This is a team project supported by members of the "Community Child" Advisory Board:

*Syracuse University faculty:
Professor Michael Burkard, Faculty, English/Creative Writing
Professor Rosaria Champagne, Faculty, English/Women's Studies (Project Coordinator)
Professor Bill Coplin, Faculty, Public Affairs
Professor Kathy Hinchman, Faculty, Education/Reading/Language Arts Professor
Sandy Hurd, Faculty, Honors Program and School of Management
Professor Eileen Schell, Faculty, English/Writing Program
Professor Binette Tiffault, Children's Book Author and SU/ESF Writing Instructor

*Syracuse University staff
Ms. Pamela Heintz, Director, Center for Public and Community Service

*Syracuse University Undergraduates, to enroll for URP credit in fall 1998 and spring 1999:

*Members of a child-advocacy coalition/program of United Way, Success By 6:
Kathy Lally, Executive Director, Success By 6
Diane Dooley, Americorp Project Director, Success By 6
Terry Wisnieski, Success By 6 Associate

Project Description:
In 1991, Success By 6, a United Way program, completed a needs assessment of Syracuse children to determine that over 40% of children entering kindergarten in Syracuse did not have the language readiness skills to succeed there. (This was part of a comprehensive needs assessment that also examined infant mortality rate, immunization, and other social factors that determine child poverty.) In part, this lack of language readiness is attributable to lack of resources: low-income children in Syracuse do not have access to books of their own or to adults who read to them. The Community Child Project is a creative arts intervention project that seeks to enhance the awareness of the need to increase literacy among Syracuse children ages 0-6 while teaching Syracuse University undergraduates how to use what they know to work for the public good. The Community Child Project asks that undergraduates perform a wide variety of activities: we will write, illustrate, and produce children's books that will be distributed freely among all Syracuse children, 0-6. We will advertise the need for greater participation in children's literacy movements by working with the Success By 6 program on the Books for Beginners Book Drive (September 25-November 1). We will work one-on-one with children in the Syracuse city schools to read, revise, and illustrate the children's books produced by the Community Child team. We will produce a conference to be held at Syracuse University to introduce the dire consequences of child poverty to members of our university community and to suggest concrete recommendations for its remedy.

Students roles and responsibilities/tasks: This is a "scholarship of discovery" project. Students interested in participating will sign up for URP 450 (3 credit hours) for fall 1998 and spring 1999. Here is a provisional list of our tasks. As a team, we will decide how to lend priority to these tasks, and discuss tasks that should be added or deleted. At this point (6/98), Rosaria imagines that students should be ready to:

meet monthly with the Success By 6 Literacy Team;
plan for and participate in the 1998 Books for Beginners Book Drive;
write letters to community leaders advertising the Community Child Project;
work with children in the Syracuse city schools to write, revise, and illustrate children's books (the Community Child series);
desk-top publish and distribute in hospitals and in local head-start programs 2000 copies of the Community Child series;
market and publicize the Community Child project;
work with Success By 6 to assess this program's impact in improving school readiness;
query trade presses about national publication and distribution; develop pro–active humanities citizenship skills.
produce a service learning portfolio. This portfolio includes a service log a reflection journal each student's own innovative contribution to the Community Child series, and a critical research paper (or video project) on a topic to be decided in consultation with Professor Champagne or another Community Child faculty team member.
help organize and prepare their work for presentation at a conference to be held at Syracuse University on service learning and the Community Child project. This conference seeks to introduce our work to other members of theSyracuse community and to Syracuse University.
work cooperatively as a team with specific roles and responsibilities.
participate in an assessment of learning outcomes project.

Texts: Available at My Sisters' Words Bookstore:
Sapphire, Push
Children's Defense Fund, Wasting America's Future
Jonathan Kozol Amazing Grace
Benette Tiffault, Ghost Bat in a Gum Tree
William D. Coplin, "Creating the Good Society"

Calendar.
Week 1 (9/1): Find a meeting time and establish a Community Child listserv
Week 2 (9/7): Begin reading all texts on our list, especially Kozol's and The Children's
Defense Fund's theory of child poverty/illiteracy; begin literacy interviews with Community Child Team.
Week 3 (9/14): Success By 6 book drive begins–if available, prepare to come to WSP 101 on 9/15 at 2:30 in Stolkin Aud.
Week 4 (9/21)-Week 10 (11/2): Make contacts with local schools and pre-K programs and establish a schedule for our visits; work with SB6 and Stand for Children to raise awareness about the book drive and to implement it; use your own skills to map out your way of intervening in the problem of children's illiteracy (i.e., grant writing, creative writing, etc.); meet individually with Rosaria to discuss your unique contribution and interest; attend Binette Tiffault's lecture/slide show on the making of a children's book; read Coplin and Sapphire and discuss as a group the different perspectives they offer to address/solve the problem of children's poverty/illiteracy.
Week 11-end of semester: begin field work in schools and pre-K programs; work with SB6 and Stand for Children; assess progress in the production of a public-access children's book; meet with Rosaria (and another member of the team if available and if time permits) to make an action plan for spring semester.