Mass media campaign to engage the community of early literacy stakeholders and sustain the discussion of early literacy issues in Jamaica.

• In Event: Behavior change communications (BCC) campaigns, capacity building, new media and partnerships to promote and sustain evidence-based early grade literacy initiatives.

Proposal

In Jamaica, the USAID LAC Reads Capacity Program (LRCP) has identified a high level of engagement and interest among stakeholders in Early Grade Literacy, but several needs have emerged. This include; (1) more culturally relevant materials to be available; (2) greater use of evidence-based research to inform teaching and learning practices and; (3) engagement with parents to help them use everyday activities to support the development of their children’s literacy skills. Educonnect Jamaica, the LRCP implementing partner has engaged in strategic networking and mass media campaigns to address the needs to increase the impact, scale and sustainability of EGR interventions throughout the country. Two outputs of this networking were a mass media campaign to intensify the importance of early literacy in the home and the hosting of a national Early Reading Conference to sharpen the early reading focus on advancing effective and inclusive early reading and literacy methods and strategies. The conference also served to jump start discussions on the importance of early stimulation of a child’s brain from birth, crafting an early reading research agenda, contributing to an early literacy policy and parental empowerment for promoting literacy in the home. The capacity building and networking activities, together with the media campaigns, are impacting public and private sector entities, thus signaling interest in the transfer of ownership to key stakeholders in the country.

Authors

• Jean Beaumont, EduconnectJA

• Melody A. Williams, EduConnectJA/LAC Reads Capacity Program