A Godfrey for Multnomah
By Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2004
Multnomah County (OR) Library's "Early Words: Partnering with Parents" is the winner of the fourth annual Godfrey Award for Excellence in Public Library Services for Families and Children, a national honor bestowed by the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science.
The outreach program, a two-hour workshop that reaches more than 300 parents at 20 elementary schools, teaches parents how to interact in fun and meaningful ways with their children and prepare them for school. It also provides information on early brain development, opportunities for acquiring speech and language, the importance of parents as first teacher, and the lifelong benefits of reading aloud to babies and young children regularly.
"All parents want their children to be well-adjusted and successful in school," says the library's parent education coordinator Joanne McNamara. "Our goal with this best-practice training program is to give them the tools and the confidence to be a part of that success."
