Ready by five is a five-star project

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Jesus Vazquez is going fishing.

With a line of red yarn, he dangles a magnet over a blue mat on the floor in the living room, attempting to snag paper fish anchored to paper clips. Before too long, he lands a yellow one, and his older brother and sister -- Angel, 6, and Bethsaida, 10 -- clap for his accomplishment.

"He got one! Look! Look!" Angel exclaims.

"El otro," says his mother, 43-year-old Maria Vazquez, encouraging her son in Spanish to go for another one.

Her 2-year-old angler is having fun, playing a game on this recent afternoon. He doesn't realize he's learning, practicing hand-eye coordination, among other skills.

"It's kind of like practice for holding a pencil, but more fun," says Emily Berentson, a family educator with the Parents as Teachers program, one of three home-based services offered through Ready by Five, the early learning initiative primarily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Thrive by Five Washington.

The pilot project aims to prepare Yakima's youngest and poorest children for kindergarten, readying them for the classroom and setting them up for academic success through elementary school and beyond.

"Everything we do is oriented to getting kids ready for school," says executive director Helen Marieskind. "Personally, I'd like to reach every child in east Yakima and their parents."

While Ready by Five's Educare East Yakima Early Learning Center isn't ready yet -- construction is scheduled to start next spring in southeast Yakima -- organizers and educators are gearing up for their second year of programming.

Services include home visits for expectant mothers and families with young children, parenting groups, a kindergarten transition program and support for child care providers, among other offerings.

Eligible families live in a designated neighborhood in east Yakima and are expecting a child or have a child or children under age 5. A couple of the programs, Nurse Family Partnership and Enhanced First Steps, have income requirements; the others don't. One program, Creative Families Play & Learn, is open to all families with young children, including those who live outside the designated neighborhood.

Most of the children from the neighborhood -- about 60 percent, according to Marieskind -- are cared for by family members, friends or neighbors and aren't enrolled in traditional preschool programs.

Ultimately, Ready by Five organizers -- as well as 43 community partners, or stakeholders -- are hoping that early learning and subsequent education will break the cycle of poverty and the problems that often come with it: crime, increased drop-out rates, poor nutrition and other physical health problems, depression, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and low-wage jobs or joblessness.

Young children in Yakima, particularly in east Yakima, are at risk. Studies show the achievement gap for children from low-income families becomes evident as early as 18 months. And Yakima's Ready by Five target area, one of the poorest parts of town, has almost double the national birth rate, according to Marieskind.

"There are lots of little children" -- children in need -- "coming up the pike," she says.

The goal is to get to them early, intervene and educate. And if local efforts work, they could be undertaken elsewhere.

"We're trying to create programs that can be replicated in the community, rest of the state, rest of the country," Marieskind says. "It all depends on how we do."

About 600 children were served last year through Yakima's Ready by Five. Slightly more are being served now, in year two.

"We are exactly where we had hoped to be at this point in time," Marieskind says. "We know we are making a difference."

Yakima is one of only two Ready by Five early learning demonstration communities, or pilot sites, in the state. The other is in White Center, an ethnically diverse and largely low-income unincorporated community just south of Seattle.

Yakima's target area covers roughly 5.5 square miles in an impoverished, predominantly Latino neighborhood on the east end of town. It's bordered by U.S. Highway 12 to the north and East Mead Avenue to the south, hugging Interstate 82 in the middle.

The area includes four public elementary schools -- Barge-Lincoln, Adams, Garfield and Discovery Lab -- as well as about 1,000 parents and 3,700 children ages 5 and younger.

Jesus Vazquez is one of them.

His mother, Maria, works in a warehouse, sorting apples. His father, José, works in orchards, picking fruit. They've been part of the Parents as Teachers program since December and are eligible until Jesus is 5 and ready for kindergarten.

According to figures from the Yakima School District, 60 percent of all kindergartners nationwide weren't ready for school at the start of the last academic year. In Yakima, that number was 70 percent. And in east Yakima, it was even higher: 80 percent.

Through Parents as Teachers, run in conjunction with Catholic Family & Child Service, Berentson visits Jesus and his family once a month for about an hour. The visit usually includes singing a song, reading a book, then doing an activity. This month, there were two: an exercise that involved batting balloons with paper plates affixed to cardboard tubes, to hone gross motor skills, and the fishing game, to sharpen fine motor skills.

"By challenging (children) to do things like aim the magnet at the fish hook, (they) must switch gears in the brain to intentionally make movements," Berentson says. "In time, they not only have to think about how to make their body do the action less, but they also learn how to make the action using their energy more efficiently."

Berentson, who's fluent in Spanish, also provides information to parents on child development, early learning, and local events and activities for young children as well as other resources.

Jesus' mother says she got involved for one reason: "For my children," she says in Spanish, through a translator.

"It's a good program," she continues. "As mothers, we want to educate our children. It's easy to fall into the trap of disciplining them, saying don't do this, don't do that. I'm learning to motivate them in different ways."

"It's for the children as well as for the parents," Maria Vazquez says of the program. "We can learn something, too."

Although this is the second year of services, Ready by Five's roots go back to 2006, when Thrive by Five Washington and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave an initial grant of nearly $1.2 million to pay for program planning.

The two groups gave another $5 million last year to begin services and design an early learning center that would serve as a hub and statewide model for early childhood education. Another $4 million was given this year, and $4 million more is slated for 2010.

Ready by Five also receives some funding from the state Department of Early Learning and some private grant money. The annual operating budget is about $4 million. Ready by Five has 14 employees, plus another 35 workers under contract at other agencies.

"We spend everything we get," Marieskind says, adding: "The project funders have made a 10-year commitment. It's a long-term investment."

Meantime, stakeholders chose Educational Service District 105 to serve as the fiscal intermediary, or lead agency, in seeking and handling funds and organizing the planning process.

Fundraising is just beginning for the Educare East Yakima Early Learning Center, designed to serve nearly 200 low-income children from working families each year.

"It's more than a day care," Marieskind says. "It's an intensive early learning program with highly trained teachers and a low student-to-teacher ratio."

For children up to age 3, the ratio is one to eight. For 3- to 5-year-olds, it's three to 17.

According to Marieskind, the Gates Foundation and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund are planning to pay for half of the center's total cost, which is expected to run from $15 million to $16 million.

"We're extremely grateful," Marieskind says.

Locally, Washington Fruit & Produce Co. has contributed "a six-figure gift," but Marieskind wouldn't disclose the exact amount. She says organizers hope to raise $2 million from the Yakima community and plan to seek the rest of the funding, about $6 million, from state and federal sources as well as private grants.

Ground is scheduled to be broken in spring 2010; the center is scheduled to open a year later. When construction is completed, Ready by Five's administrative offices -- currently based at a storefront at the corner of Lincoln and Fifth avenues -- will move to the new location.

The center will sit on a portion of the Adams Elementary School campus in southeast Yakima. The Yakima School District, which owns the land, has a long-term lease agreement to place the center on part of the 9-acre campus.

Meantime, Jesus had so much fun with the fishing game that Berentson decided to leave it with him and his family. Her hope is they all continue to play with it long after she leaves.

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.

Overview of Ready by Five services

* Nurse Family Partnership serves low-income, first-time mothers who are less than 28 weeks pregnant. Nurses visit women, their partners or spouses, and families at home until the infant's 2nd birthday.

* Enhanced First Steps serves pregnant and postpartum low-income women and their families. Nurses and other health professionals visit homes to promote the health and well-being of mothers and infants for the first two years of a child's life.

* Parents As Teachers serves pregnant women and children up to age 5. Family educators help increase parent and caregiver knowledge of child development, parenting skills, and developmental delays and health issues.

* Promotores/Community Workers connect with households in the target area.

* Creative Families Play & Learn events for east Yakima families with young children were held monthly in 2008. They are now held twice a month.

* Parent Support Groups help parents increase their support network and create opportunities for them to learn about parenting and early learning.

* Child Care Quality Improvement programs support those that offer child care, such as friends, relatives, neighbors and licensed providers. Activities include professional development, coaching and mentoring.

* Kindergarten Transition helps east Yakima children enter the Yakima School District. They come to school two weeks early to learn the ropes.

* For more information, call Ready by Five at 509-853-2052. On the Web: www.readybyfive.org.