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things that might be new to you,” Stewart said. “It includes academic curriculum that you would expect to learn from school, and it’s also about learning about new routines and how kindergarten is going to work.” In a two-fold approach, FSA has also implemented a literacy program for parents, as well. “Supporting parent literacy program works directly with the parents of children in the program, helping them with being able to navigate the school system,” Stacy Shelp, public information officer with the Orange County Health Department and FSA, said. “So it’s very practical information that we’re giving them. So it’s really a multi-generational approach.” Two zone navigators help connect families to the resources they need. For years, Angela Clapp, Zone 4 navigator, had mentored children and adults at Gateway Village Apartments, a low-income, public housing complex. Through her group Breaking the Cycle, Clapp hosted community events and took children on trips outside of the neighborhood. It was a staff member at A.L. Stanback Middle School that cued her in on what FSA was trying to do in Orange County. “She sent me the information, and I read through it, and I thought, ‘This is pretty much what I do at Gateway anyway,’ ” she said. Clapp came on board happy to help link the community to FSA. Shelp said the navigators are key to FSA’s success in the zones. “The nice thing about the navigators is they were basically identified by the communities as people who are already kind of doing this work within the communities,” Shelp said. “They come with the community knowing them and them knowing the community, so they become a real bridge and liaison for the work and a great source of knowledge and information with that.” Clapp is currently working with the kindergarten readiness program at New Hope, helping teachers and staff as well as getting input from the parents of students. “It varies from day to day, but it’s basically helping to get the kids ready for kindergarten,” she said. “After that program is over, I’ll be touching base with the families, the children, connecting them to resources, connecting them to other outreach programs.” With the navigators in place and two programs up and running, Stewart and Shelp said FSA is in the community for the long haul. Stewart said the next step is looking at what other areas they need to cover, including after school programs, child literacy, nutrition and child care. “We’re in a period of where we’ve heard from the community, we’ve worked on this kindergarten readiness and literacy programming and are going into a period where we want to look at the long-term sequence of what’s going to happen and when,” she said. “That is going to include a wide variety of items.”