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.

 
 

Language as a Missing Link & Missed Opportunity Champion Award

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Deal Center’s inaugural Language as a Missing Link & Missed Opportunity Champion award:

United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley and United Way of the Coastal Empire.

The Deal Center selected these two community-based, cross-sector teams based on their demonstrated commitment to early language development in the birth to age 8 continuum. The awardees demonstrated a commitment to enhancing their work in early language development in their community by implementing and embedding evidence-based practices for early language development through:

  • Utilizing the Language as a Missing Link & Missed Opportunity toolkit

  • Creating cross-sector partnerships

  • Implementing community-based professional learning using knowledge for behavior and practice change

  • Bridging the birth to age 8 continuum by embedding uniform practices to ensure educational consistency across early childhood

As a next step, the Deal Center will support Emily Rubin, MS, CCC-SLP, Director of Communication Crossroads, Inc., as she provides expert guidance to the awardees. Ms. Rubin will visit and collaborate with cross-sector teams to facilitate community-based professional learning, including guidance about the implementation of the toolkit and strategic planning.

Awardees will work in conjunction with the Deal Center to develop a plan to scale-up implementation of the toolkit to embed the practice across systems. This grant reflects the Deal Center’s aspiration that all children in Georgia have access to strong systems of family, community, and educational support in early language and literacy development so that they can be successful in school, the workforce, and life. 

Collective Impact Grant Initiative

Bringing The Basics to Communities in Georgia

Every year, the Deal Center invests 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 using The Basics principles and strategies to support our children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.

The purpose of the Collective Impact Grant initiative is to enhance the capacity of Georgia communities to bolster the educational and developmental outcomes of children in our most distressed communities. This is accomplished by providing seed funding to join The Basics Learning Network and implement The Basics principles and strategies to support social, emotional, and cognitive development of children from birth to age 3. 

The recipients of the 2023 Empowering Communities through Collective Impact Grant Initiative: Bringing the Basics to Communities in Georgia received up to $25,000 to support implementation of The Basics principles and strategies and engage with the BLN. The recipients of the Sustaining the Basics in Georgia received up to $10,000 to continue support of The Basics principles and strategies.

About The Basics, Inc.

The Basics, Inc. 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.

The 2023 awardees are as follows:

Bringing the Basics to Communities in Georgia:

  • The Housing Authority of the City of Dalton

  • Lanier County Family Connection

  • Atlanta Fulton Family Connection, Inc.

  • Moultrie-Colquitt County Library System

  • United Way of Northwest Georgia 

Sustaining the Basics in Georgia: 

  • Advocates for Bartow's Children, Inc.

  • Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Georgia

  • Cobb Collaborative, Inc.

  • Cobb & Douglas Public Health

  • Cook County Family Connection

  • Early County Literacy Task Force

  • Marshes of Glynn Libraries

  • Meriwether County School System (MCSS)

  • Unified Government of Georgetown-Quitman County

  • Troup Family Connection Authority

  • United Way of Central Georgia

  • United Way of Hall County, Inc

The 2022 awardees are as follows:

Bringing the Basics to Communities in Georgia:

  • 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 in Georgia: 

  • 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

Grant Awardees and Research Projects

Through funding (up to $50,000.00) provided by the Deal Center, we support University System of Georgia Institutions and State Agencies conducting research on the implementation of early language and literacy practices for children birth to age eight that create the conditions for all children to be on the path to third grade reading proficiency. We are proud to help champion the following implementation science research studies examining the practices that foster early language and literacy throughout the state of Georgia.

Fiscal Year (FY) 24, Ongoing

Augusta University, Dr. Rebecca G. Harper, “Building Foundational Literacy Skills Through Collaborative and Family Partnerships” 

Dalton Public Schools, Malisa C. Pedro, “Beyond the Basics: Expanding the Community Implementation Grant”

Valdosta State University, Dr. Matthew Carter, “Using Pre-Service SLPs to Increase Access to Early-Reading Intervention” 

University of Georgia, Dr. Erin Hamel, “The Talkative Teacher Project: Reducing Job-Related Stress to Improve Communication in Preschool Classrooms” 

University of Georgia, Dr. Kristin L. Sayeski, “Using a University-Practice Partnership as a Lever for the Training and Delivery of a Summer Early Literacy Intervention" 

University of Georgia, Dr. Kevin M. Ayres, “Development of a Research Informed Classroom Tool for Evaluating Special Educators Implementation of Read Aloud" 

FY 23

CSRA RESA, Kayce Tyler, “The ‘Head Start’ Before Head Start, Early Language Access is a Head Start for Three and Four-Year-Old Children in Warren County, GA.”

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

Kennesaw State University, Dr. Megan Adams, “WRITE@KSU: Expanding the Partnership with Marietta City Schools”

Augusta University, Dr. Rebecca Harper, “Augusta University’s Implementation Research to Improve Early Language and Literacy Outcomes”

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, Dr. Susan Brasher and Ms. Kimberly Ross, 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, An Inclusive and Responsive Approach to Decoding Print with Young Learners in Hybrid and Virtual Learning Environments

Georgia State University, Dr. Chenyi Zhang, Supporting early childhood teachers’ literacy instruction during COVID-19 pandemic: A trauma-informed professional learning approach.

FY19

The University of Georgia , Drs. Cynthia Vail and Rebecca Lieberman-Betz, 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, 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, Growing Language Outcomes Within Family Childcare (Project G.L.O.W. FCC)