Community Engagement

The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center is committed to engaging communities throughout Georgia. We are actively involved in coordinating and facilitating community coalitions across the state. We continually promote engagement and partnerships through research and professional grants for the advancement of early language and literacy.

2022 Collective Impact Grant Initiatives

Bringing The Basics to Communities in Georgia

The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy and Get Georgia Reading Campaign are pleased to announce the grant awardees for the 2022 Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant Initiative: Bringing The Basics to Communities in Georgia. The purpose of this initiative is to improve the early language and literacy skills of Georgia’s children by creating community coalitions to increase early language and literacy access, professional learning, awareness, and education. The Deal Center is investing in communities that use the collective impact framework to address at least three of the four pillars of the Get Georgia Reading Campaign: Language Nutrition, Access, Positive Learning Climate, and Teacher Preparation and Effectiveness by implementing The Basics principles and strategies to support social, emotional, and cognitive development of children from birth to age three.  

The recipients of the 2022 Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant Initiative: Bringing The Basics to Communities in Georgia will receive up to $25,000 to support implementation of The Basics principles and strategies and engage with the Basics Learning Network. The awardees are as follows:

  • Lee County Family Connection

  • Cobb and Douglas Public Health

  • Meriwether County Family Connection

  • United Way of Hall County

  • Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Georgia

Sustaining The Basics to Communities in Georgia

The recipients of the 2022 Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant Initiative: Sustaining The Basics to Communities in Georgia will receive up to $10,000 to support implementation of The Basics principles and strategies and engage with the Basics Learning Network. The awardees are as follows:

  • Advocates for Children, Bartow County

  • Cobb Collaborative

  • Cook County Family Connection

  • Early County Family Connection

  • Glynn County Family Connection

  • Lumpkin Literacy

  • Quitman County Family Connection

  • Troup County Family Connection

  • The University of West Georgia COE Early Learning Center

  • United Way of Central Georgia

About The Basics

The Basics was founded in 2016 by Dr. Ronald Ferguson, director of the Harvard Achievement Gap Institute (AGI). The Basics principles and strategies, grounded in the latest research in early childhood learning, brain development, behavioral science, and community change, represent a strategy for whole communities to support vibrant learning and brain development among infants and toddlers. The Basics principles and strategies are simple, powerful, and highly accessible, equipped with a Community Toolkit that provides a rich constellation of implementation guides, videos, and written resources for organizations and staff members to inform and support parents and caregivers around their use. Additionally, collaboration between members of the Basics Learning Network engages partners with an ongoing research agenda, promoting documentation, evaluation, and communication for continuous learning and improvement.

Past Grant Awardees and Research Projects

Fiscal Year (FY) 22

Augusta University, Dr. Kim Barker, “Implementation of CLIMBE: Collaborative Learning in Multi-Sensory Based Environments for Early Childhood”

Dalton State College, Dr. Jacquelyn Mesco, “The Roadrunner Reading Clinic: Conception to Implementation”

University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., Dr. Hannah Krimm, “Language Use During Face-to-Face and Virtual Shared Book Reading”

University of West Georgia, Dr Lama Farran, “Talk with Me Baby with Natural Helpers: Teaching, Speech-Language Pathology, and Nursing Professions’ Early Language Knowledge”

 

FY21

Emory University School of Nursing (r. Susan Brasher and Ms. Kimberly Ross for their project “Impacting Early Language Development through Talk With Me Baby Training for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals: Exploring Curriculum Modalities for Universal Access.”

Georgia Southern University (Drs. Sally Brown and Nedra Cossa for their project titled “An Inclusive and Responsive Approach to Decoding Print with Young Learners in Hybrid and Virtual Learning Environments.”

Georgia State University Dr. Chenyi Zhang, for the research “Supporting early childhood teachers’ literacy instruction during COVID-19 pandemic: A trauma-informed professional learning approach.” This project will develop and implement a professional development program in several child care centers serving urban minority communities in Metro Atlanta area where the confirmed cases of COVID-19 are among the highest in Georgia (i.e., Fulton county).

FY19

The University of Georgia (Drs. Cynthia Vail and Rebecca Lieberman-Betz), for their project “Effects of Technology-Supported Peer Coaching on Infant-Toddler Teachers’ Responsive Interactions.”

The Georgia Department of Public Health (Dr. Susan Brasher and Ms. Kimberly Ross), for their project titled “Impacting early language development through Talk With Me Baby training for nurses: Exploring Timing, Setting, and Feasibility of Implementation and Sustainability.”

Georgia State University (Drs. Rihana S. Mason and Gary Bingham), for their research “Growing Language Outcomes Within Family Childcare (Project G.L.O.W. FCC).”