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 1^stgrade. Staffed by interns and volunteers the weekly program strengthened the reading and math skills of children entering kindergarten and the 1^stgrade.

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.