Literacy for Life: A Year in Review

Stateline Literacy for Life Program: 2023 Review

Greetings,

What an amazing year 2023 has been for the Stateline Community Foundation’s Literacy for Life Program!! We have much to celebrate and be thankful for as we complete year 7 of what was initially a Beloit centric initiative to a full-fledged Program encompassing all of Rock County. Our primary goal has remained the same:
ensure all children born in Rock County are ready to learn by the time they reach kindergarten. We were fortunate that two of our primary objectives for the program were reached this year when, thanks to Quint and Rishy Studer, we had funding that would make it possible to hire someone full-time to lead the program, and that the funding would ensure the long-term future of Literacy for Life. Amazing!!

The hiring of Jessica Austin as our full-time Director of Early Brain Development has been instrumental to our growth in 2023. She is actively building the foundation and developing the relationships that will be necessary for our sustained growth and development. Thanks to her efforts, we are recruiting new Partners and Pillars to join our current ones who believe that early brain development is the most positive and cost-effective way to ensure children are ready to learn by kindergarten. As we have said so often–Build a Brain, Build a Life, Build a Community!! In 2024, we will continue our efforts to achieve the goal of Rock County’s designation as an Early Learning Community, and to achieve in Rock County what is known as “Socioecological Saturation,” where the concept of early brain development and its importance are well known and understood by the majority of Rock County residents. It’s a big task, but Jessica is well on her way to developing the connections and relationships to achieve this goal.

We will be expanding our Rudder Group–a smaller group of community leaders who provide us with advice, ideas, support, and network connections to help Jessica’s efforts to grow the program. It will be vitally important to strengthen our health systems, school districts, and corporate support to advance our early brain development objectives. Although the generosity of the Studer’s made it possible to expand the program to all of Rock County, we will need the buy-in of the above-mentioned groups to expand our partnerships and collaborative efforts with our non-profit members who work directly with parents and caregivers on early brain development and early literacy. We will continue to build this program from the ground up, with an emphasis on building respectful and trusting relationships with all entities associated with our program.

You can be certain we will be working closely in 2024 to emphasize the importance and value of early brain development with those who have budgetary, policy development, legislative, or organizational impact which could advance our goals for the growth and development of our program. For example, we are in communication with Mark Spreitzer, State Senator, for possible areas of support as well as Beloit City Manager, Jerry Gabrielatos, Non-Profit organizations, and Corporate leaders. These are just a few of the ways we are building for the future of the Literacy for Life Program.

One thing each and every one of you can do to support our program is to make a year-end gift to the Stateline Community Foundation’s Literacy for Life Program. We will need ongoing financial support to ensure the Program lasts long into the future. I think we can all agree that current and future Rock County children deserve to be ready for a life of learning by the time they reach kindergarten. Here is a link you can use to make your charitable gift: DONATE NOW

In short, we have made incredible strides during our first seven years, but especially in 2023! We are now positioned to take continued leaps forward to ensure all children born in Rock County are ready to learn by the time they reach kindergarten. Jessica, Tara, Jamie, and I deeply appreciate each and every one of you who have made this program what it is today and will be in the future. Thank you!!

Sincerely,

Bill Flanagan, Ph.D., Chair
SCF’s Literacy for Life Program