The Building Blocks of Early Learning in Gwinnett - Building Babies' Brains Inaugural Impact Report

The Building Blocks of Early Learning in Gwinnett

How partnership and passion are making a difference for Gwinnett’s youngest children

This past year has been about growing, connecting, and making a difference together in Gwinnett. We have done a tremendous amount of work towards moving the needle on Kindergarten readiness and have woven the connected fabric that will make our impact real for children and families. It will take everyone in Gwinnett to continue moving the needle on school readiness and to improve the lives of our children and families.

Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains would not be possible without the building blocks that make us who we are –partnerships, passion, and people. Thanks to these building blocks, and to people like you, we’ve informed and influenced organizations and community leaders to have a focus on early learning and work together to ensure that the parents, grandparents, caregivers, and educators of the 60,000 children ages birth to five that live in Gwinnett are on a trajectory to success in Kindergarten and beyond.

While we are proud of our progress, there is still much work to be done. These past years have taught us that our structure is the strongest when our work is deliberate and focused on our strategic plan. We have also learned that the creation of a unified

brand for Gwinnett is our best way to create lasting partnerships that move the work forward. Our plans for the upcoming year truly reflect this with unique and exciting projects on the horizon. With the help of our many partners and numerous grants, we are going to be able to continue working together to spread awareness of how critical the first five years are in a child’s life, support high-quality programming and resources, and ensure that parents and caregivers have local access to what they want and need. It will take dedication and investment to continue the great work of changing the lives of our children and families for years to come.

We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the amazing group of people who have given their time, treasure, and talents to ensure that this work continues to move forward as we strive to ensure that every child in Gwinnett thrives in Kindergarten and beyond. Without them, none of this would have been possible.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can support Gwinnett’s youngest learners and their families, please visit our website at www.BuildingBabiesBrains.com and follow us on social media.

With great appreciation & in partnership,

- Kim Holland & John Upchurch

and why it matters right now

Our BIG Why

Our children are our future. This oft repeated, but somewhat hollow sentiment, is likely the most true statement anyone has ever made. Think about it, in someone’s home or preschool classroom, somewhere playing on a playground, or walking to the store with family members, exists Gwinnett County’s future mayors, business people, educators, and great thinkers. Now is the time to prepare them and to prepare our county for a great future.

We know from well documented research that once behind, Kindergartners fall further and further behind their peers making it nearly impossible to catch up by third grade without costly interventions. Research also shows that children who are unable to read proficiently by the end of third grade are four to six times more likely to leave high school without a diploma. It’s important to know that guiding a student from dropout to graduate yields a better quality of life as well as higher tax revenues and lower government expenditures over their lifetime.

“The first five years have so much to do with how the next 80 turn out.”

- Bill Gates, Sr.

INDERGARTEN R EADINESS E NTRY P ROFILE

Out of the critical need to define and measure readiness for incoming Kindergarten students, the Kindergarten Readiness Entry Profile (KREP) was developed by Gwinnett County Public Schools. They recognize that a child’s readiness for school is not solely defined by academic performance, but by socioemotional readiness as well. KREP was designed to measure skills in all domains of a child’s development including Cognitive Development, Communication Language and Literacy, Motor Skills, Social Emotional Development, and Approaches to Learning. The information derived from KREP informs all layers of school functions, including teacher instruction, school class lists, and district data determining a child’s Kindergarten readiness entering GCPS. To meet the Kindergarten curriculum readiness benchmark, students need to score a minimum of 70% on the KREP.

The percentage of children not ready for Kindergarten hovered at 52% for the 2018 & 2019 school years. This equated to nearly 6,000 GCPS students requiring remediation in order to access the curriculum upon

entering Kindergarten. Significant gaps in Kindergarten readiness have existed across Gwinnett County with students arriving unprepared in all elementary schools. Furthermore, lack of Kindergarten readiness crosses all social, economic, demographic, and geographic boundaries. Many of these young children were arriving to Kindergarten as much as 18 months to 2 years developmentally and/or academically behind, rendering them unprepared (and therefore, disadvantaged) to access the curriculum, requiring costly interventions and substantial remediation time.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began, showing a significant impact on childcare that remains pertinent. During the height of the pandemic, Gwinnett County saw 53% of early learning centers close their doors, or go completely virtual, as was the case with all Lottery Funded Pre-K classes. With schools and early learning centers closed or operating at reduced capacity, many parents were forced to learn how to foster early learning while simultaneously working from home.

Additionally, the pandemic exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities in access to childcare, with underserved communities being disproportionately affected. Many families struggled to afford the cost of childcare, and the closure of early learning centers made it even more difficult for parents to find affordable, high-quality care for their children.

Fast forward a year, the early learning centers that survived the pandemic are back to in-person instruction, but the impact is clear: permanent closure of close to 30 providers with a decrease in almost 300 seats across the county have resulted in an increase of the number of children entering Kindergarten unprepared. The GCPS KREP data showed that 54% of incoming students were not ready.

This year’s current data shows 51% of children entering not ready, which is a decrease of 3% equating to ~360 more students entering our classrooms this year ready to access the curriculum on day 1 without interventions. African- American students showed an improvement of 5% over last year and Hispanic students a 2% increase. This shows the lowest number of children entering not ready since the beginning of KREP administration in 2018. Had it not been for the continued, laserfocused work of the Gwinnett Early Learning Working Group, we would not have been able to move the needle on Kindergarten Readiness.

United for a Cause

Like so many other times in our history, the answer to mitigating this crisis is “in the room”. To be successful, Gwinnett must rely on its long history of uniting together, embracing systematic solutions, and galvanizing support to ensure that our childrens’ futures are even brighter than our present. Our economy and our communities rely on our success in ensuring that every child has the opportunity to become a successful Gwinnettian.

In 2019, a small group of leaders came together troubled by the realization that Gwinnett’s future was in jeopardy. This included representatives from the school system, library system, county government, local and state politicians, non-profit leaders, business leaders and concerned citizens. Over time, this group continued to expand as more and more organizations and community members became aware of the issue and wanted to make an impact. Thus, Gwinnett’s Early Learning Working Group was formed out of an initial call to action from the KREP data. The group has been meeting monthly since this humble beginning to improve the school readiness of our youngest citizens.

Wh o is leadingt his charge?

So you might ask -

A Strategy for an Impactful Future

We knew that in order to create the impact needed, a sound strategy would need to be developed that would guide the work, regardless of who was a part of the working group membership. For over a year and half, the group rolled up their sleeves and developed a strategy starting with the end in mind. We took the time to build buy-in and determine what resources were available and what was going to be needed to make the greatest impact. We worked tirelessly through a pandemic to build the strategy document that has guided all of our work to date. The following are the key elements of the strategy.

Our Mission

To ensure all children in Gwinnett are ready to thrive in Kindergarten.

Our Strategy

-Dr. Babak Mostaghimi

To ensure all parents have access to the information and tools they need to be their child’s first and best teacher by ensuring they can access free, high-quality early learning resources at home or elsewhere.

Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education and

Student Support

“When we first looked at the Kindergarten readiness data, we thought “we need to do more.” But, what we realized was our problem wasn’t that we weren’t doing enough, in fact, we were doing a lot. It was just that all our hard work wasn’t aligning to an ultimate goal, so we were never really moving the needle.”

3 Key Levers

COLLECTIVE APPROACHES TO SUCCESS:

In Gwinnett, our organizations and institutions will collaborate, share resources, and provide collective support for broader, bolder resourcing for early learning.

COMMUNITY AWARENESS:

In Gwinnett, we all will recognize the importance of early learning and development and know how to support it.

HIGH-QUALITY EARLY LEARNING RESOURCES & PROGRAMS:

In Gwinnett, our families will have local access to the high-quality books, materials, resources, and programs that they need and want.

Our Guiding Beliefs

As our work evolves, so does our strategy for leveraging and harnessing the resources of Gwinnett and beyond to ensure that children across the county enter Kindergarten ready to thrive. The strategy continues to embrace three guiding beliefs:

We Believe Success...

STARTS WITH FAMILIES REQUIRES EVERYONE

Out of this strategy, the Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains community initiative was born. Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains is not a program, event, or organization, it is an initiative that brings together stakeholders from the community and early learning organizations to identify areas where resources and services are lacking in order to develop strategies that address these gaps. These stakeholders, also known as GBBB Ambassadors, work to provide resources and support to families and caregivers of young children in the community to ensure that they have what they want and need to be their child’s first and best teacher.

With over a million people in Gwinnett, we knew we needed help spreading the word that early learning is critically important and the best avenue to spread the word is through the internet. In order to bring the strategy to life and pull the three levers, a robust website was needed that would be the hub for all things early learning in Gwinnett, giving parents the ability to build their needed toolkit. After months of work cultivating and vetting content, the website was ready to be shared with the

IS SUSTAINED THROUGH SYSTEMS

million people in Gwinnett and beyond. The Early Learning Working Group members approached the cities, county commission, and school system with an idea of having the day of our website launch also be proclaimed Building Babies’ Brains Day in Gwinnett. With the KREP data and parent focus group results in hand, we presented our idea, and we were so thankful that they all said YES! The Gwinnett County Commission proclaimed September 25, 2020 as Building Babies’ Brains Day in Gwinnett. Individual cities and GCPS followed with the same proclamation, giving us a huge boost in increasing awareness of both the importance of early learning as well as creating excitement around the launch of the website.

Leading up to “Launch Day”, The Early Learning Working Group kicked off a social media campaign, featuring a countdown to the website launch as well as posts highlighting research and statistics that share the importance of early learning and brain development. On September 25, 2020 the Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains website was launched and the initiative had a true brand.

Funding from the Heart

Our funding strategy has been instrumental in ensuring that we stay true to our mission and guiding beliefs in order to achieve our goal. In the beginning, we made a conscious decision to not seek or accept any funding. Instead, we took the time to carefully determine our needs and identify our priorities. We wanted to be certain that any funding we received would align with and support our mission.

The first dollars needed to execute the strategy came from within. The key to success was taking each step in a methodical and purposeful manner, not driven by funding sources.

One early ask was for funding for our Brain at Work bags that would be provided to families of newborns at Northside Hospital Gwinnett. John Upchurch, one of the original members, now a lead facilitator and a loving grandfather to three of his own little learners stepped up. John set out on a mental and physical feat, biking from the Canadian border to San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway, using this adventure as a way to raise money specifically to support one of our earliest GBBB initiatives.

Riding the Pacific Coast Highway for over 1,100 miles was adventurous, scary and rewarding. As I dodged obstacles on my ride, I could not help but think of the obstacles our Gwinnett children and their parents face everyday. Providing parents with information and resources to build their child’s brain truly pushed me to finish this ride.

- John Upchurch

As the work grew, so did the need for additional funding. Over the past few years, the group has coalesced around the key levers and written numerous partnership grants, resulting in an astounding $1.2 million in funding.

We have been intentional in our approach, carefully identifying our needs and seeking out partners who share our vision, and we are proud of the work we have

accomplished so far, but we know that there is still much more to do. As we look to the future, we are eager to continue expanding our reach to better serve Gwinnett’s early learning community. We know that additional funding will be needed to accomplish our next set of strategic priorities.

Building Babies’ Brains

in Action

A United Front: Collective Approaches

Improving early learning is not something new to Gwinnett County. Individuals and organizations have worked together for decades to support the growth and development of young children. What was new was the recognition that the answer to success lies in the development of a larger, multi-organizational, networked solution. Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains is doing just that by coalescing organizations, individuals, and institutions in support of a single focused set of priorities around early learning.

Lever #1

Collective Approaches to Success: In Gwinnett, our organizations and institutions will collaborate, share resources, and provide collective support for broader, bolder resourcing for early learning.

Working Together For Funding

Three of Gwinnett’s largest organizations: Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, Gwinnett County Public Library, and Gwinnett County Public Schools, are active participants in the working group. They came together to write a grant that addressed the critical need for culturally responsive early learning materials and professional development for the educators within each organization. By pooling their respective expertise, these organizations created a comprehensive and cohesive grant proposal under the Building Babies’ Brains collective umbrella entitled, Building Babies’ Brains in Every Language and Culture that incorporated a range of initiatives. From supporting early learning programs with culturally responsive resources to providing opportunities for professional learning around culturally responsive teaching practices, these initiatives were aimed at improving Kindergarten readiness.

The Greatest Minds:

Uniting Public Art & Accessible Early Learning Materials

COMING TOGETHER IS THE BEGINNING:

Gwinnett’s large population and geographic size makes it difficult for some families to access high-quality books, creating book deserts. Three different community members coincidentally had similar ideas to tackle these book deserts. In a truly collective approach, these individuals merged their plans, creating small book exchanges that would contain high-quality books for children birth to age eight placed throughout the community in areas of high need. This project would become the Gwinnett Reading Exchange & Art Transforms Little Minds Project or, as many now know them, the G.R.E.A.T. Little Minds Book Exchanges.

It was a community-wide effort that brought this project to life. The Gwinnett Coalition took the lead on the project while members of the newly formed Early Learning Working Group donated money to purchase lumber and other materials for the project. Once purchased, Maxwell High School staff and students donated their time and talent to create book exchange kits ready for assembly.

Assembly occurred at Annandale Village during Gwinnett Coalition’s Great Days of Service where volunteers from businesses, civic organizations, and the school system assembled 140 book exchanges. Each book exchange was turned into a work of art by GCPS student groups, community members, and organizations across the county. The final products were displayed at the Hudgens Center for Art & Learning as an art exhibit for all to view and enjoy.

KEEPING TOGETHER IS PROGRESS:

The next step in this collective project was to fill the exchanges with high-quality, ageappropriate books. While they were being showcased at The Hudgens Center, staff were hard at work collecting books. Through donations from Goodwill, churches, and school book drives, the first exchanges were ready to be filled. The process of dividing the hundreds of donated books was carried out by the Gwinnett County Jail and Sheriff’s Department inmates. Locations were then determined, and the first set of exchanges were placed and filled with books! Gwinnett Coalition staff continued placing book exchanges throughout the community while also forming a partnership with Gwinnett County Community Services to hand off the program for sustainability.

WORKING TOGETHER IS SUCCESS:

Currently, the project has over 68 book exchanges across the community and has distributed over 78,000 books since its start in 2021. This project continues to touch so many lives in Gwinnett by providing the high-quality books all children deserve to enjoy. Community members from ages 5 to 80 from all walks of life connected around a common goal of providing locally accessible books for Gwinnett’s children. The story of G.R.E.A.T. Little Minds is a clear example of what can be accomplished when we take a collective approach to solving a problem.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

–Henry Ford

Building Babies’ Brains in Every Language & Culture

With the vast diversity of Gwinnett, it is critical that we understand the cultures within, so we can better support parents and caregivers in being their child’s first and best teacher. Through the Building Babies’ Brains in Every Language and Culture grant initiative, we have provided professional learning on cultural responsiveness to the grant partner organization early learning educators. Through the coordination of intentionally facilitated sessions aligned with the needs of our birth through five community, high-quality collaborative learning opportunities were offered and, based on survey feedback, had a positive impact on 88 early learning instructors from across Gwinnett.

This grant initiative also allowed us to acquire culturally diverse books, materials, and learning resources for early learning programs in Gwinnett. By investing in these resources, educators are able to create more inclusive and engaging learning environments for early learners and their families, fostering

a sense of belonging and appreciation for diverse cultures and perspectives.

The grantor recognized the value of our initiative and the impact it has had on the lives of young children and their families in Gwinnett. As a result, we have been awarded additional funding to create public service announcements (PSAs) aimed at promoting early learning. An action group was developed from the Early Learning Working Group to work together to help bring the PSA to life. With plans to have this translated into multiple languages, these PSAs will help us reach a broader audience and raise awareness throughout Gwinnett’s diverse communities.

Such a collaborative effort demonstrates a shared commitment to providing high quality programming and resources in a culturally responsive manner. This serves as a model for continued collective approaches.

Field Trips for Families

Collectively, we are coming together as organizations and partners to provide highquality, engaging experiences for all Gwinnett families through Early Learning Field Trips. Our inaugural field trip was located at Main Event in Suwanee and hosted over 350 guests from our early learning community. We designed the field trip experience to include information and resources for parents and caretakers, along with hands-on activities that encourage children to use their senses to observe, explore, and learn in a fun and interactive way. At the Main Event Play 2 Learn Field Trip, our Ambassadors engaged with parents as they were playing games with their child and described the learning that was taking place. Our goal was to have parents walk away thinking about all the ways that normal, everyday activities and fun events can become teachable moments. Partners were also there to share information on what other early learning programming is available to Gwinnett families with children ages birth through five.

Help Us Grow!

These events have been met with such positive reviews that we know we need to expand on our offerings in the future! We are looking for additional partners to join us in this exciting endeavor; we are looking for businesses or organizations that will donate space and companies or individuals that are willing to support the event through funding and resources. Together, we can create events all across Gwinnett that will inspire, educate, and empower children and families to thrive.

Empowering All: Community Awareness

Lever #2

Community Awareness and Support: In Gwinnett, we all will recognize the importance of early learning and development and know how to support and access it.

At its core, Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains is a community initiative being driven by a group of people who give their time, talent, and treasure to improve the lives of our youngest learners. While our ultimate goal is to connect parents and caregivers with the resources they need and want, we also need and want every citizen who lives or works in Gwinnett to support the mission that every child will be ready to thrive in Kindergarten.

With both targeted and global approaches, our awareness campaign is designed to promote the importance of early learning in children ages birth through five. The campaign employs various stickers, postcards, yard signs, and billboards to create awareness in communities about the significant role of parents and caretakers in being their child’s teacher. The stickers are placed in children’s books, on diaper boxes, and parent informational packets and provide a QR code linked directly to our website. The postcards are distributed to build awareness and also provide a direct link to the GBBB website. Yard signs with core messaging are placed in strategic locations to catch attention and spread the word. Similarly, billboards have been strategically placed along highways and

busy roads to reach a wider audience. By using powerful visual tools such as these, the campaign aims to reach parents, caretakers, educators, and policymakers to promote the value of early learning.

Our awareness campaign has been robust. Over 6,100 stickers, 15,000 postcards, and 350 yard signs have been distributed, and our billboards brought in over 3.8 million impressions. We will continue to develop ways to highlight the need to build awareness and encourage community investment in early learning. With this engaging and impactful approach, we have made a significant contribution to improving Kindergarten readiness for Gwinnett’s children.

Marketing has played a crucial role in the success of the awareness campaign. The working group is fortunate to have members that provide diverse talents including those around public relations and marketing. Through these talented individuals and companies, we have been able to develop and continuously grow our robust website which we know will be the “go to” for all families in Gwinnett with early learners.

Meet Brainy

Brainy is our beloved Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains mascot! Named by Gwinnettians during our “Name the Brain” Campaign, Brainy is responsible for creating memorable experiences for all children and families during scheduled events. Since the first appearance on July 25, 2021, Brainy has become Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains best ambassador in the community. From fundraisers to parades, Brainy is always ready to make new friends and personify the importance of early brain development!

Brain at Work: Support from Birth

Along our journey of developing the strategy document, it was apparent that in order to reach the families of over 60,000 children birth to age five, we were going to have to identify the right touch points along the way. With over 8,000 babies being born every year at Northside Gwinnett Hospital, this was the natural first place to start.

“The parents are loving it—the book, the onesie, etc. And the staff is having a blast talking about the program. My manager has had nothing but kudos with the products, process and all.”

– Dr. Veritta Henderson PhD, RNC-EFM Director, Women’s Services Northside Hospital Gwinnett Women’s

This partnership allows us to provide every family of a newborn with a Brain at Work bag containing a Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains onesie, a Talk With Me Baby board book, and information for parents that support them in being their child’s first and best teacher. Our Brain at Work bags are provided in both English and Spanish and are hand-delivered by the nurses, directly to families, at the time of their baby’s birth. Through March 2023, over 2,500 Brain at Work bags have been shared with families of newborns.

Pavilion

Impact Through Ambassadors

We know that it takes a village to raise a child. We also know that it is authentic, personal connections that make the most impact. Engaging and connecting with parents in Gwinnett to build awareness of the importance of early learning is crucial to our cause. In 2021, through grant funding and a partnership with Corners Outreach, we hired our first official GBBB Ambassadors. Through private donations and the generosity of the funders within the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia, we were able to hire an additional team member to bring Brainy, our GBBB mascot, to life. Launching the GBBB Ambassador Program created an avenue for connecting directly with parents and introducing them individually and in small groups to all that Building Babies’ Brains has to offer. As our ambassadors met with parents in the park, at events, at the library, and more it became very clear that this was a much needed resource in our underserved communities. We were able to connect families with programming and locally accessible resources and walk them through the website, leaving them with a greater understanding of the importance of early learning.

The vast geographical size of our county, we knew we needed to expand our ability to reach families through this personalized approach. To begin our expansion, we called upon our collective team to support this work. We have been able to assemble a core of volunteers and GCPS Parent Engagement Specialists to work in the field making a difference as GBBB Ambassadors.

This small group has already made a huge impact and through newly awarded grant funding, we will be able to deploy additional Ambassadors allowing us to expand our reach.

When selecting locations for Ambassadors to visit, our goal was to utilize KREP scores to prioritize those with the greatest need. In those communities we wanted to be anywhere and everywhere children ages birth through five and their families would be playing, learning, and growing together. Community events, such as festivals and expos, were the perfect place to start! Attending community events and activities proved to be the ideal way to engage with families. In addition to engaging directly with families, we also seized the opportunity to connect with businesses and organizations, continuing to share information and build partnerships.

As we have engaged with our community, we have learned a great deal about the power of making personal connections and one aspect has consistently stood out, people are passionate about building babies’ brains!

One thing we know to be true, Gwinnett is embracing the importance of early learning and eager to contribute to help ensure all children are ready to thrive in Kindergarten.

Community Events in Gwinnett

As we began supporting community events as Ambassadors, we recognized a need for a centralized resource hub for early learning activities in Gwinnett. To address this gap, we have incorporated an events calendar into our website. This new feature serves as a one-stop shop for parents and caregivers to explore cost-effective early learning opportunities in Gwinnett.

We welcome contributions from community members to expand the range of free and low-cost activities shared on the calendar. If you would like to add an event to the calendar, just visit our website and click on Events, Submit an Event and fill out the form. We only ask that it be in Gwinnett and be free or very low cost to families.

Expanding Our Reach

As we continue to execute on our key lever of awareness and support, our next endeavor is the creation of a PSA that will encourage parents, caregivers, and the Gwinnett community as a whole to prioritize and invest in early learning as a crucial foundation for children’s future success in school and beyond. Our PSA will highlight the benefits of early learning and emphasize the role of parents and caregivers in being their child’s first and best teacher. Our goal is to be able to deliver our guiding belief to a broader Gwinnett audience in hopes of inspiring the community and introducing them to Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains as a resource for them through early parenthood. Stay tuned!

Addressing Needs: High-Quality Resources & Programming

Lever #3

High-Quality Resources and Programming: In Gwinnett, our families will have local access to the high-quality books, materials, resources, and programs that they need and want.

Ensuring all families of children birth to age five in Gwinnett have access to high-quality resources and programming is a high priority for us. We are focusing on addressing the community’s needs and wants in order to allow all parents and caregivers in Gwinnett to be their child’s first and best teacher.

Leading the Way: High-Quality Programming

With a key guiding belief that high-quality resources and programming should be accessible to every early learner in Gwinnett, we implemented the Building Babies’ Brains in Every Language and Culture initiative supporting Gwinnett’s early learning community, including Gwinnett’s Flagship Early Learning Programs of Building Brains (B2) Anywhere through Gwinnett County Community Services, Kindergarten, Here We Come through GCPL, and Play 2 Learn through GCPS.

Through this grant-funded initiative, we are able to provide materials for families around the importance of early learning and high-quality resources and programming in a culturally responsive manner. We purchased and created materials in languages spoken in Gwinnett that were specific to program enrollment. This includes items such as books, music, puppets, manipulatives, brochures, home learning activity calendars, tips sheets, online resources, and much more. We also know that the ability to communicate opportunities that are available in the county in languages other than English is critical to providing access and equity for families of early learners. In response to this need, we prioritized translation services to ensure brochures, flyers, companion materials, and online content are accessible to as many families as possible within the community.

Impact Lab: Investing in our Educators

Investing in birth through five focused learning opportunities for educators and families is critical to ensuring that children have a strong foundation and the best opportunity to thrive in Kindergarten.

During the winter of 2022, we hosted our first Impact Lab conference within the Discovery High School cluster, inviting all early learning educators and administrators from the four cluster elementary schools and surrounding early learning providers. Over 100 participants, including early learning center and elementary school leaders, teachers, and support staff enjoyed a half-day Impact Lab at Baggett Elementary School, learning from keynote speaker Emily Rubin’s presentation on early brain development, engaging in breakout sessions to address the whole-child learning experience, connecting with others in the early learning field, and taking home great resources and teaching tools for supporting

students and their families. The participants gave glowing reviews with 100% saying the experience was impactful and they would likely attend another Impact Lab in the future. Due to this overwhelmingly positive response, we are hoping to continue to offer this event in other school clusters depending on funding availability.

As we continue to expand our reach, we are developing Impact Lab learning models to support individual organizations and groups, as well. This includes professional development specifically designed for early learning centers, individual and group coaching support for early learning educators, and parent training opportunities. The support and continuous learning for educators and families of early learners is yet another component of the strategic plan that will move the needle on Kindergarten readiness.

“Thank you so much for bringing this class to the Discovery High School area. I had a blast at the class and learned so much. STEAM and Reading are so dear to my heart and it really excites my creative side when I attend these classes. The round table was great! I really felt like someone was listening to my concerns for the children and their families.”

- Impact Lab Participant

Accessible & Equitable for Everyone

Our website is at the heart of this lever and was designed to provide parents with resources and information. Through focus groups across the county, we were able to address the wants and needs of parents. The website provides a plethora of resources, tools, and informational articles, podcasts, and external website links for families with children ages birth through five. Originally available in English and Spanish, in 2020, the website was translated to include Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese as well. This makes the Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains website one of the few early learning resources in the county for parents and caregivers of children aged birth-to-five available in Gwinnett’s five most spoken languages.

The website has continued to evolve to meet the needs of our early learning communities. Numerous high-quality developmental checklists exist, but we were unable to find any that included a personalized list of resources based on the checklist information. This led to the creation of our Child Development Survey, designed to assist parents

and caregivers in building their own personalized toolkits for navigating the website resources. Upon taking the survey, a personalized list of resources is provided that includes links to resources where support may be needed as well as general links that support all areas of development. While the survey pops up when anyone visits the website, it can also be accessed by scanning this QR Code:

Our website is also the perfect place for parents to find specific information from early learning educators, members of the medical community, and beyond. In addition to resource found by ages, parents can also read our Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains Blog. New blog posts are rolled out with various perspectives and approaches to supporting our littlest learners.

Bedtime with Brainy

In partnership with Gwinnett County Public Library’s Goodnight Gwinnett, we are excited to introduce our new story time initiative, Bedtime with Brainy. These virtual story time sessions will feature engaging books and readers that will captivate and inspire our littlest learners. With the convenience of the virtual platform, parents and caregivers can participate with their children from the comfort of their own homes. Each

Play 2 Learn is a GCPS early learning program for children ages birth to 5 and their parent(s)/caregivers, available at all elementary schools and one middle school. Program goals include building the capacity of parents to be their child’s first and best teacher, providing access to high-quality programming and resources, and providing social opportunities for children. Recognizing that the school-based Play 2 Learn option may not be feasible for all families due to transportation constraints, we are partnering with GCPS to implement Play 2 Learn on the Goa mobile version of the program. Stay tuned for updates on the development and launch of Play 2 Learn on the Go as we work together to bring high-quality early learning opportunities to even

Individual Donors

Daniel J. King

John Upchurch

Carole Boyce

Clyde L. Strickland Community Foundation of West Georgia, Inc.

Cynthia Peterson

Deborah A. Durrence

Dick LoPresti

Ernie Johnson

Alan Bryant

Allison Anderson

Babak

Mostaghimi

Brian Irvin

Brittany Bentley

Bryan James

Cheril Whitman

Clayton Teague

Denise Rogness

Dennis Maher

Hope J. Hawkins

Jack Threadgill

Jennifer Robison

Julie Norman

Karen Pagoaga

Katherine Jones

Kathy Greenstein

Kevin Barney

Georgia Power Foundation, Inc.

Love You Too Foundation

The Massaroni Family Foundation

Matthew Upchurch

Randy Sutt

Thomas S. Upchurch

Kevin McCutchan

Linda Maher

Linda Schoepf

Lisa Deprez

Mackenzie Botts

Monica Tanner

Patricia Heitmuller

Roger Causby

Scott Woodall

Sherri Hawe

Tammy D. Clay

Terri Hoye

Todd Sims

Collaborative Partners

Without the engagement and expertise provided by our collaborative partners, Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains would not be the resource is has become.

We are grateful to each of you for your continued support.

12 Stone Church

Alive Studios

The Alliance of NorcrossPeachtree Corners

Alpha Delta Kappa Teachers Sorority - Delta Chapter

Blaze Sports

Black Child Development Institute - Atlanta

Cartridge World of Lawrenceville

Catalyst Coalition

CCS: Marketing & Technology

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia

Corners Outreach

Culver’s

Dan Kaufman

Dan King

Don Giacomini

E2E Benefits Services

Easter Seals of North Georgia

Empty Stocking Fund

Georgia Center for Opportunity

Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning

Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students

Georgia Gwinnett College

Georgia Hope (an HCA Company)

Georgia Preschool Association

Greater Atlanta Christian School

Gregg Kennard - GA House of Representatives

Gwinnett Coalition

Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners

Gwinnett County Community Services

Gwinnett County Department of Family & Child Services

Gwinnett County Public Library

Gwinnett County Public Schools

Gwinnett County Public School Foundation

Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center

GNR Public Health

Gwinnett Stripers

Happy Hope Factory

Helping Mamas

Interlocking Communities

Ideal Early Learning

John Green

John Upchurch

Katie Gill

Louise Radloff

Main Event Entertainment

The Nett Church

Next Generation Focus

Northside Gwinnett Hospital

Paige Havens

Parker’s Way Foundation

Perimeter Church

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Georgia Campus

Preface Project

Quality Care for Children

Raymer Sale

Reach Out and Read GA

Renee Unterman - GA Senate

Rock Paper Scissors

Rotary Club of Gwinnett

Scholastic

Seven Oaks Academy

Sheltering Arms

St. Mary and St. Martha

Episcopal Church

Taylor & Taylor Education Consultants

United Way of North Georgia

WINGS Curriculum, LLC

YMCA Atlanta

Financials

Without the support of local and national grants and funding, we would not be able to provide ongoing services for parents and caregivers in Gwinnett. We have graciously received over $1.2 Million in funding and an additional $51,000 in private, individual donations.

FY2022 Congressional Appropriations Request Funding $775,000

Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation/United Way $250,000

Department of Early Care & Learning $75,000

Primerica $30,000

Scott Hudgens Family Foundation

$28,000

Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia

$28,000

Gwinnett Schools Foundation $25,000

Rotary Club of Gwinnett $11,250

GRANTS & FUNDING AWARDED TO DATE

Dollars at Work

PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT

BRAND AWARENESS

FUNDRAISING GENERAL & STAFFING

Total Expenses

$334,250.46

INFRASTRUCTURE & TOOLS

MISCELLANEOUS

PARENT FACING MATERIALS

In-Kind Donations

We would not be where we are today without the support of our partners and their generosity through in-kind donations. We are so grateful for their involvement and donation of their talent, time and materials.

So, How Can You Help?

TIME

Share this information with a co-worker, colleague, or organization that may not be aware of the current needs surrounding Kindergarten readiness in Gwinnett.

TREASURE

Contribute, as we will rely heavily on grants and donations to fund initiatives and campaigns to increase awareness and distribute support materials for children and their families.

TALENT

Contact us via our website, if you believe you can help out with any areas of our strategy, we’d love to hear from you!

BuildingBabiesBrains.com