District Five’s Ready By Five Program Celebrates Year of Milestones

IRMO, SC – Staff, families and volunteers with Lexington-Richland School District Five’s Ready By Five program celebrated a year of family literacy and early learning services during a recent event.

Aimed at helping children birth to age five be ready for school, the program offers: home visits to focus on child development and parent-child interactions, community activities to link families, screenings to assess children’s development and health, and resource networks to link families with other program services. More than 80 people attended the June 10 event at Saluda Shoals Park to mark the end of the school year and recognize volunteers.

“The primary focus of Ready By Five is to prepare children for school by the age of five,” said District Five Parenting and Social Work Coordinator Jennifer Felkel. “But ultimately, we want to teach families how to engage with their children. Birth to age five is the most important age for brain development in a child, we want to help families impact their children positively during those years so that they’re ready to learn.”

Volunteer groups like Acts Metro and Redeemer Lutheran Church Preschool received certificates of recognition during the event for their role in helping the program.

“By helping the parents, it helps the whole family and has a trickle-down effect to the child,” said John Heflick with Acts Metro, an adult mentoring program for families in crisis. “That’s why Ready By Five works so well because you have family educators working with the children, and we help the parents to give the whole family tools to succeed.”                                                     

Redeemer Lutheran Church Preschool Director Erle Blake added, “The people at our church just love education and realize the value of it. Money should never keep a child from access to learning, and so over the last five years we’ve probably given 30 scholarships to our preschool ranging from a full scholarship to 25 percent. The child comes first.”

For parents like Amy Sarb, the year has been filled with milestones for her two sons, Gavin and Seamus, who have both benefited from the program to address some developmental delays.

“I’ve seen a lot of progress with both of them,” Sarb said during a recent home visit with her Ready By Five Family Educator Vickie Roberts. “Seamus was not speaking at the beginning of the year, not momma not anything. And I think all of the help has just pushed him and his brother in the right direction. Thank goodness they got everything they needed and more.”