Everyday Literacy
Everyday Literacy is a play-based family program for children ages 3-5 and their families in North Philadelphia. The program will engage 150 children in free activities at the Honickman Learning Center and Smith Memorial Playground thanks to funding from the William Penn Foundation’s Informal Learning Initiative.
Informal Learning Initiative
Museums, parks, libraries and other community destinations are important places where children naturally – and informally – make new discoveries, deepen their interests and engage in learning. Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse is pleased to be one of 23 nonprofit organizations involved in a new, community-based initiative to connect these critical, informal learning opportunities with children and families in low-income neighborhoods. The Informal Learning Initiative designs and delivers fresh, literacy-rich opportunities in neighborhoods across Philadelphia where parents, or other caregivers, and their children can experience creative play and discovery geared to developing early literacy skills – vocabulary, oral language, writing and comprehension skills. The programming also includes site visits to the museums involved in the initiative.
Smith is pleased to partner with Parent-Child+ managed by Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) and Tiny WPA for this five-year initiative (begun in 2017), funded by the William Penn Foundation, to take early learning programming directly to families in ways that not only engage children, but also involve adults as active participants by building their skills to support language and literacy learning at home.