Arboreta facilitated the creation of a community driven, designed and implemented early education program over a one-year period. Based at a local elementary school and inspired by the Southeastern San Diego grassroots community’s concern that its children need support and resources to ‘get them ready’ for 1stgrade. Staffed by interns and volunteers the weekly program strengthened the reading and math skills of children entering kindergarten and the 1stgrade.
Community residents who were educators, administrators, teachers, and community activists were guided through a process that set the objectives, designed the methods and determined how success would be measured. Once again demonstrating that the talents, knowledge, and skills are present in the community-members themselves and when tapped create truly community-based solutions that work.
