. Augustine's reading list. Also included are representative Hispanic tales and works featuring Hispanic characters. Emphasis was placed on classic fairy tales representing different illustrators and styles of adaptation.

Some titles on social issues often covered in day care classes, such as death and divorce, also are included. An additional area that will need further development is books on these topics in Spanish. Students also often request books showing sex role reversal or sex neutral titles. Again the project didn't have enough time to research and acquire these titles. Those titles that were identified were often not available from our supplier's warehouse and, thus, could not be acquired within the time frame of the grant.

The circulating picture books collection contained many of the same materials that were in the reference collection. Many classic and popular books were ordered. An effort also was made to order books promoting cross-cultural understanding. Not only were books purchased that featured the major ethnic groups in the community, but also other ethnic groups in America. Books, such as Alien Say's How My Parent's Learned to Eat and Grandfather's Journey, introduce children to Asian characters by showing them an immigrant experience with which they can identify. After hearing How My Parent's Learned to Eat, which tells of an American man and a Japanese woman learning each other's dining customs, West Town/Humboldt children have commented that they eat both Puerto Rican and Mexican foods in their home

About $11,000 was spent in Spanish materials. Most were purchased from a local books store, and others by U.S. publishers, were identified by grant librarians and ordered from The Chicago Public Library's vendor if in stock in the warehouse. Some books we would have dearly liked to purchase were in print but not in stock. These include works featuring Hispanic culture by such authors as Pat Mora, Alma F. Ada and Lulu Delacre. Overall, the selection of books in Spanish was excellent and greatly increased current collections to the positive reaction of the public.

Teachers' materials totaled $3,000. Emphasis was on the three areas covered by the workshops: puppetry, music and crafts. Some books on finger plays also were purchased. Spanish language materials were acquired from Tres Americas, the bookstore that was our Spanish language supplier. A few bilingual titles were acquired from our English supplier. The collection is adequate but could have benefited from books by publishers that specialize in teachers' materials as Fearon. Those books, however, were not in stock with our vendor.

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Outreach to Educational Institutions

The final area of emphasis was to reach out to the high schools and junior colleges. Josephinum High School was willing to have library staff speak to their students. They have also sought grant money themselves to develop their pre-school collection in support of their parenting classes. At St. Augustine college, there is less of an effort to develop and rely on their students are spread over five campuses in the cities of Chicago and Aurora. One campus is only four blocks from the Humboldt Branch Library. The location does not have a library, and many students visit the public library rather than travel several miles to the main campus library. While the public library cannot replace school and college libraries, the reality is that students at these institutions use their neighborhoods public libraries because of familiarity and bilingual staff and collections. One of the strengths of the grant is that it looks beyond the traditional strict divisions between educational institutions. Social progress in The West Town/Humboldt community calls for combined effort of all social service and educational agencies. The "Jump Start" grant serves as a model of this type of cooperation.

Changes in Direction

The grant project had no major change in direction and was able to adjust to minor changes as dictated by events and the needs of those the grant served. The first event that required adjustment was the late start date due to late funding. This, along with the Chicago Public Library's requirement that funds be fully spent by the end of May, meant the book orders were crunched into a one-month period. It also meant we were only able to order materials currently in stock in our supplier's warehouse. Our book jobber supplied us with lists of pre-school books and easy readers. The grant librarians spent a considerable amount to try to get the books they wanted. This involved extra time identifying titles and calling on each title to see if it was available from our supplier. However, it was worth it. This attention to details meant we were able to get many more books, focusing on Hispanics, than had been on the original list sent by our supplier. We also were able to adjust to changes. After giving the workshop to home day care providers and talking to the Lutheran Day Care, we realized teachers wanted more non-fiction books, which we originally hadn't planned to purchase. We were able to respond with a few titles to teachers' requests for books covering social development, issues such as, sharing and going to school for the first time. We were able to order a few pre-school titles that focus on divorce and death. We also ordered many of the books on St. Augustine College's reading list, which also covered these issues. When titles were out of print or unavailable, substitutions were made.

Another adjustment that the grant project made was to add a puppetry class and drop an art class. The original grant stated we would give three programs each on art, puppetry and music. When it became obvious that most day care agencies preferred the puppet and music workshops and we were having difficult finding a bilingual art instructor who was flexible enough to meet our hours, we scheduled the additional puppet workshop.

The grant also adjusted by adapting each of the librarian-presented workshops to the group it was addressing. Originally it was planned to have one script covering selecting and using picture books. However each center would request a different focus. Some wanted to focus on social development issues; others wanted a sharing program where the staff also presented their favorite books. One of the comments on an evaluation was that it would be beneficial to have librarians and day care staff get together on a regular basis for sharing. This is also the method preferred by the literacy staff at the West Town Health Center. Working through Health for Humanity, their program has physicians "prescribe" books to parents. In addition, books are given away at check ups. Recently, paid literacy staff have joined the program to read to children in the waiting room. These employees are recent immigrant parents who are involved in education and looking to expand their experiences outside the home and local school. Two workshops were held for this staff. Once again the grant librarian adjusted by cutting her presentation and allowing participants to share their favorite books. It was a pleasure to see how well newly hired staff with minimal training could evaluate books. Their selections were excellent and their comments insightful. Their enthusiasm was infectious and pointed the way to further cooperation.

The grant also changed from its original intentions by creating more bibliographies than planned. At the request of the West Town Health Center, a bibliography was created of basic purchases for a beginning library in Spanish. A bibliography was created of the materials used in the presentations. As the presentations had to be given before the books arrived, this bibliography included some titles that are out of print. It was felt that other librarians might wish full bibliographic information on titles that are in print. This led to the creation of a bibliography that covers books about Hispanics. The

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grant activities proved useful in ways never anticipated. For example, many of the Spanish language materials were purchased from Tres Americas, a local bookstore. Although their selection was excellent in foreign published material, they lacked many of the Spanish language titles now being published in the United States. The grant librarians were able to present Tres Americas with a list of such titles. This will help them improve their stock and benefit other libraries and schools ordering through them.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The grant's strengths far outweighed its weaknesses. Teachers and agency heads loved the project idea and wanted more programs and contact with the library. A few strong bonds were formed especially with the director of the Head Start programs offered through Clemente High School and with the head of the Home Day Care Providers Network. Additionally, the strong bonds already established with the Puerto Rican Culture Center's Centre Infantil were strengthened. This came at a time when the center's long time director and library supporter was preparing to leave. As other staff members prepared to take over the responsibilities, the library's relationships with these staff members were strengthened. The day care center at the Von Humboldt Vocational center was added to the list of agencies the grant targeted. Our ties with the librarian led to reading programs for the center's children and a workshop for the parents. It was a major strength of the grant that it connected with people in a variety of organizations, including colleges, high schools, neighborhood health centers, day care centers, home day care providers, and Head Start agencies.

One unanticipated benefit was the arrival of the easy readers in time for The Chicago Public Library's annual Summer Reading Program. We gave first priority to processing these books. They received heavy circulation during the summer and were used for many book reports.

Additional funds should have been budgeted for handouts. Ms. Valverde required us to purchase art supplies. More that one music workshop participant would have liked a tape of the songs Ms. Martinez presented. Ms. Price had a small puppetry book that would have been a good purchase.

Goals & Objectives

The grant was successful in meeting its goals and objectives, which were to reach out to the pre-school community through future and present day care providers. We were able to increase their skills by offering workshops that suited their needs. Workshop presenters promoted the library and the new grant materials as well as the availability of "Book Start" kits that were produced by an earlier LSCA grant. Outreach to St. Augustine College and Josephium High was accomplished. The reference collection will go a long way toward introducing area students of pre-school development to quality children's picture books. As stated in the grant, previously these students would visit the library with recommended reading lists and find few of the books in our collection. The momentum begun with this project will continue with further outreach and collection development efforts. We have made major contributions to the Illinois State Library's goal to "enrich the quality of life for citizens of Illinois by advocating the pleasures of reading, the ability to read, and the importance of reading."

Conclusions

It would be beneficial if the state would encourage small follow-up grants. In the case of "Jump Start", a good follow up would be to offer additional programs next year and to have a small book budget to satisfy teacher's additional programs next year and to have a small book budget to satisfy teacher's additional requests. Due to The Chicago Public Library's budgetary guidelines, the book funds had to be spent by the end of May. This was before we had held most of the workshops. As the workshops were held and teachers and home day care providers became aware of our program, we had more requests for specific types of books, mainly non-fiction, which had not been the focus of our original grant. Also, many of the teachers requested books in Spanish on such subjects such as divorce, death, where babies come from, and the differences between boys and girls. These books are very difficult, if not impossible, to find in Spanish. With a little more lead time, librarians could search for these books. The desire for additional workshops was frequently mentioned in evaluations. While "Jump Start" accomplished what it intended, further effort and expenditure will be required to achieve the full vision of a united educational community that inspired the grant.

Another area for future growth that the grant project pointed to include book discussions and sharing among those in the community that work with children. This was suggested in an evaluation from a Centro Infantil staff member. Prescribe a Book staff also like this approach. Our work with them has continued beyond

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the grant time line. Further meetings have been scheduled for book sharing and updates on the Prescribe a Book program. As the library staff gave workshops on pre-school children's literature, they found that sometimes the audience had valuable contributions to make both in areas of child development and specific titles. It may be possible in the future for area child care workers to meet on a regular basis at the library for sharing ideas.

Several future areas of cooperation are possible with St. Augustine College. Follow-up will be required to insure that new teachers and students in child development classes continue to be aware of and use the picture book reference collection. There is also a possibility that students can be assigned to observe story hours at the West Town and Humboldt libraries. They would be able to observe how a librarian handles a group of children and the various rhymes and activities that can accompany a story program. Library staff could offer the workshop on selecting and using children's books to classes at the college as a compliment to the professors' lessons. Cooperation with St. Augustine College will be key to the library's future efforts to have a lasting effect on the neighborhood by reaching day care workers while they are still in training.

"Jump Start" proved to be a very successful grant project that addressed a major need in the Humboldt Park and West Town communities. In this area, with high poverty and low educational levels, links to the library and pre-literacy training for the large pre-school population are essential. This grant has made substantial progress toward making the library a center of the educational and child care communities. Day care directors and staff responded enthusiastically to the programs offered. Teachers were pleased to see new books, especially those in Spanish. The bilingual and Hispanic elements of programs were also greatly appreciated. The grant produced many useful bibliographies and tips for other librarians considering similar outreach programs. The benefits of "Jump Start" will be felt for many years in the West Town/Humboldt community and in other communities that replicate the project.

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