I’m so honored to share the results of our work in 2017-2018 with you! This was a year of exploration and innovation at Tandem – all of which has led us to engaging more deeply and impactfully with those members of our community who have the greatest opportunity to impact school readiness.

Working with families, we have learned that all of our programming must be engaging in order to be effective – and the reverse is true, too. We have to bring effective programming to our community if we are to fully engage them. Our secret sauce remains the same after all these years: use the latest research in child and adult learning and development; bring years of experience in the field to guide our strategy; and consistently refine our programming and approach based on participant input and feedback. This model of responsive co-creation is what has kept our work relevant and impactful for almost ten years.

Listening is one of the most critical parts of our work – listening to families and early childhood educators to hear what they need when it comes to supporting their children’s school readiness; listening to the research regarding which strategies make the most impact on children’s and their families’ learning and growth; and listening to the data regarding which children and families are experiencing the greatest barriers to success.

This year, as always, we have listened, we have learned, and we have revised our approaches to ensure our work is relevant, impactful, and long-lasting.

Our educators and families told us: “We love the diverse books in Tandem’s collection, but we need even more!” This year, every single book with human characters that we put into our StoryCycles bags featured one or more elements of diversity.

Fathers told us: “I love knowing how my child’s brain is developing, but I need more help to figure out what to do with them to support that growth the most.” Our Give Me 5 play-and-learn group grew from this feedback, and we co-created a program for parents and children to make early learning concepts more concrete and practical through hands-on activities that spark creativity and extend well beyond the families’ time in the program. See our blog to learn more about our summer 2018 pilot program in San Francisco!

The data told us that children who spend their day in informal are rather than preschool enter school less ready than their peers, so this year we began offering programs for family, friend, and neighbor caregivers so they can incorporate proven strategies into their interactions with the children they love and care for.

With partners such as WIC and Mount Zion Medical Center, we trained hospital staff and volunteers who interact with families on a regular basis. WIC has added a literacy component to their parenting classes, and Mount Zion’s medical students read with parents and children during Medi-Cal visits. Parents participating in Refugee Transitions’ English language classes practice reading with their children as part of our interactive Read Aloud visits to their childcare programs.

Neuroscientists have told us that those children who live in families that experience trauma have greater barriers to success than their peers, and there are proven strategies to support families experiencing trauma that can help them to be able to take full advantage of learning opportunities. Tandem has been training both early childhood educators and family support professionals in how to incorporate a trauma-informed approach to their work with children and families, increasing the likelihood that secure relationships flourish and learning sticks.

The best practices in child development apply to community change, too – listen, engage, and bring the best we know to honor and build upon strengths. As our children thrive, so will our community. Thank you for joining us in this important work!

See our 2017-2018 Annual Report for more a more comprehensive look at our impact and data.