UA Launches Collaboration with Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – After 16 months of planning and preparation under the leadership of The University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, the University’s collaboration with the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative will begin June 4 with the Summer Jump Start Program.

Sponsored by the United Way ‘s Success by Six Program, Jump Start is a five-week summer prelude to kindergarten for students who have had little or no preschool experience.  Jump Start prepares children both academically and socially for the school year.  Fourteen UA students have been selected and trained to serve as volunteers in seven classrooms across the City of Tuscaloosa .

The University plans to continue collaborative support of the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative after the Summer Jump Start Program, according to program organizers. UA has developed service-learning opportunities for more than 12 departments and/or disciplines to assist with the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative.  The UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, in collaboration with the UA College of Education, kicked off their contribution to the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative by offering a three-week May interim training course providing exceptional instruction for the Summer Jump Start volunteers and work-study students who will be serving in the Pre-K classrooms in the fall.

Some of the service-learning opportunities beginning in the fall include art instruction provided by UA students through the department of art; social work students will assist Pre-K students and their families when needed; students from the School of Music and the music education program will provide musical instruction; the College of Nursing will provide Pre-K students with physical examinations; UA students from the FocusFirst Initiative, which is housed in the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, will screen Pre-K students for vision problems.

In addition, the University will provide numerous work-study awards to the Pre-K classrooms in the fall.  To date, over 60 students have expressed interest in this opportunity.  The University has also encouraged recent college graduates to apply for Pre-K teacher aide positions within Tuscaloosa City Schools, program organizers noted.

Based upon the belief that the development and education of all children from the earliest stages of their lives must be an absolute public priority, the mission of the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative is to identify all four-year-old children in the City of Tuscaloosa who are deemed academically at-risk and are not currently being served through other programs, and provide to them and their families the best health and education services possible, including comprehensive family enrichment services, program organizers said.

For more information on the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative and the work of the Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, contact cesr@ua.edu or call 205/348-6490.