A growing number of large black-and-white photos of local children now grace the sides of businesses, community and nonprofit buildings. It is all part of the Learning Alliance’s 2022 Moonshot Moment Campaign, “Faces of Early Literacy: Today’s Readers are Tomorrow’s Leaders.”
The most recent ones are the 35 posters on the tower of Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, where the daunting task of mounting them was accomplished with the help of Indian River County firefighters.
“The community is really an important part of who we are. We’re intertwined. We’re one in the same. We are the community, and the community is us,” said Dr. Gregory Rosencrance, CCIRH president, saying the hospital was proud to be part of the temporary art exhibit.
Rosencrance said approximately 95 percent of the babies born in the county are delivered at CCIRH, and that a large number of the hospital’s staff are the parents or grandparents of young children.
“Here at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, we’re passionate about this endeavor.
We want to support [TLA’s] efforts to develop children’s literacy skills in our community,” Rosencrance added.
According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, he said only 12 percent of Americans have a high level of health literacy and that 90 percent of adults lack the skills needed to adequately manage their healthcare and prevent diseases.
“Healthcare and literacy are undeniably tied together,” said Marybeth Cunningham, Hospital District chairwoman. “There is a clear relationship between literacy and health outcomes.”
“The Learning Alliance is an organization focused exclusively on transforming our community through literacy, specifically from birth to third grade,” said Andy Sowers, TLA board treasurer.
He noted that while only about 35 percent of children nationwide can read at grade level by the end of third grade, the TLA goal is to have 90 percent of local children do so.
If you’re not reading at grade level at the end of third grade, your chance of catching up is 1 in 6. We need to do something about that,” said Sowers.
“From birth through third grade, you learn to read. From fourth grade on, you read to learn. Obviously, if you can’t read, you can’t learn. And if you can’t learn, you can’t earn or do all those other things necessary for a successful life,” said Sowers.
“We are all working together full in the knowledge that success will have a broad, constructive impact on our community that will last for years. The job is here right in front of us. With all of us in the community working together, we will not flag or fail.”
For more information, visit TheLearningAlliance.org or MoonShotMoment.org.
Photos provided
