TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and any subsequent amendments, between the City of Long Beach and Public Health Foundation Enterprise, in the amount of $130,231, for the First 5 LA Little by Little Literacy Project for the period of October 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
From 2003 to 2008, with funding from First 5 LA, six Los Angeles County Public Health Foundation Enterprise (PHFE) WIC Centers were transformed into WIC Literacy Centers, where the importance of good nutrition was extended to include good nutrition for the brain. This project, titled Little by Little (LBL), changed the WIC culture to one in which school readiness activities were integrated into WIC services, and WIC individual and group education encounters included early learning topics and strategies.
During this five-year project, over 118,000 children ages 0-5 received age-appropriate developmental materials, developmental learning tools and activities for parents to do with their children at home. By working closely with other agencies that specialized in school readiness and literacy activities, expanding these activities into the WIC setting, and educating families about early literacy activities, this project assisted WIC families in creating stimulating home environments and a “culture” that fostered literacy prior to school entry.
The City continues to collaborate with the PHFE WIC Program to provide literacy services at the St. Mary’s WIC office with the potential to renew or expand the program. The goal of this project is to reinforce the importance of reading to children daily and involves providing developmental materials and children’s books. This year, the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services WIC Program will also collaborate with the Mark Twain Library to provide monthly story time for children at WIC sites and issue library cards to WIC participants.
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