Initiatives
The Chemung County School Readiness Project 
(SRP)
The mission of the SRP is to enable children to arrive at kindergarten academically, socially and physically ready to learn. Launched in 2006, the SRP has been comprehensively meeting the needs of Chemung County’s children zero to five years old. This grass-roots effort aims to improve children’s overall well-being and readiness for school measured by a range of academic, cognitive, social, emotional, health and physical indicators.
All of the activities associated with the SRP fall into five broad categories: nurse home visits, quality, childcare, parent education, health care, and coordination/community communication. The pillars of the plan allow the project to reach families throughout the first five years of children’s lives while addressing their physical, social, and academic developmental needs.
SRP Accomplishments
- Nurse home visitors enroll 92% of children born in Chemung County in the SRP
- Over 3000 referrals to local service providers
- SRP website logged over 40,000 visitors
- Provided PHAT Dads training to parent educators to emphasize the importance of engaging and supporting fathers
- Promoted Read for the Record by providing free books to childcare providers
- Collaborates with all kindergarten teachers in the Elmira City, Elmira Heights, and Horseheads Central School Districts with the help of BOCES and Children’s Institute
- Each new student (as either a 4 or 5 year old) is assessed on both cognitive and social/emotional development scales
- High quality infant/toddler center created at Booth School
- Chemung County selected as a QualityStarsNY pilot project which will create standards for all early care and education services
- Baseline study of 300 randomly selected 07-08 kindergartners to assess the school readiness level of children born prior to the implementation of the SRP completed by Teachers College, Columbia University
http://www.chemungschoolreadiness.com/
Fund for Women
The Fund for Women channels the power of women's philanthropy to support programs focusing on the unique social, economic, and cultural needs of women and girls. It was established in 2009 as a field of interest fund at the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes, Inc.
