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<br />FSA to request $90K for two initial programs <br />Apr. 20, 2015 @ 05:30 PM <br />Katie Jansen <br />CARRBORO — <br />Orange County Health Department staff Monday presented preliminary survey data and the needs that <br />two communities had decided were their highest priorities. <br />After two and a half months of collecting data through surveys, the staff found that kindergarten <br />readiness, childcare and support for families were needs in both pilot communities, Zones 4 and 6. Each <br />community also had its individual challenges, such as transportation in Zone 4 and lack of affordable <br />housing in Zone 6. <br />The staff presented those findings to the advisory council for the Family Success Alliance Health and <br />recommended that the advisory council approve a request for the remaining $90,000 from Orange <br />County’s social justice fund. <br />The money would go toward two initial programs for Zones 4 and 6, said Meredith Stewart, program <br />manager for the Family Success Alliance. <br />The first program would focus on meeting a need that was a priority in both communities – kindergarten <br />readiness. Stewart said the program, to start over the summer, would expand support for incoming <br />kindergartners. The program would also include a short-term kindergarten prep program for those <br />students who had never attended preschool. They would be introduced to the structure of a school day as <br />well as to their teachers. <br />Stewart said this program would initially roll out in one elementary school in Hillsborough east of I -40 <br />(Zone 4) and one elementary school in Chapel Hill and Carrbor o (Zone 6). <br />The program would help to establish a cohort of families that the Family Success Alliance could work with <br />until their students were ready for a college or career. <br />The kindergarten readiness program would cost $40,000 for each zone and would ser ve 80 to 100 <br />students in each zone, she said. <br />If this kindergarten readiness plan weren’t feasible, Stewart said that health department staff had <br />suggested a second option. <br />The Family Success Alliance would work to build a similar cohort of families, but instead of the <br />kindergarten readiness program, families would participate in a literacy program. Staff would work with <br />both parents and students to teach them how to read and work at home together. <br />This approach would cost about $50,000 to implement in both zones, Stewart said.