In this segment of Making Democracy Work, Allison Cash talks with Erica Harris, director of Early Childhood and Family Development at the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, about the importance of early childhood education.
According to Harris, Early Childhood and Family Development coordinates all of CPO's programming for children under age eight and their families. Its primary goals, she says, are to reduce child abuse and neglect and increase school readiness.
A new tool that CPO has developed is called the Kindergarten Kit. The kits are being distributed to kids around three-years-old through Parents as Teachers and through physicians' offices during well-child visits. The kits contain three developmentally appropriate books as well as 25 activity cards and supplies parents and kids need to do those activities.
