In the Bay Area, only 42% of children enter kindergarten with the critical early learning skills they need to succeed. By 3rd grade, fewer than half of low-income students read at grade level. Students who don’t reach these critical milestones far too often falter in later grades.

Tandem’s Literacy Champions with Early Learning Specialist Brenda Gardner (second from left).

At Tandem, we strive to break this cycle by empowering families and educators to build a strong foundation for lifelong learning through books, conversations, play, and songs! Tandem’s Literacy Champions program is our commitment to building capacity within the community to support young children’s early learning. Designed to provide adults with the training and tools to become agents of change, Literacy Champions is a community-based program that engages parents in children’s early education and develops a cohort of parent leaders.

Over the last two years, Tandem has been partnering with Mission Promise Neighborhood Initiative to offer the Literacy Champions program in San Francisco’s Mission District. It has been our honor to work with an incredible group of five Latinx women—Rosario Rodriguez, Jacqueline Reyes, Margarita Sanchez, Albertina Ulloa, and Ruth Barrera—who are all passionate about early learning, education, and engaging families within their neighborhoods and communities.

The Literacy Champions program includes three components:

• An intensive 10-week training in various topics related to early learning, literacy, and language development that draws upon Tandem’s educator workshop content as well as Abriendo Puertas, a national curriculum that focuses on early childhood development, early literacy, health, social-emotional well-being, numeracy, school preparation, and parent advocacy
• Apprenticeship experiences where Literacy Champions work hand-in-hand with Tandem staff at our workshops and community-based literacy events, where they have the opportunity to talk with other parents about early learning
• Opportunities to share their experience and knowledge within their own communities and neighborhoods through activities for children and families (Literacy Champions lead a bi-monthly Play and Learn group using Tandem’s Give Me Five Play and Learn curriculum at the Lantern Center for Education and Hospitality) as well as activities for other parent leaders (over the summer of 2019, Literacy Champions facilitated their very own cohort of parent leaders and watched as 11 of their friends and fellow community members completed every single class!)

As we move forward into 2020, the Literacy Champions plan to continue their education by enrolling for their GEDs and attending classes in early childhood education as well as birthing and doula classes; they will also continue to partner with Tandem, the Mission Neighborhood Promise Initiative, the Lantern Center, and other community partners to bring Abriendo Puertas and high quality early learning experiences to their neighborhoods and their communities.

Literacy Champion Albertina shares a book during a community event. 

“Literacy Champions has helped me to develop my 4-year-old son’s literacy skills, and now he can read me a whole book by just looking at the pictures even though he can’t read the words yet. Thanks to this program I’ve gotten really involved in early learning.” 

—  Albertina Ulloa

In 2019, Tandem’s Literacy Champions led 13 workshops and a 10-week parenting class about child development and early literacy with families in their communities! Congratulations to Rosario, Jacqueline Reyes, Margarita, Albertina, and Ruth on two years of hard and exceptional work in our community—and thank you for being Tandem’s partners! We are excited about more collaboration and more partnership in 2020, and we cannot wait to see what other great contributions you bring to your communities in San Francisco.