During the Minden City Council workshop that takes place before the monthly city council meeting, the mayor invited representatives from Webster Ready Start to talk to the council about their program and to raise awareness for the fundraising efforts that they are undertaking to help get as many children as possible quality early childhood education.
“Our Webster Ready Start network is a network of early learning centers and Head Start programs, and our pre-school classes at five of our elementary schools. Webster Parish is a lead agency, which means we are a liaison between the State Department of Education and all of these network partners that Head Start serves,” said Janene Corley Supervisor for Webster Ready Start.
Currently, the Ready Start network serves 11 early learning centers in the district. Recently, state funding for programs such as this has been cut. Those funds would allow Ready Start to grant scholarships to children in the local community ensuring that they get a proper pre-kindergarten education.
“Our blueprint when we first started this endeavor was to get the message out to provide high-quality child care for children to get them kindergarten-ready,” said Olivia Sebald, community liaison for Ready Start.
“With state funding being cut, we have now started our local fundraising. We can’t do this alone. We need all the help that we can get.
“One of the things the state wants to see is an investment from the local community. They want to know that we are invested as well. So the districts that are showing that are the ones that they are going to pour money into.”
Sebald also went on to say that the state is currently matching funds with the money that Ready Start raises. So for every dollar that is donated, the state will, in turn,provide a dollar as well. Last year was the program’s first attempt at local fundraising, and they were able to raise $2,750, mostly through small personal donations and from local small businesses. This led to the state matching and a total of $5,500 raised, which is roughly enough to provide one child with a scholarship. This year Ready Start is being more ambitious and trying to raise enough to provide scholarships for at least five students.
“Our goal is to continue to increase that. We know we can’t reach the $5800 … on our own, but we would like to see that grow every year. We would be able to do five scholarships this coming year. It would be a great start to be able to show that this is a community that has bought into this. That we do care, we do understand that the first years of childhood are the most important years,” said Sebald.
They plan to do this by reaching out to bigger businesses in the local area, but first they are trying to get the word out about their endeavors to people such as the mayor and city council so they, in turn, could reach out to the people they know to have more credibility and so that, in general, more people were aware of the important work they are doing to get children much needed early childhood education.
“A lot of it is just making sure people know who we are and what we do so we have some credibility when we reach out,” said Sebald. “Our goal is to make sure that every child in Minden enters school ready to learn.”
The superintendent of the Webster Parish School Board was also present at the meeting in order to share his passion for early childhood education and elaborate on why, exactly, programs like these are so important for the children and families of our parish.
“For me personally, I am extremely passionate about early childhood education,” said Superintendent Johnny Rowland.
“Data shows, research shows, that the most critical years in a child’s educational journey is going to be birth until 2nd to 3rd grade. Those are by far the most critical years. So if a child reaches third grade with a solid foundation and base established, they are essentially fine.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could impact as many kids as we could to do what we can so when they enter kindergarten, they are on grade level?”
Rowland went on to stress how much of an impact this could have on families who are struggling economically, and that it would be amazing to see the community band together to help the families and children who need it most.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that when you’re living in that household — and we aren’t saying that the parents are not trying, or that the parents are not working, or that the parents are not striving — your priorities are different. Because, instead of reading a book to your child at night, we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to eat tonight and how we’re going to survive,” said Rowland.
“So whatever we can do through our early childhood network to help with some of that, we want to do.”
Webster Ready Start took this opportunity to raise awareness for their fundraising efforts. They have been and will continue to reach out to local businesses to get more children into their program. For those feeling more proactive about helping Ready Start, you can reach out to them either by phone at 318-377-3099, email at [email protected], or by visiting their office located at 1442 Sheppard Street in Minden.