Bright by Text Partners with Denver’s Road to Reading

Posted by einisman on October 19, 2019 in Denver, Denver Education, Denver Front, Denver Government, Featured | 146 Views | Leave a response

Partnership to Help Close City’s Opportunity Gap Through Literacy Initiative

Bright by Text, a national text messaging service for parents and caregivers of young children, has joined forces with Denver’s Road to Reading partnership to help increase the city’s literacy rate. As part of this initiative, Bright by Text will customize messages by age and ZIP code, sending information to parents in hard-to-reach neighborhoods about free community events, along with tips on early literacy and school readiness.

Aimed at parents and caregivers of children from prenatal to age eight, Bright by Text delivers tailored content in English and Spanish to more than 60,000 subscribers nationwide. All messaging is evidence-based, expert content from trusted partners, such as PBS KIDS, PBS Learning Media, Sesame Street in Communities and Vroom. The tips and information help nurture the parent-child relationship, build strong families, promote healthy childhood development and encourage school readiness.

“Early literacy is a key contributor to early academic success for our children,” Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock said. “Denver continues to create intentional and impactful partnerships like this to support the early learning needs of our families and our youngest learners – we’re all working toward the same goal, which is to ensure our kids experience academic success, and that starts at birth.”

A partnership of Denver’s Office of Children’s Affairs, Denver Human Services, Denver Public Schools, Denver Public Library, Children’s Museum of Denver, and Mile High United Way, Road to Reading aims to make Denver the nation’s most literate city. The partnership follows the Birth to Eight Roadmap, which seeks to improve outcomes and close opportunity gaps amongst the city’s youngest learners.

The Roadmap aims to help families living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty – including College View, Globeville, Elyria-Swansea, Montbello, Sun Valley and Westwood – find the support they need to ensure their children reach their developmental potential and succeed in school and life, starting with early language and literacy. The Roadmap is grounded in the collective educational vision of Denver Public Schools’ Denver Plan 2020, Mayor Michael B. Hancock’s Five Goals for Youth and the Early Childhood Colorado Framework.

“We are thrilled to partner with Road to Reading to help Denver families,” said Jean McSpadden, President and CEO of Bright by Text. “Our goal is to help parents feel less overwhelmed, and instead feel confident that they are actively supporting their child’s healthy development. A key factor in whole-child wellness is early literacy skills.”

To sign up to receive Bright by Text messages, parents and caregivers can text either R2RDENVER to 274448, then select their preference of English or Spanish. Families can also sign up online at brightbytext.org/web_signup.