In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the importance of parental activity to promote literacy and language development from their children’s earliest years. In September 2008, the UJA-Federation of New York introduced the Family Literacy Initiative (FLI) in Israel, in order to develop and implement effective models of programs to promote literacy among children from birth to 3 years by providing guidance for parents. Through the Initiative, six organizations developed programs: Playing Together (JDC-Ashalim), the Educational Involvement Program (Keren Karev), Always a Story (implemented by the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education and the Arab Community Center in Ramla), the Family Literacy Program in the Bedouin Sector (the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development – AJEEC), and Success Begins at Home (the Benjamin Children’s Library in Beit Shemesh).
The programs are designed to improve the language and literacy skills of the children and their parents and to increase the children’s school readiness. They are implemented for Jewish and Arab families with children from birth to 3 years in disadvantaged neighborhoods, in groups for parents only and for parents and children. The groups impart knowledge about language and literacy and provide hands-on experience of daily literacy skills such as reading, play and conversation. In addition, some of the programs are for early childhood workers to enable them to apply their knowledge in their childcare frameworks and pass it on to the parents.
The Institute evaluated the FLI in two stages between 2008 and 2011, with the goal of examining the implementation of the programs and their impact on the families, to serve as a basis for improving and expanding the Initiative. The information was gathered in questionnaires for the parents, session reports by the implementation staff, interviews with the program staff, focus groups with the participants and telephone interviews with parents who had discontinued the program.
The parents reported that the programs had raised their awareness of the importance of encouraging literacy in their children and had given them practical knowledge to carry out literacy-promoting activities with them. Between 75% and 85% of the mothers reported some increase in the extent to which they conducted these activities with their children since joining the program (“much more” or “a little more”). The study findings were presented to the Federation steering committee and the programs directors throughout the implementation. They contributed to the conceptualization of family literacy and the development of methods used to guide the families. For example, a learning collaborative was established in order to formulate shared core principles and practices. The findings also reveal a need for more comprehensive training of the early childhood workers, so that they can serve as a resource for continued dissemination of the knowledge. These developments have paved the way for leveraging the programs and broader dissemination by the implementing organizations.
The study was funded by the UJA-Federation of New York.