Birth To Five Initiative

Winchester, VA

Program Summary

  • Goal: The Birth to Five Community Initiative seeks to address disparities in our community involving social determinants of health such as education access and quality, economic stability, and health care access. With Handley Library’s approach to increasing school readiness through education and early literacy and Healthy Families’ work in health and education, we can collectively achieve growth in overall family engagement and outcomes. As a result of this multilateral partnership, families will be more prepared to equip their children with the sustainable foundation to be ready for school earlier in a child’s life.
  • Framework: The Birth to Five Initiative is a multilateral partnership consisting of three agencies: Handley Regional Library System, Healthy Families NSV, and the John & Janice Wyatt Foundation. As such, the individual program goals of each organization are distinct, but will be stacked and aligned to support the greater, unified goal of improved kindergarten readiness. Each organization will bring a different component to the overall strategy and thus create complementary, braided solutions. This initiative will link the following:
    • Improve interest in reading and increased access to books through Handley Library’s Youth Services department expansion as part of their Family Place Library accreditation.
    • Increase access to books through the Library’s Care Packages, which will also begin to assist caregivers with improved nighttime routines and healthy sleep habits.
    • Establish Parents as Teachers (PAT Program) to offer a wide variety of health-related family classes, take-home assets and materials, and resource navigation, in addition to the home visitation work that is already happening in the community.
  • J2W will provide 3-years of funding to cover the cost of the program.
Two girls crafting with maps in background.
Colorful living room with modern seating arrangement.
Birth to Five Initiative Systems Strategy Overview

Measures of Performance

For more information, please see Data Analysis section at the bottom of the page

Data Analysis

  1. Goal: The Birth to Five Community Initiative seeks to address disparities in our community involving social determinants of health such as education access and quality, economic stability, and health care access. With Handley Library’s approach to increasing school readiness through education and early literacy and Healthy Families’ work in health and education, we can collectively achieve growth in overall family engagement and outcomes. As a result of this multilateral partnership, families will be more prepared to equip their children with the sustainable foundation to be ready for school earlier in a child’s life.
  2. Framework: The Birth to Five Initiative is a multilateral partnership consisting of three agencies: Handley Regional Library System, Healthy Families NSV, and the John & Janice Wyatt Foundation. As such, the individual program goals of each organization are distinct, but will be stacked and aligned to support the greater, unified goal of improved kindergarten readiness. Each organization will bring a different component to the overall strategy and thus create complementary, braided solutions. This initiative will link the following:
    1. Improve interest in reading and increased access to books through Handley Library’s Youth Services department expansion as part of their Family Place Library accreditation.
    2. Increase access to books through the Library’s Care Packages, which will also begin to assist caregivers with improved nighttime routines and healthy sleep habits.
    3. Establish Parents as Teachers (PAT Program) to offer a wide variety of health-related family classes, take-home assets and materials, and resource navigation, in addition to the home visitation work that is already happening in the community.
  3. The Birth to Five Community Initiative will serve families with children ages birth to five in Winchester, Frederick, Clarke, and Warren Counties. By targeting parents and caregivers with young children, the initiative sets children up for future success in school, thus setting them up for success later in life. The free resources and services provided will reach families of all economic status, but particularly those who are low-income. A mother’s education and reading skill is the biggest factor in her children’s future academic success, so reaching these families is key. By increasing the reach of our programing to engage families with young children we will be able to help ensure they are off to a healthy and educated start.
  4. Measures of Performance: Our intent is to identify key output and outcome measures for each of the two sub-strategies within the program that best describe how much we are doing and how well we are doing it. Each data point will be measured quarterly, with each organization providing the required data to J2W. Metrics of performance include the following:
    1. Handley Regional Library
      1. Output Measures:
        • The number of new library cards issued to children birth to 5 and the number of Grab and Grow Kits checked out. New library cards issued to children B-5 has grown significantly over time. With 156 issued by end of Q2/25, the library surpassed its year-1 goal (150) and is moving closer (with 6-months remaining) to reach its year-2 goal of 175. We assessed this as “yellow” as they are on track but haven’t yet reached the year-end goal. Similarly, the Grab and Grow kits are being checked out at greater rates as the year goes on, but the library has not reached its annual goal at this point, with 6-months remaining (44 checked out, with a goal of 75).
        • Family Place educational classes: Both of our Output measurements were scored as “green.” The number of cumulative participants in community-wide classes grew to 7,848 (with the goal of reaching 5,000); and the number of B5 participants in early childhood education programming grew to 1,133 (with the goal of reaching 1,000).
      2. Outcome Measures:
        • To measure children’s improvement in a love for reading, we are measuring three data points, all relating to the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. These data consist of: the number of B5 children actively enrolled in the 1K Before Kindergarten book reading program; the number of B5 children who successfully complete the 1KBK program; and the number of NEW B5 enrollees into the program. All were assessed as “green” as they hit their year-2 goals already. The number enrolled at the end of Q2/25 was 559 (goal was 150), with 25 children completing the program (with a goal of 20), and 237 new enrollees into the program (goal was 75 by year-2).
    2. Healthy Families NSV
      1. Output Measures:
        • As a functioning Resource Center, we are assessing the family engagement programing by looking at how many programs are being offered and how many families are participating. By the end of Q2/25 (halfway through the year) both are on track to meet their annual goals. However, both are being scored as “yellow” as they have yet to meet their 2025 goals to date. The number of programs offered in the first 6 months grew to 6, with a goal of reaching 10 by end of year. The number of families participating grew to 36, with a goal of reaching 100 by year end.
        • We are also looking at the value of the Resource Center as a referral center for B5 families. We are assessing both the number of referrals provided and the number of individuals walking into the Resource Center for questions, help, or supports. The number of referrals was scored as “yellow” as the Center provided 42, with a goal by end of year-2 of 50. The goal of foot traffic into the Center was scored as a “green” with 137 recorded (goal of 50).
      2. Outcome Measures:
        • To measure perceived success and value of having the Resource Center available to the community, we developed two separate surveys: one for assessing positive impacts of the Center on pre-natal families and families with children and one for assessing the class participant satisfaction. Both surveys are still in process; however, an initial question for each was asked to a small test cohort and both received 100% satisfaction ratings (either a 4 or 5 out of 5 on each survey question). These questions were: % participants believe strongly or very strongly (4/5) that, overall, the resources offered through the center were helpful to the parent and family and % believe the classes overall are satisfying or very satisfying (4/5). We will continue to further build out each survey to increase respondent size and number of value questions.