More than one out of every four children in Randolph County enter school with potential delays. A major focus of our funding is targeted toward finding and providing services to children potentially at risk.

To ensure that children potentially at risk enter school ready to succeed we:

• Involve communities
• Fund pre-kindergarten programs across the county in areas of need
• Work with families to increase their literacy levels and parenting skills
• Ensure all families have access to books.

The programs we support to improve school readiness include:

School Readiness Community-Based Initiative
Pauline McKee, Executive Director, Randolph County Partnership for Children, 336-629-2128, ext. 10, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This initiative assists communities in developing a plan to increase the number of children entering kindergarten who are ready to succeed.  Additionally special projects are implemented which address school readiness. Local advisory committees have been formed in Liberty, Franklinville/Ramseur and Randleman.

The local advisory committees complete needs assessments and develop written plans for services in their respective areas.

  
Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC

Kim Borden, Preschool Coordinator, Early Childhood Development Center, Asheboro City Schools, 336-672-6636, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Early Childhood Development Center provides a high quality early childhood five-star program for 98 children identified at risk for entering kindergarten with delays. The program has a National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation. Parents attend GED/ESL classes at ECDC through collaboration with Randolph Community College.

A parent educator provides services to families enrolled at this site and to parents enrolled in the Loflin and Lindley Park Pre-K. 

Liberty Early Childhood Center
Jennifer Beasley, Program Coordinator, Liberty Early Childhood Center, Randolph County Schools, 336-622-8282, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The center provides a high quality, five-star licensed Pre-Kindergarten program for 36 at risk children ages 3-5. In collaboration with the Partnership, funds were raised to renovate the old Liberty Elementary School building to become the Liberty Early Childhood Center. Services in the building include:

• 3 Pre-K classrooms
• A parent resource and meeting room;
• A room for the Health Department’s Women, Infants and Children clinic;
• A room for Randolph Community College to offer GED, ESL, computer, and child development classes;
• A Parents as Teachers program for 20 families;
• A local advisory committee known as Celebrate Liberty’s Children.

Pre-Kindergarten Programs

Marlana Hawkins, Randolph County Partnership for Children, 336-629-2128, ext. 16, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Pre-Kindergarten programs serve children who are identified as being at risk for entering kindergarten with potential delays. A parent education component is included with all Pre-K programs. Randolph County Pre-K sites include:

Raising A Reader

Melina Simpson, RAR Program Coordinator, Randolph Public Library, 336-318-6830, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Raising a Reader program recently completed its second phase of services in seven new child care centers in Randolph County. .

The Partnership for Children is collaborating with the Randolph County Public Library extension services to administer the program. The program helps families with young children establish a regular practice of library usage and "read aloud" techniques by rotating a set of bright red book bags filled with award-winning children’s books into the homes of families of young children on a weekly basis. The Raising a Reader coordinator for the library is continuing to train early childhood teachers in interactive "read aloud" techniques that stimulate early brain development and language acquisition. These teachers then train participating parents. The program issues a special blue bag to each child in the program. While children have to return the red book bags and books each week, the blue bags are theirs to keep and use.

The Raising a Reader program complements the Partnership’s existing literacy efforts, such as the Parents as Teachers program, Smart Start book collections at each library, and the distribution of books at county festivals and Christmas parades.

Availability of books and materials for children, parents, and child care teachers
Through all seven branches of the Randolph Library System, an extensive collection of children’s books, videos, parenting materials, curriculum books, and literacy materials for children, parents, and child care teachers are available in all library branches .In collaboration with Friends of the Library, the Partnership for Children funds “my first library card” for preschool children and a take-home bag for books.