Early Childhood and Family Literacy

PRY is committed to providing early childhood education that equips children to be successful in school.  Parest are their children's first teachers.  PRY' s approach is to work with families comprehensively in order to provide the rools for children's success in school.

Services vary in intensity depending on families' needs and interests.  Pre-K classes are offered morning and afternoon.  For eligible families who need more intensive services PRY offers a family literacy program in collaboration with the local educational agency. 

The purpose of this program is to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities for families. This is accomplished by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy and adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified literacy program. It helps parents become full partners in the education of their children and assists children in reaching their full potential as learners.

Services are fully integrated and of sufficient intensity and duration to produce long-term outcomes. The services offered include:

Age-appropriate early childhood education from birth - 8 years.  Infant/Toddler and Pre-Kindergarten classes are held during the day.  Early childhood classes focus on literacy and language skills through developmentally appropriate instruction. Instruction draws on scientifically-based research in the areas of reading, language acquisition and literacy.

Adult education instruction that leads to economic self-sufficiency. The program offers high-quality English language learning (ELL) to promote adult literacy, life and employment skills.

Parenting education that helps parents become full partners in the education of their children. This program supports children’s literacy development by focusing on the parent's role in sharing literacy materials, using expressive and receptive language, reading with children and reinforcing learning that has been taught in the classroom. Parenting classes promote the parent’s role in their child's formal education by helping them communicate with school personnel, nurturing healthy lifestyles and connecting families to community resources.

Interactive literacy between parents and children. This component encourages parents and children to participate in activities together that nurture literacy for all family members. These experiences are facilitated in the family’s home environment and are used to practice and apply parenting skills that reinforce children's literacy development.

 Professional Development and Resource Center.  In 2002 PRY/CSD 15 Even Start Partnership was selected by New York State Department of Education to serve as a Demonstration site for other Even Start programs throughout the state. Currently ours is one of four Demonstration sites in the State of New York whose purpose is to offer technical assistance, guidance to improve local programs, share information that has proven to be effective and help monitor program effectiveness.

» Click here to see the "Literacy at Home" project.