Highlights: The HIPPY Heart Edition, News and Features from HIPPY USA

I Heart HIPPY Edition

highlights quarterly news from

NEW HIPPY PROGRAMS

HIPPY launches two new programs just for terrific 2 year-olds and home based daycare providers

THE HIPPY EFFECT Alum reflects on impact of our mission and how it has shaped her career

NEW JOURNEY

New HIPPY affiliate leader embraces her new role at long-standing program in Texas

From the Chair Welcome to this special “I Heart HIPPY“ edition of our newsletter. This season we are all about showing our LOVE for HIPPY as we celebrate our outstanding HIPPY kids, their amazing families, our hard-working home visitors and program sites, our wonderful national staff, not to mention all our passionate partners and dedicated donors, who help make everything we do possible.

I’m especially excited to give you some added insight into our Board of Trustees and why they love HIPPY. Serving on our board is truly a labor of love as so many of us will tell you. Over the past five years, I have been so inspired by the good work and sustainable difference HIPPY is making all over the country (and the world!).

Verelyn Gibbs Watson HIPPY USA BOARD CHAIR

I’m so honored to have the opportunity to take that service to the next level as Board Chair. We asked our Trustees to sum up in just one sentence why they love HIPPY. My reason...

HIPPY creates connections in communities and families that last well beyond the program.

This is why I love HIPPY so very much.

I hope you enjoy reading more of the very many reasons we all love this organization. We hope you’ll share with us why you love HIPPY too.

Thank you for reading... and thank you for having a HIPPY Heart! ❤t

Verelyn Gibbs Watson

HIPPY BOARD Members of HIPPY Board of Trustees Love HIPPY Because...

"...they are focused on the two things that matter most in life: family and education."

Maria Ferguson

"...a child’s success throughout their school years begins with early childhood education."

Robin Frank

"...it gives parents and children hope and helps them see beyond their current circumstances!'"

Andre Goode

"...the advantages help not only the children succeed but also the parents. It's their best chance to beat the odds and close the achievement gap."

Dora Lipper

"…I've seen the positive, transformational effect it has on families. It’s an academic boost, but it also strengthens the parent-child bond. Every family should have this opportunity!"

Marjorie Mallin Margolies

"...it brings parents and their children together to cultivate a lifelong love of learning."

Laura A. Peracchio, PhD

"...of the carefully crafted curriculum, modeled by supportive and flexible home visitors. It not only prepares the child to succeed in school but also empowers the parents to introduce topics such as science and math that sometimes is considered too daunting to understand."

Sue Plastrik

"...of its multigenerational effects."

Francesca Scheiber

"...it prepares our children for kindergarten/school while also focusing on the parents being a significant participant in their children’s education."

Susan P. Storer

LITTLE LEARNERS IT'S A CONSENSUS, WE ALL LOVE

HIPPY rolls out new two-year-old curriculum to affiliates

HIPPY USA recently celebrated the implementation of HIPPY for Little Learners , its new two-year-old curriculum that now serves as the foundation of our home-visiting model. The new program joins the existing curriculum for families of three to five-year-old children.

Little Learners is tailored to the unique developmental needs of older toddlers and their parents. Our traditional, 30-week curriculum helps parents develop the skills and techniques they need to become their child’s first and most important teacher. Currently, there are 55 HIPPY affiliates that have implemented the new curriculum, and like our legacy curriculum, Little Learners is offered at no charge to families in English and Spanish.

55

AFFILIATES THAT HAVE ADOPTED LITTLE LEARNERS

“Investing in early education for our children is simply the right thing to do, and studies have shown that it pays dividends throughout life."

That's why we're excited to share HIPPY for Little Learners and build on the support we offer to over 14,000 children and families all over the country," said Staci Croom-Raley, executive director of HIPPY USA. "We're connecting parents of preschoolers with tools and resources that foster thriving learning environments in the home. Our parents are eager to give their young ones everything they need to enter kindergarten ready to learn and succeed. HIPPY has made this possible for over 30 years, and we have 20 years of research proving its effectiveness." said Croom-Raley.

As with all HIPPY curricula, lessons are presented to parents by trained home visitors. In turn, parents commit to spending 20 minutes each day teaching their child with daily lessons, activities, and age-appropriate books, carefully chosen for little hands and developing minds. For more detailed information about our new addition, contact our national office at 501.537.7726 or by visiting us at hippyusa.org.

"The initial responses in our communities have been incredible and we're looking forward to the impact that it will have on our families."

Gabby Hernandez HIPPY Manager, Houston Independent School District

HUMAN CONNECTION LEADS TO LIFELONG SUCCESS

OUR ALUM Q&A

HIPPY USA alumni develop a love for learning and have tools to succeed throughout their educational careers and beyond. HIPPY kids like Kanesha Adams of Pine Bluff, Ark., grew up to have a host of fond memories and a passion to spread the word about the benefits of HIPPY. We recently spoke to Kanesha, the director of programs at the Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation, about her experiences in HIPPY and how the program created a path for her success.

At what age do you remember starting and working with HIPPY USA?

I was three or four years old. I remember the HIPPY instructor coming to my house to give me pictures to color and words to read.

Do you have any involvement with HIPPY today?

What overall impact has HIPPY had on your life?

I truly believe that HIPPY allowed my mother to be my first teacher, and I was prepared for school before I entered a classroom. I remember teachers telling my mom that I was such a smart girl, and I attribute this to the fact that my mom was given the tools, materials, and resources to work with me at home.

I’m not a parent, but I’m definitely an advocate for How did your mother find out about HIPPY? HIPPY. I have many family members who are HIPPY grads, HIPPY parents, and some who have even worked Many of the members of my church were advocates for HIPPY and suggested that my mom enroll me in for HIPPY. HIPPY, so she did. My mom knew I was a pretty bright kid, and I loved to color, read books, and learn new When you speak to people about HIPPY, what do you things. When she learned about HIPPY, she used it to tell them? support my early brain development through role play Whenever I share the pros of HIPPY with anyone, I and activities that taught me social skills and always start with the fact that I was in HIPPY. A lot of emotional control, all of which are important, then and times people will run with that, seeing that I’m now. currently working on my PhD, and I hold two master's degrees. If they think HIPPY played a role in my What memory of HIPPY from your childhood stands out educational experience, then the hope is that it will the most to you? play a role in their child's experience as well.

In the small, rural town that I call home, my instructor was more than just a teacher. She became a family I like to share the importance of vocabulary and friend and a strong supporter of my life-long phonics, which are both fundamental to teaching educational journey. children to read, and parents must understand that any early exposure to vocabulary and phonics will support students’ reading abilities. I always try to begin To this day, my home visitor is a friend of the family, with a story, relate my own narrative to the importance and she's also my Facebook friend. She continues to support me with encouragement whenever I need it of the human connection, and then to the human and commends me on my accomplishments. She aspect of HIPPY. Children and parents need that oneattended my graduations and invited me to several of to-one instruction that HIPPY provides. Early exposure her family gatherings. Because of HIPPY, I know now to reading and words can also support students who that she was preparing my mom to teach the whole may need early intervention for unrecognized disabilities, like dyslexia. Most of all, I share with parents child, and that gave me exactly what I needed to be that HIPPY is [peer-to-peer] support-based instruction ready for kindergarten and fully prepared for future success. which is always good for families.

OUR IMPACT The information below is based on 2018-2019 data submitted by affiliates.

THE CYCLES OF LEARNING

OUR AFFILIATES

Kriston Jackson Jones, director of Dallas Independent School District HIPPY affiliate, sees progress and opportunity at one of the longest running HIPPY programs in the nation.

The Cycles of Learning

With its 32-year presence the community, the Dallas HIPPY site has grown to become the largest HIPPY site in Texas—serving from 1,000 to 1,500 children at any given time.

“Each year, our data shows meaningful results that our HIPPY kiddos outperform their peers in academics, but also in soft skills like being ready to learn and able to control their feelings,” said Dallas HIPPY Director Kriston Jackson Jones.

Over the years, many HIPPY kids have grown up and used the love of learning that was cultivated during childhood to become educators themselves. In addition, many HIPPY parents have been so inspired by their children’s success that they’ve also gone on to become teachers and leaders in their communities.

Kriston has also contributed to the cycle of early education success for almost a decade by working as an adjunct instructor at a local community college, where she trains the next generation of teachers on how to educate young children.

Cycles of Identifying Opportunities The years of success for Dallas HIPPY have yielded wonderful results for the community. Under Kriston’s leadership, the program identified opportunities for expansion, especially related to increasing the program's diversity. Although the community itself is very multi-ethnic and multi-racial, Dallas HIPPY strives to continually and fully engage more diverse families.

Kriston Jackson Jones Dallas Independent School District HIPPY Director

This is especially the case for AfricanAmerican and non-English speaking families. As a goal, Dallas HIPPY wants to attract and retain families from different backgrounds, as well as staff members who mirror our current families but also communities targeted for future program expansion. To further strengthen the program, Kriston is working to make a home visiting credential available to her staff members to deepen their knowledge of early childhood education principles and best practices.

“I think sometimes we forget that because the parents are our primary client. Although all of the five developmental domains are beautifully woven into the curriculum, we sometimes glaze over them because the curriculum is designed to deliver in consumable bites. We don’t really focus a lot on the pedagogy of it all, but it's absolutely a part of the model.” Kriston believes the credential will help "get back to basics" and refocus on the powerful educational tool that HIPPY is in early childhood development and home visiting.

she has found that the program needs to make some changes to its strategies in order to engage more African-American families in neighborhoods where they haven’t had a large presence, while still ensuring that other families don’t fall through the cracks.

Although addressing these challenges can seem daunting, Kriston explains that the success of Dallas HIPPY, or any HIPPY site, is dependent on the ability to pay attention to what’s going on in the community, listen to stakeholders, and make changes to plans accordingly. She encourages new HIPPY sites to take these cycles of change in stride and remember that in order to meet the needs of their HIPPY families, change is part of the process helps keep everyone positive and forward thinking.

Cycles of Change

As Dallas HIPPY works on getting back to basics with staff training, they are also preparing to tackle any future challenges.

For example, Kriston says that by looking at data strategically, with the help of a consulting group Dallas Independent School District HIPPY Grads

HIPPY USA STAFF STACI CROOM-RALEY, JD, MS NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MATTHEW BELLEW DIRECTOR OF AFFILIATE ENGAGEMENT ROBERT GARCIA REGIONAL FIELD OPERATIONS SPECIALIST SHANI GREEN FAMILY ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT PROFILE JENNIFER HENK, PhD

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH SHANTA NUNN-BARO DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND OUTREACH TIFFANY THOMAS, MA SENIOR DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS PO BOX 1034 LITTLE ROCK, AR 72203 501.537.7726 info@HIPPYUSA.org | HIPPYUSA.org

HIPPY adapts model to home-based caregiversto Along with HIPPY for Little Learners, we are equally excited about our soon to be completed HIPPY for Caregivers Project. Our goal is to reduce the achievement gap by improving access to quality early education with outreach to homebased childcare providers. HIPPY's Caregiver Project is a direct path to addressing that goal because a significant number preschool age children spend those critical early years in homebased childcare, and our research shows that these providers want quality tools and resources to teach the little ones in their care. We believe that HIPPY is the answer.

Although our immediate focus is on children in rural and under-served communities without access to quality childcare, the need for the Caregiver Project is in every community. It gives caregivers the tools to create dynamic learning environments for children ages 2 through 5 by using the same attributes, like peer-to-peer coaching, that have made HIPPY a proven homevisiting model for decades. No child should enter school without the skills to be successful.

Unfortunately, the number of kindergarten children that are not school ready is still too high.

We are on a mission to change that.

Milestones Phase 1 completed with 15 weeks of implementation.

Two partner organizations with 45 caregivers teaching 175 preschool children.

Materials created for caregivers to inform parents about child's weekly development and progress.

Completion of Phase 2 of project expected by June 2020.

All materials and books developed in English and Spanish.