Collaborations
We are proud to work side-by-side with state agencies, higher education, community organizations, schools, and businesses that are committed to giving every Georgia child the power to read. Several of our current collaborations are highlighted below.
Our Shared Reading Expansion in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) is designed to inform and educate parents and caregivers of NICU babies about the importance of reading to and with infants and children. We are working to embed this practice in hospitals across Georgia.
Get GA Reading Campaign
The Deal Center partners with the Get Georgia Reading Campaign through funding and support of infrastructure, expansion, and innovation. We work to connect the Campaign with initiatives that will embed the four pillars of its framework into communities across the state of Georgia.
Project LITTLE
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning’s project LITTLE was established in 2017 to improve statewide childcare. Project LITTLE aims to increase teacher ability and confidence in building infant and toddler language and literacy skills.
Funding from the Deal Center provided teacher participants with coaching instruction, classroom materials, professional learning opportunities, and more.
Georgia Public Library Service’s PRIME TIME is supported in part by the Deal Center. This six-week program demonstrates how literature can enrich one’s life, models strategies for continued family bonding through literature, and provides families critical information on library resources for continued reading once the program concludes.
Baldwin County Schools
Emory University and Talk With Me Baby
Through an expansion of Talk With Me Baby (TWMB) training, Emory University is creating an online, accessible platform for nurses to learn about and teach the importance of early, language-rich interactions with babies.
This project leveraged the findings of a previously-funded Deal Center grant to develop online learning modules that include the core concepts of TWMB and ways to coach parents how to engage with their babies linguistically, socially, and emotionally.
We are building capacity in the Baldwin County school district to support social emotional engagement - knowledge and skills (SEE-KS) in literacy instruction. The Deal Center provides professional development, coaching, and mentorship of staff to best utilize SEE-KS practices.
Montessori Academy at Georgia College & State University
Montessori Academy located at Georgia College & State University is promoting early language and literacy resources to build a foundation for lifelong learning. Support from the Deal Center includes materials, professional development, and other resources for teachers, students, and parents.
Ferst Readers
The Deal Center's collaboration with Ferst Readers helps ensure children living in Baldwin County, Georgia are equipped with quality books in their homes. Together, we provide bookstore-quality, age-appropriate books one time per month for a one year period to 220 individual children. We have also formed a community action team to read to children across the county.
GPLS Summer Reading
We are proud supporters of Georgia Public Library Service's annual, statewide summer reading program serving 60 library systems throughout the state. Each year, the Deal Center helps coordinate this initiative, encouraging children and families to read for fun during the summer months. Public libraries across Georgia promote summer reading by offering reading logs and prizes in addition to puppet shows, arts and crafts, and magic shows on site. Children receive rewards for achieving their reading goals!
