The Pulse: Porter Leath And Head Start

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we are here. Welcome to another edition of
the Pulse, keeping our fingertips on the pulse of our
community with me Stormy and I know you guys have
heard a lot about head Start. You haven't, what, Well,
if you haven't, today's your day to listen to the show.
And if you know somebody who's got a preschooler that.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Needs some information. We're talking about porter Leath and head
Start today.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Are you all ready to get into this? I am
Stormy and my guest today.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, let me let him introduce himself. Tell everybody who
you are and what it is that you do.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hey, I'm Rob Hughes.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
I'm vice president of Development for porter Leath and really
excited to talk to you about the great Headstart expansion today.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, so head Start expansion. Let me ask you this.
You are already in that business, right.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
We were absolutely so Porterlyth this year twenty twenty five
March our one hundred and seventy fifth anniversary, So already a.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
Miles a minute.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, that's what my CA coworker to say, wait a minute,
So I had to do that to you anyway.

Speaker 5 (01:02):
So one hundred and what now, great milestone.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Obviously we've continued to serve Memphis children and family since
eighteen fifty. The head Start News it has been a
fantastic way to celebrate that. We have eight different focus areas.
One of those is our preschool program making sure that
we have high quality investments so that all children have
high quality early childhood education services before they get to
K twelve from birth all the way up to age five,

(01:28):
and that's all within preschool. So yes, as part of preschool,
we provided Headstart and early head Start for a number
of years, have great outcomes. Somewhat earlier this week referred
to us as the gold standard, which I certainly appreciate them,
saying that we were recognized by the National head Start
Association a few years ago as a programmer of Excellence,
so one of only thirteen to get recognized out of
over sixteen hundred nationwide doing the work. So we're on

(01:50):
the map nationally and we're glad to be serving Memphis
and Shelby County.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
And I'm imagine a lot of people know portally because
they have children maybe that have gone through hit Start,
or because they know some of what you guys have
done porterly, What exactly do you guys do Is that
a good question.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
That's a great question, and I'm glad we've got a
lot of time. So we work with over forty thousand
children in Shelby County every single year. Our mission is
empowering children and families to achieve a healthy, optimal and
independent lifestyle, and we do that through a different focus
areas that I mentioned. If I name them all, you're
gonna have to cut me off.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
You can name them again as well.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
No, we're well known for our early childhood services, so
preschool I've already talked about.

Speaker 5 (02:35):
We are home to Books from Birth.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
So if you have a child under age five, we're
the local affiliate for Dollary Partners and Magician Library. I
will not sing Dollie for you on that. Sorry, Actually
that's probably a good thing on that. But we have
over thirty five thousand children in Shelby County under age
five that receive a book every single month that's age
appropriate and no cost to their families.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
And that's just Books from Birth.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
And that's program is still.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Going, absolutely, still going, still going.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's I spoke with Literacy mid Sound and they were
talking about that program as well, So it's good to
hear that the program is still going strong.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
Work with it quite a bit, but we're the local
affiliate for that, so we make sure that funding's there
so that all children who enroll can receive that monthly
book every MONTHULO. Our cost is twenty five dollars per
child per year for twelve books, which is a great investment.
But with over thirty five thousand children in roll, that
can be a fundraising challenge, So shameless plug. Visit porterly
thought orgs slash donate if you can help out there.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
But we got love it.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Wait porterly dot org slash donate, got.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It, Let me do that right now after we finish there.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
Ok, you go. So that's just some of our work.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Our other pieces are really our legacy component is our
Connections program.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
So that's Falster here.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
We always are in need of carrying Shelby County residents
who are over twenty one to be a Falster parent again,
visit our website to learn more about that. But if
that's ever been on your heart, we need to talk
to you about that.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I never knew that twenty one was the age to
be a foster parent.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
If you're ever twenty one live in Shelby County, that's
a few of the criteria there, but we'd love to
have that conversation there. Our staff does an amazing job
supporting our foster parents and the children going to exit
to a permanent home. I know already in the last
month we've had several adoptions that have taken place, which
that's an amazing result at of foster care. But any

(04:22):
time that we can have a child transition back home
is also an equal win.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, beautiful, Okay, So I got a lot going on
over there. I've heard the name so many years, but
just never knew all that you do. I didn't know
about the head Start program, but that was the extent
of what I knew. So this is wonderful having you
on the show to explain what's happening because I know
with the grant that you all have received, this is

(04:48):
an expansion of the head Start that you are already
participating in.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
Absolutely so, this is our preschool program in total before
last week as over fifteen hundred students. The head Start
expansion will add twenty nine and twenty children who are
three and four years old to the program.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
So key date there.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
To enroll, your child must be three or four years old.
By August fifteenth, twenty twenty five. Sorry, they can't be
five on that date. I don't pick the date. Don't
get mad at me, but no, as long as the
child's three or four and then their income requirements. There's
a lot of other details there, but if you visit
porterlya dot org slash headstart all that's laid out there.

(05:30):
You can start the application process there, or you can
come see this at are recruitment events and those are
all listed on that website as well.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay, because you will be doing recruitment events too, Absolute City.
As a matter of fact, we'll be a part at
one of your recruitment events that you're doing.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Absolutely And then I know you're joining us soon for
one of our hr recruitment events.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
And excited about there you got coming up.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
I think that's the other side of this expansion, and
there's some amazing career opportunities for those who have a
heart for elach education but also have that credential and
background as well. So we need to hire proven, high
quality educators who care about young children.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
It's a great career opportunity.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
We also have outside of the classroom opportunities as well.
We need to hire almost three hundred staff in the
coming week, So great career opportunities?

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Are you finding this to be I guess a challenge?
And was this something you were prepared for? Did you
know this might happen?

Speaker 5 (06:25):
We're absolutely prepared for it.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
I think, going back to the it's our one hundred
and seventy fifth anniversary.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
Two things.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
One is you don't stay in business for one hundred
and seventy five years by not being nimble, as I say, yeah,
But you also don't stay around if you're not truly
serving the community. So I think us in portally staying
around for over one hundred and seventy five years now
really testifies that we've always been here to serve Memphis
and Shelby County community through that start. So again, if

(06:53):
you care about children and you want to help work
with children in Shelby County, please come see us.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hey, So you're doing some early childhood career fairs every
Wednesday and Friday.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
Every Wednesday and Friday is starting August sixth, and then
the last one will be August twenty seventh. It's all
our main office at thirty four hundred Prescott.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Road, every Wednesday and Friday.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Again, between August sixth and August twenty seventh, from two to.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Six thirty four hundred Prescott.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Road right by the airport, easy to get to.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay, Yeah, classroom staff, family engagement positions, home visitors, facilities,
team members and more. What if the parents want to
get involved, do you encourage that?

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (07:38):
That's one of the key I can't tell you too
many trade secrets now, but that's one of our big
trade circrets and is really encouraging families to join in
alongside of their child and other children in the community
as well.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
So when people think about, I guess putting their child
in Headstart and for porter Leith, what is the requirement
to do that?

Speaker 5 (08:01):
Sure?

Speaker 4 (08:01):
So there are a short list of requirements. Again that
birthday is critical, so a child needs to be three
or four years old on August fifteenth, twenty twenty five. Again,
it can't be day over. That's that's real. There there
are income eligibility requirements there. On top of that, there's
some other if you or even benefits or other things.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
That may qualify you as well.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
If you visit porterly Thout orgs slash head Start, there's
an enroll my Child button. It's big, it's orange, can't
miss it, works on your phone, works on your computer,
works on your iPad, any of those. If you're listening
and driving, pull over first before you pull that up
on your phone. Safety first. But you can start the
enrollment process right there and it walks you through all
those items.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
So how soon, because when do does the head start
program start with you all?

Speaker 5 (08:48):
Or have they started it started?

Speaker 4 (08:50):
So next week marks the start of school for us,
and we're constantly adding partner sites, so as soon as
those come online, that adds enrollment part of that enrollment
for the twenty nine to twenty there But one thing
we've been adam about is we know that porterly, we
can't serve it all ourselves. We have great facilities, we
have great schools, but there's also a lot of great

(09:11):
childcare partners and other partners through First eight Memphis that
we're working with so that we can have classrooms.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
In each community throughout Shelby County.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
Make it convenient for parents or who are going to
work each day, are coming back home. Make sure there's
a convenient option for families. We don't want somebody having
to drive halfway across the county and then go back
to work.

Speaker 5 (09:32):
That's just not conducive.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Are you teaming up with Memphis Shelby County Schools to
kind of help in that process.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
More to come on that as things go along. But
part of head Start is we really know that children,
and we've proven this over years, the children that leave
our program are kindergarten ready. And when we're able to
do that, children who are enter kindergarten are going to
be far more likely by third grade of making that
transition of learning to read to reading to learn, and
all the statistics show when you can do that, a

(10:00):
great high school graduation rates go way up. And that's
something that we all want for our community.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Absolutely, And thank you guys for joining us for the show.
It is the pulse. I am Stormy. Rob Hughes on
the show with us today from Porter Leath and talking
about those kids, tell me some of the if you
don't mind, if you can think of some of the
success stories from those kids, Because you just mentioned some
of the successes that happen when you enroll your child

(10:26):
into early education, can you think of some of the
successes that have come.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Out of poor to leith a lot.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
I think the other thing with that too is you know,
we all want children are amazingly smart. Over ninety percent
of human brains mind yours is all developed before age five,
So this is a critical time to invest in early childhood. Yeah,
and it's not just the academics. Certainly we want mass
scores to be great, literacy scores to be great, but

(10:54):
had sorts of comprehensive model and our data shows that.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
So we focus on gross.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Motor skills and fine motor skills. So you know, a
four year old or five year old that's leaving us
knows how to tie their shoes. They're able to have
that muscle memory to do that. If you come to
our classrooms with shameless plug, please come volunteer with us
and you directly store me.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
I need you to come to our classroom. Our children
would love you. You get to be the.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Big kid in the classroom. Our teachers stay in the
classroom with you. We'll probably ask you to read a
book to the classroom when they go to the playground.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
Guess where you get to go to the playroom to
the playground. There you go.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
We have a lot of fun in our classrooms. Again,
really embracing that natural curiosity of every child. For learning,
but it is a learning environment. We're definitely child teachers,
we're not child watchers.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, poor you know.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
What I love about coming over there to visit. I'll
be the tallest in the class.

Speaker 5 (11:45):
There you go, there, you go.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Hey, it's not many audiences that I go to were
I'm telling.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
You, but it's a lot of fun. Our children always
enjoy meeting new people. Yeah, and coming into the classroom.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
For volunteers, it's a funny experience too.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
You'll have twenty new best friends by the time you leave.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Oh yeah, and that's you know.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
I think when it comes to organizations like yours that
specifically deal with children on a day to day basis,
I think it's important that those people who do want
to be a part of early education and a part
of Poorly that they love what they do because children,
you know, of course, will be children and that's who
you're going to be working with every day.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
So we talk about social emotional development too a lot
in our schools. So even kind of that body language
it shows a three year old or four year old
may not pick up on the ham upset today, but
if you're sitting there with arms.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
Crossed and kind of a scowl in your face.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Don't be surprised if.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
One of our four year olds comes up to you
and says, miss Stormy, what's going on today? Okay? Yeah,
they're really really focused in on social emotional development.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
In our classrooms.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, the kids at home. If you're in your house,
you know kids are. That's just how they are, that's
what they do. I you have done some volunteer tutoring
at a school here in Memphis, Shelby Honey School, And
one day I was tutoring a child, and I don't know,
people that's listening to this show may have heard me

(13:12):
tell this story before. I was tutoring a young girl
and she was not concentrating and I was I was like, wow,
this is really tough today. So I just stopped. I
stopped tutoring and I said, are you okay? And she said, no, ma'am.

(13:34):
I cut my foot and I'm hurting. And I thought
about that, and I think about that when it comes
to children, and it sounds like something that you guys
stopped to do.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Even at Porter Leith.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Absolutely we do that we children, but also staff too,
realizing that teaching can be stressful from time to time.
So one thing we again, I'm telling you too many
secrets about what we do, but really supporting our educators
and even our classroom, even our staff who aren't working
in classrooms with ongoing professional developments so that they are
the best equit best trained staff anywhere in the country.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
And it shows in our classroom outcomes.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, how much training do they get when.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
They a lot?

Speaker 4 (14:11):
It's and it's ongoing too, So it's not just hey,
you're starting with us, here's the onboarding and I'll get luck.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
No, absolutely not.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
What we call our Teacher Excellence Program, that's another focus
area that I'm going through earlier. So that provides ongoing
practice based coaching that's data informed and it's individualized at
the teacher level, so that if I'm doing great math
and not so much in literacy, I'm going to get
more literacy training than i will math. I'll still get
some math training from time to time, but really focusing

(14:39):
in on what does that individual teacher need to be
successful in the classroom for children.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
And what's great.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
About that is the student data that we have reflects
that that training is making an impact for that teacher.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
That's awesome. Let me ask you this because I know that.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
I guess what children are wearing to school nowadays has
become a a topic, a local topic because of some
things that have been in the news. Also phones, but
let's just do the part about what they're wearing. Is
that something that you guys focus on.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
So we don't do uniforms, but we do try to
encourage children to trust in something that certainly they're going
to be playing and running around the classroom, so you know,
if you spill glue or glitter on it, those things
are going to happen. So really try to work with
families on that too. Thankfully and luckily, working with children
that under five, cell phones hasn't been.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Too much of an issue.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
I don't I don't know that we've had any four
year olds that have their own cell phone, but one day.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
With surprised, I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, so yeah, one
day you might so. And that's another thing too. At
that early age, do you introduce them to computers and
because most kids by the time they're three, four, maybe two,
they know how to use a remote at home and
they all have device is pretty much, so how do

(16:02):
you I guess, enhance that or or you know, help
improve those skills.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Sure, So a lot of our assessments are using or
done using tablets, so we want to make sure that
children are comfortable with that technology to use it on
assessment when it comes time for assessments. We don't want
to do our mid year, our end of year assessment
with the child that's never used the tablet before, because.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Then that's going to be an issue.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
So we do want to make sure that children are
comfortable with technology. But screen time is a thing for
us and it should be. It should So if you
go in our classrooms, you'll know there's creative play times
and different centers set up in each classroom, all within
headstart centdards again making sure that children are having a
fun learning environment.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
But it's really moving around and not using that screen
day to day.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, And so when it comes to that that kind
of thing, do you guys get studies or look at
studies to show how much a child should be, you know,
using screen time because I know, even for adults, many
of us probably use our phones and computers way too
much because those things, you know, affect your eyes and

(17:14):
you know other things. So do you guys look at
studies when it comes to what you prepare for the classroom.

Speaker 5 (17:19):
We do.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
And that's a great conversation for our two tra Excellence program.
That's something that they've looked at a lot. And then
that you know, if it comes down to learning or
a child's reading, you certainly want a child reading, and
the more you read, thesier it gets, and so on
and so forth and brings up brain power. If it
comes down to not reading at all or reading a phone,
reading is fundamental.

Speaker 5 (17:40):
You've got to read.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
But also knowing that, okay, is there anything that we
could maybe pull that screen back a little bit, even
if it's going to the library again, going back to
our books from Birth program, bringing in that hands on
reading experience versus using a screen when possible.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, yeah, And I imagine that the teachers there may
be times when I don't know, do they have moments
when they're like, I got to take this away because
a lot of kids thankful them at home.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
Thankfully not luckily those tablets. It's just the assessment built in,
so there's no free play on tablets by any means.
We do follow, and that's something going back even to
our preschool model with that start, is we do follow
a very strict schedule every day. So this is not
four hours of free play in the morning.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
That's not it.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
We come in, we have a very set schedule throughout
the day. That's fun and engaging, but we only go
to the playground from a certain amount of time. We
only have creative play for a certain amount of time.

Speaker 5 (18:36):
We read and go forward.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Throughout the doctment.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
Absolutely, that's critical to our success.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, I think it's critical to a child's success, you know,
teaching them or you kind of help them in that
department when they grow older. I think the earlier you
can get your child, I think in school, the better.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
I mean again, going back to over ninety percent of
the brains developed before age five. The other we talked
about in this school readiness and being in that routine
in early childhood makes it easier. Now that said, I
know a lot of kindergarteners who don't want to go
to school bright and early in the morning.

Speaker 5 (19:08):
That's fine.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
I don't like waking up early either, and I'm way
past kindergarten. But in early childhood, getting that routine set
for the entire family is important. And that Hey, the
school days starts at eight thirty.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
What time do you need to be at school?

Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yeah, at eight forty five eight thirty pickup is this time.
But also for children that we're eating lunch at eleven
thirty or eleven forty five, we have rest time after that.
Naptime's a little optimistic. Everybody stays on their kite. But
you know, there's always one child. I love walking through
the hallways because there's always one child in classroom that'll
see somebody walking by the hallway and you know, hold

(19:42):
their hand up and wave or things like that. But
really following that structure in our classrooms.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, that's good stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Now for the kids and parents that may be listening
that want to, you know, go ahead and start their
children in the program. What times do you have them
during the day, You said eight thirty in the morning
is when you start.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
With It depends on each center may have different hours,
but typically the school days from about eight to three. Again,
there's there's some fluctuations that may be eight thirty to
two thirty or somewhere in that window, but generally from
eight to three. We do before and aftercare at a
lot of centers as well. Again making sure that families
who are working that we support families wherever we possibly can.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, have there ever been any statistics done from porter
Leath of how wealthy the children perform when they do
go to school early.

Speaker 5 (20:33):
On in the early years.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
We do, but tracking that over all twelve years it
is tough and certainly want to expect data privacy there,
but we absolutely track kindergarten readiness year every year and
that's something that thankfully we've grown that number for a
number of years, but we always want to do better.
Right until that number is one hundred percent, there's still
work to do, and even when we do get to
one hundred percent, we want to maintain that.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, I'm talking to Rob Hughes. If you're just joining
us for the polls, thank you for doing that. He's
with porter Leith and many of you have heard that
porter Leith is extending or expanding in their head start programs.
But not just that, you're also hiring too. Any I
guess criteria for people that wanted to get a job

(21:17):
with porterly.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
So the background definitely depends on the position, education requirements
and all that depending on the position.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
But I would say at the core of it, if you.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
Care about serving your community, you should absolutely check out
our careers page at porterly dot org slash careers to
see what's available. We currently have a team of over
three hundred and we're adding over almost another three hundred
to that. So there's a lot of great opportunities, okay.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
And prior to that, did you have job openings as well?

Speaker 4 (21:45):
We did, We had a few even before the expansion
on that. So you know, it takes a great team
to make success happen, right, And there's all sorts of
aspects of that. So you know, if being in a
classroom is not for you, that's okay. We have family
liaison positions that work with the families within the head start.
Outside of that, we've got a great admin team that
goes through whether it's performance, quality improvement, or finance or

(22:09):
human resources or.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
In the best department I'm kidding.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
In the development department with me. We have an opening
as well. So some great career opportunities there. But at
the core of it, if you care about serving the community,
that's who we want.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
To talk to.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, and parents are welcome to do that and just
anybody in the community, but not just that.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
You all need our help too.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
As it relates to I guess volunteering and even giving
to Portleith so that you can help more children. And
when you're looking at helping more children, is it with
the other programs or even with head Start.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
We're always open to opportunities to grow for sure, to
serve more children and families across the community. So we're
constantly watching for.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Those okay, And again where do we go to Donateith.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Dot org is the one stop shop for everything. On
the home pats the linked to home Start to Headstart
and the very top right there's a link to donate.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
So this month, the early childhood career fairs are happening
every Wednesday and Friday except for August twenty ninth.

Speaker 4 (23:14):
Correct, And that'll be at our main office at thirty
four hundred at Prescott Road.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
It's right by the airport. It's easy to get to.
Those career fairs are from.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Two to six each Wednesday and Friday again from August
sixth until August twenty seventh.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Okay, and I'm looking at you guys are now enrolling
children for the head Start preschool. And like I said,
send this information to people that you know and love.
Let people know that have children that are three and
four years old by August fifteenth.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yeah, And the other thing I would add to that
is we are still adding partners, so check that web
page frequently. We'll continue to share updates on enrollment events
and career fairs and other opportunities that may come up.
So that's the best place to stay in the loop.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
We're constantly updating.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, and y'all listen to this. Through head Start Preschool,
porter Leath provides early childhood education and family services at
what now, at no cost, no cost to families.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
No cost to families. There you go, with.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
A lot of benefits too. Tell us some of those benefits.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Absolutely, yeah, you got it. So one, high quality preschool
education is the way to ensure that children enter kindergarten
ready academically, socially, and emotionally, like we talked about. Addition
to that, all of our centers and partners are safe,
clean spaces to enhance your child's learning. It is a
great place for your child to be Comprehensive services outside

(24:42):
of that for children's speech, hearing and envision screenings and
developmental support, as well as well as family services for
caregiver events, support and resource referrals. There So it supports
the whole family.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
It does, Yeah, especially the part with a speech, the
hearing and vision screening and developments work because a lot
of children may have well maybe not a lot, but
some children may have issues with their speech.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
Absolutely speech, hearing, vision.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
You were asking about earlier about success stories. One thing
that's I've seen over my time at porter Leath it's
been great is seeing a child get eyeglasses, even if
there are two or three.

Speaker 5 (25:20):
I mean, it's.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Absolutely adorable and Q for one, but it's also knowing
that that child got the vision support they needed at
the earliest possible moment. Moment we made that early intervention
because the last thing we want to have happened is
a child go off to K twelve not and families
are just not knowing that there's a vision problem or
hear exactly and that the child doesn't know ABC's one,
two threes. It's not from a cognitive standpoint, it's the

(25:43):
child just can't see. We fixed that and off we go.
So by making that early intervention through head start and
our early head started work in preschool is critical so
that we can address that as soon as we possibly
can so that it doesn't become a barrier later on.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
And even it sounds like maybe you guys even noticed
if a child is dysle lexic.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
Right, So we've we focused on a lot of that.
We've got to if I listed partners will be here forever.
That helped provide those screenings for us. But yes, physical
led scraining, vision screening, dental exam, speech and hearing all
critical components of.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
Our art work.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Absolutely, you know. And the reason why I mentioned dyslexic
is my son is dyslexic. And for so long we
just thought, you know that he just was not grasping,
you know, things, But and I learned when he was
growing up, we didn't know a lot about dyslexia, but
learning that, you know, his words were backwards, letters were backwards,

(26:42):
and even him writing, it's like you're writing that wrong.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
But no, that's how he saw.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
It, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
That's how his brain saw it. And so it was
it was tougher for him, but you know, he made
it through. And that's the good thing. If your child
is going or something like that, being over at port Lyth,
they can catch it and help your child to be
ahead of the curve and not behind like a lot

(27:09):
of other children.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Have been.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
Let's find the issue and address that head on.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah. I love that.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Thank you Rob for stopping by and telling us all
that porta Lyth does and is doing in our community.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
And for how many years.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
One hundred and seventy five we're found in eighteen fifty.
So big, big birthday coming up October first shameless plug.
Our official color is orange, so you will see lots
of orange on October first slight teaser including the bridge lights.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh okay for your birthday.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Hey, what we're doing where we're going ahead? A party?

Speaker 5 (27:49):
We got a lot of stuff coming. Yeah, stay tuned.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
I can't I told you, I can't tell you all
the secrets just yet.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Well you'll probably be hearing about it, y'all.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Just keep that radio right here on this radio station
to more about what Porter Leath will be doing and
more about what they are doing in our community. Y'all
got some big shoes to fill in this community as
far as the work that you do.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
Yeah, we're grateful to be partnering with the community and
making sure that we're here to continue serving children and families.
So yeah, a lot of great stuff coming.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, and thank you to all the folks that partner
with you to help get things done for the kids,
because it's all about our kids. And I know it's
kind of a cliche, but they are our future.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
They are and we can't do it alone.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
We cannot. Well you mean porf can.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Porter cannot.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
Yeah, none of us can't. Porterleath cannot. That's one reason
we talk about we partner with families. Every single day.
We have individualized partnerships with over forty thousand families across
Shelby County. Again, working with each individual family to help
them thrive.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, well, thank you again, Rob, Rob Hughes, Ladies and gentlemen,
Vice President of Development over at porter Leath stopping by
to share this great information about what they're doing. Just
a reminder everybody, if you're looking for a job, you
want to work in the classroom. You want to be
a classroom staff, family engagement, home visitors, facilities, team members,

(29:14):
and more. They've got opportunities available all this month Wednesday
and Friday, except for August twenty ninth. That Friday they
won't be doing it that day, but every Wednesday and
Friday you can stop by thirty four hundred Prescott Road
and get your job.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
There you go on the spot interviews.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
I love that. Well, thank you again.

Speaker 5 (29:35):
Rob.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Is there anything you want to share with us before
you go?

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
Certainly appreciate getting to celebrate this great news with you
into just the link one more time. If you get
a Porterleath dot org slash headstart, it's got all the
information you'll need to know about headstart and also check
back frequents will always be making updates.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Okay, well, there you go. Thank you again.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
We appreciate you and all the work that porter Leith
is doing in our community.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
All right, I am Stormy.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
It is the pulse, keeping our fingertips on the pulse
of our community. We'll see you next week, same time,
same station. God bless you have a great week.