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Impacts

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Literacy is Life

Kindergarten reading-readiness is a first foundational skill, one that determines success throughout a child’s school career and life. Begin Bright is the Nashville Public Library’s early literacy plan to set our community’s children up for kindergarten reading success. This simple yet groundbreaking initiative involves delivering a Little Library and corresponding resources to every childcare center in the county, to provide on-demand digital training for parents and teachers, and to enlist a national research organization to study the impact, creating an actionable, measurable model that will transform the early literacy landscape. 

Access to books is one part of solving the literacy problem; parents and childcare professionals must also know how to effectively share these books and impart a love of reading to children.

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The Begin Bright Plan

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NPL's Three Goals Directly Position a Child for Reading Readiness

A Little Library

Establishing Little Libraries in childcare centers that reflect the users, have a curated collection, and include accompanying lesson plans and high-quality professional development resources

A Literacy Lifeline

Building on NPL’s trusted flagship early literacy program - Bringing Books To Life - to offer enhanced training for parents and teachers, in-person and digitally

A Learning Laboratory

Pioneering a wraparound literacy support program in collaboration with a nationally recognized research partner to create measurable results and evidence-based guidance

The Research

In 2022, NPL and NPLF engaged early education expert, Lisa Wiltshire, to scrutinize NPL’s existing early literacy programs and evaluate the local and national landscape, aiming to propose transformative strategies for impacting children aged 0-5 across the city. 
Lisa collaborated with the Library and its Bringing Books to Life team, conducting focus groups with staff and community partners. Upon receiving her comprehensive recommendations in October 2023, the NPL Board issued a resolution of support affirming its unwavering dedication to preparing Nashville’s children for kindergarten reading-readiness by fostering literacy and education from the earliest stages of childhood.
The White Paper

What Nashville Learned from Philadelphia

While developing the Begin Bright campaign for Nashville, staff looked at the results of a 2-year program that put high-quality children’s books in urban Philadelphia child care centers and provided training for caregivers to help children get more from the books. The results were encouraging.
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Begin Bright Steering Committee

Katy Varney, Chair
Taryn Anderson
Melinda Balser
Tricia Carswell
Kate Ezell
David Fox
Lucy Haynes
Don Holmes
Neil Krugman
Lonnell Matthews
Lee Molette
Kristin Paine
Byron Trauger
Jerry Williams
Nahed Zehr

Community Partner Committee

Alignment Nashville
Book ’em

Childcare Network

Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation
Metro Nashville Public Schools
My Brother’s Keeper
Nashville Book Connection
Nashville Early Education Coalition
Nashville Public Education Foundation
PENCIL
Prenatal – 3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University

Signal Centers Inc.

United Way / Raising Readers
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