PAGE A20, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 11, 2022
Neighborhood strengthening effort expands
to free kindergarten prep for parents
BY RACHEL ALEXANDER
Of the Salem Reporter
When Whitney Contreras last talked
to her son’s preschool teacher, she got a
promising report.
Her 3-year-old, Ivan, was learning
quickly, easily recognizing patterns and
hitting other milestones.
Contreras, 26, said it’s thanks to toys
and activities she’s getting through a
monthly online parent class, which are
showing her easy ways to help Ivan learn
at home even with a busy schedule.
“Anything that helps me to be a better
parent, I’ll do,” she said.
Contreras is among more than a
dozen Salem moms taking part in an
expanded effort to reach the parents of
preschool-age children and help them
prepare their kids for success in school.
She participated in similar classes
when her older children, now ages 5
and 6, were in preschool, but said hav-
ing a refresher and access to new toys is
helpful.
“It fits right in because my son is 3,”
she said.
The classes are the result of a new col-
laboration between the Marion Polk Early
Learning Hub and Salem’s Community
Business and Education Leaders group.
It’s part of a broad push to improve
the lives of Salem kids, with a particular
focus on those who historically haven’t
had access to the kind of support needed
to thrive in school and life.
That’s reflected in kindergarten read-
iness data for local schools, which mea-
sures how well students entering school
can recognize letters and numbers.
Gaps in Salem are wide along racial and
income lines, with children in more afflu-
ent and whiter schools generally recog-
nizing far more letters than their peers.
Jim Seymour, the former executive
director of Catholic Community Services,
is leading the project, which began in
earnest last year with the creation of a
Hallman neighborhood council.
He said the philosophy behind the
effort is that real change comes from par-
ents and families recognizing problems
in their own communities and identify-
ing solutions, rather than poor families
being seen as a problem outsiders need
to solve.
“Quit trying to fix or save them and
come alongside,” he said.
Through that group, parents in the
Northgate area, whose children gener-
ally attend Hallman Elementary School,
meet regularly to discuss neighborhood
improvements and ways to support fami-
lies, like mental health classes and a walk-
ing group of moms who patrol Northgate
Park after school to ensure kids walking
after school get home safe.
Seymour is now working to expand
councils to other Salem neighborhoods
with high concentrations of families liv-
ing in poverty, starting with the Auburn
area in east Salem.
“We’re just trying to create a sense of
community where there is that individual
resilience, community resilience, family
resilience,” he said.
The free parent classes are another
piece of the effort. The collaborative, with
funding from Mountain West Investment
Corporation, pays for Leslye Garcia to
facilitate monthly online classes in both
English and Spanish.
(Disclosure: Larry Tokarski, Mountain
West president, is also a co-founder of
Salem Reporter.)
Classes were heavily advertised to
Whitney Contreras and son Ivan wave to a friend during the inaugural "Fun Fri-
days at Northgate Park" on Friday, July 9, 2021.
BY AMANDA LOMAN/SALEM REPORTER
families in the Hallman area and through
the parent council, though any Salem
parent could sign up.
Garcia reaches out to families one-
on-one to deliver activities and toys like
Wikki Stix, small colored wax strips kids
can fold into different shapes. Then, in a
two-hour class over Zoom, she checks in
with parents and explains the basics of
literacy and child development.
A late February session in Spanish
opened with some get-to-know-you ques-
tions as one mother signed in from her
car, and another turned on her camera
while feeding her son spaghetti and ham-
burger in his high chair.
“As busy moms, would you rather
never have to wash dishes or never have
to do laundry?” Garcia asked with a wide
smile.
The moms relaxed into the class as
they shared the details of their least
favorite chores - a never-ending pile of
dishes, for many – and to commiserate
over their children’s favorite toys.
“It’s coming from their heart that they
want to do something better for their chil-
dren. A lot of these moms have already
been moms in the past and they’re like, ‘I
want better for my smaller kiddos,’” she
said.
The atmosphere is calm and support-
ive. Garcia is energetic when she explains
the purpose of the classes: giving parents
the knowledge they need to play with
their kids in ways that help prepare them
for school.
Kindergarten expectations have
increased in recent years, and kids who
enter school not knowing the alphabet
often struggle to catch up.
“It’s better to get kiddos prepared for
school before they start school,” she said.
February’s focus was on letter groups
- explaining to parents that kids group
written letters together by their appear-
ance, rather than the sound they make.
The class showed parents activities to
help differentiate between curved shaped
letters, like a, c, e, o and s.
“We want them to notice this before
they start learning the letter names. This
way they don’t get them confused later
on,” Garcia explained.
Contreras said it’s insights like that
which make the class especially helpful.
“They make me feel appreciated as a
mom,” Contreras said.
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