BOSTON (June 26, 2017) — America Forward recently featured Jumpstart on their blog as part of their Evidence in Action series, highlighting the importance of evaluation and evidenced-based approaches to breaking the cycle of poverty around the country:
A.J. is a Corps Member at Jumpstart, a nonprofit organization working to ensure that every child enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. Jumpstart partners with local universities, such as University of Massachusetts – Lowell, and organizations to train college students and community members to serve in preschool classrooms in low-income communities across the country. In exchange for their service, these volunteers receive tuition assistance or small stipends from AmeriCorps or Senior Corps, in addition to valuable teaching experience. Through this unique service model, Jumpstart is able to lower the adult-to-child ratio in preschool classrooms to 3:1, enabling volunteers to provide personalized attention to children, serve as mentors and strong adult role models, and focus on the early language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that children need to thrive in school and beyond.
“Being from Lowell and being able to serve the children in my own community makes everything that I do with Jumpstart so much more meaningful,” says A.J. “The kids we serve are growing up in the same circumstances that I did, but through Jumpstart I am able to make a difference in their lives.” Read more.
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