By Zach Steen zsteen@dailycorinthian.com
The Excel By 5 certification process has been very important to Commission on the Future of Alcorn County leaders.
As one of the first task forces set in place by the commission in August 2010, the Alcorn County Excel By 5 coalition features 16 community leaders and concerned citizens who work to promote parenting and children’s services through special events. “When we adopted the Excel By 5 program, we didn’t realize how timely it was,” said Sandy Williams, task force committee member. “Now the whole country is focusing on early childhood education.” The vision of Excel By 5 is to support families with children ages 0-5 by encouraging best practices to use and enhance existing resources to optimize the care and education of young children by preparing them to enter school happy, healthy and with the skills they need to succeed. “We have been working hard towards becoming an Excel By 5 certified community,” said Williams. “We are excited to be so close to finishing the certification process. The process generally takes about two years, which means we should wrap it up in June.” Currently at 93 percent complete,
the finish line is in sight.
“We are planning a “EXCELabration” for late summer when we become a certified community,”
added Williams. “It will be a chance to honor the community and all of the volunteers who have been very supportive of the efforts to certify Corinth-Alcorn County as a child friendly community.” As part of the program, select area daycare centers and head starts have the opportunity for trainings and continuing education to improve literacy, language and brain development.
Participating Excel By 5 childcare centers include Circle Y Equestrian Center, Corinth Head Start, Forever Friends, Giving Tree II Learning Center, Just Kids 1, Kendrick Head Start, Kid Kountry, Kidzville Learning Center, Little Blessings, Loving Hands Daycare and Wheeler Grove Learning Center. “We put a lot of focus on our Excel By 5 participating daycares,” said Certification Manager Susan O’Connell. “We provide free workshops with continuing education credits and provide benefit packages to those daycares who agree to participate in the program. So far we have 12 of 15 daycares who are in the program”
Since its inception, the Excel By 5 local task force has accomplished many of it’s original goals. “We recently completed and distributed a resource guide for parents and caregivers in the community,” said O’Connell. “We have also gotten involved with MRHC’s Winter Wonderland event. We set up an area there with ‘Excel By 5 Elves’ who read to children in Santa’s Library.” The local coalition developed the first Excel By 5 Mobile Family Resource Center. “We toured some of the government assisted neighborhoods and daycares with the mobile resource center,” said O’Connell. “We conducted workshops for families of pre-school age children in those areas.” The leaders also help coordinate an annual community-wide Children’s Health Fair during the Alcorn County Fair in September. Newborn packets are also built and distributed each month to families who deliver at Magnolia Regional Health Center.
Once certified, the Excel By 5 coalition already has a plan in place. “We want to conduct quarterly early education partner meetings to encourage and facilitate dialog between the academic community and preschools to develop best practices,” added O’Connell. “We also hope to hold a community wide education/school readiness event at the beginning of the school year.”
Members of the Excel By 5 coalition include Williams, O’Connell, Bobby Capps, Lee Childress, Sandra Ford, Mona Lisa Grady, Tammy Johnson, Traci Johnson, Penny McDonald, Tim Mitchell, Tanya Nelson, Andrea Rose, Gina Rogers Smith, Reece Terry and Chip Wood.