Education

At Kalamazoo County Ready 4s, we believe that where a child begins shouldn’t determine where they can go. Our mission is simple yet transformative: to ensure that every 3- and 4-year-old in Kalamazoo County has access to high-quality pre-kindergarten education – a proven foundation for lifelong learning and success.

We partner with more than 50 local public and private pre-K programs to strengthen early learning across our community. Through targeted tuition assistance, we help eligible families overcome financial barriers so their children can enroll in high-quality programs that meet their needs.

At the same time, we invest directly in classrooms quality. We provide individualized coaching for teachers and leaders, research-based professional development grounded in equity, and specialized supports such as occupational and behavioral consultation. By strengthening both access and quality, we ensure children experience nurturing, engaging environments that prepare them to thrive.

Our impact reaches beyond the classroom. We connect families with community resources, share tools that support learning at home and help children transition confidently into kindergarten. Parents report growth in language, social-emotional skills and independence. Educators see children arrive at kindergarten curious, resilient and ready to learn.

At KC Ready 4s, we are not simply expanding access to pre-K – we are building a stronger foundation for our entire community. When children start school ready, they are more likely to succeed academically, graduate and contribute meaningfully to Kalamazoo’s future.

For more information, visit kcready4s.org.

For almost 60 years, Kalamazoo Valley Community College has been a cornerstone of local workforce development, creating innovative and equitable opportunities that empower all to learn, grow and thrive. Now, the college’s 30-year-old Advanced Technology Center at the Texas Township campus is set for a major renovation, empowering Kalamazoo Valley to meet the evolving demands of technology and the growing need for skilled professionals.

Kalamazoo Valley plans to renovate its 68,000-square-foot technology center to create flexible, state-of-the-art, industry-relevant classrooms with spaces for community collaboration. In this new space, we will train the next generation of electricians, machine tool engineers and manufacturing technologists, computer aided-designers, builders, HVAC technicians, energy systems specialists and welders. In addition, a new 20,000-square-foot automotive lab will support new programs in hybrid and electric vehicle technology, renewable energy storage systems and autonomous vehicle features.

Our region’s ability to attract and grow new businesses depends on a reliable pipeline of skilled workers. Every skilled trade is in urgent need of workers. The improvements Kalamazoo Valley is making today will help expand the college’s role in forging future generations of a well-prepared, skilled workforce. In these innovative classrooms and labs, emerging talent can retrain or increase their skills locally without leaving the area.

Kalamazoo Valley’s inclusive mission invites people from all walks of life to learn together in our classrooms. This renovation will open up even more room for anyone who wants to enter the exciting, good paying careers in the evolving technical trades.

For more information, visit www.kvcc.edu

Over the past year, 172 learners at Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan’s Adult Education and Training Program have made positive strides towards their academic, professional and personal goals. In 2023, 20 adult learners earned their GED certificate. Of them, 14 were parents who are serving as role models and first teachers of their children.

Our program provides more than academic, training and testing support. It gives wraparound services that remove barriers to learning such as childcare, education, employment, financial, health and transportation for every learner that needs it. This includes free childcare for children ages 0-4 at the Little Scholars Child Development Center, offered onsite to allow parents and children to learn simultaneously.

Some of our proudest moments are when our programs adult learners take the stage at graduation to receive their diploma in front of their families after their hard work passing GED tests in math, language arts, social studies and science. Many of these graduates have gone on to successful careers in manufacturing, early childhood education and health care, or have continued their education in community college, a four-year university or the trades.

The Adult Education and Training Program at Goodwill is supported by many partners who are committed to the success of the adult learners we serve, including Kalamazoo Adult Education, Kalamazoo Literacy Council, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Western Michigan University. We are grateful for the continued support of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation for helping the adult learners and families we serve succeed.

For more information, visit: www.goodwillswmi.org

The Kalamazoo Literacy Council is celebrating a remarkable milestone in 2024 — 50 years of dedicated service to Kalamazoo County. For half a century, the KLC has been the leading voice for adult literacy in the region, offering free services for adults seeking to improve their literacy, language and life skills to unlock their full potential. Through its innovative programs and passionate volunteers, the Kalamazoo Literacy Council has transformed countless lives and empowered individuals to be more confident parents, employees and community members.

One of the KLC’s flagship programs is its Adult Tutoring Program, which provides one-on-one tutoring that enhances reading, writing, spelling and comprehension skills. Through Parent Literacy, Health Literacy, and Workforce Literacy classes, learners gain the critical skills they need to excel. The KLC also offers English as a Second Language classes for non-native speakers looking to strengthen their language skills and integrate more independently into the community.

The KLC maintains many partnerships with local agencies to support the diverse needs of adults through initiatives at the neighborhood level. Community Literacy Centers, career pathways and resident engagement activities are woven into its strategic framework. As we celebrate the 50thanniversary of the Kalamazoo Literacy Council, let us honor its legacy, the lives that have been uplifted, and the talents of those who serve its vision of achieving a fully literate community.

For more information, visit: www.kalamazooliteracy.org

Literacy is vital to building strong communities. From social determinants of health to equitable school funding; from vocational readiness to disability access, literacy affects every aspect of a person’s individual life outcomes—including familial and generational outcomes. Yet, each year, over one million 4th graders are added to the list of people who are unable to read in America.

SLD Read’s vision is a community working together for literacy that empowers all individuals to achieve their full potential. For nearly 50 years, we have been supporting people with learning disabilities, including dyslexia, on their journey to improved literacy. Our 1:1 personalized tutoring services are rooted in the science of reading, focused on explicitly teaching how sounds and letters go together to create words. Our lessons are multisensory, structured, explicit, cumulative, and sequential (working from the simplest elements of our language to the most complex). Programming is offered in both the school and community setting.

SLD Read is also dedicated to creating systemic change within the educational system by supporting educators in learning skills and techniques to enhance their reading curriculum and support students with word-related learning disabilities in their classrooms. We also work to raise awareness and reduce stigma around learning disabilities by providing community workshops that promote literacy and increase understanding.

For more information, visit www.sldread.org

Founded in 2012, Read and Write Kalamazoo (RAWK) is a nonprofit organization devoted to nurturing intellectual and creative confidence in youth in Kalamazoo County through creative writing workshops, camps, in-school programs, after school programs and community partnerships.
RAWK exists to celebrate and amplify youth voices through the cultivation of reading and writing skills via joy, creativity, equity, and access. We bring a supportive community to young people to give them safe and positive spaces to learn and grow.
Because language is living, fluid and cultural, traditional assessments of achievement often do not accurately reflect true knowledge. We aim to celebrate and amplify authentic voice in the specific context of each youth’s cultural identity, while remaining mindful of the practical and social capital resulting from the use of academic language. We approach all work with youth through a trauma-informed lens and commit to being anti-racist/bias in all we do. We want to eliminate barriers to educational resources so all youth can use their words and tell their own story.

For more information, visit www.readandwritekzoo.org

Fred Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

Within two weeks of preschools being closed for COVID, it was abundantly clear to our team at KC Ready 4s that the pandemic was going to dramatically affect the lives of our young children as well as the livelihoods of our partner providers. We knew it was essential to bring our network of program directors together to share ideas and resources, to problem solve and, most of all, to listen and help.

After a year of working together in new creative ways and listening to the needs of the early education sector, we knew there was one statistic we could not ignore: Over 75% of our partner teachers had no health benefits. During the pandemic, record numbers of teachers left the field, and we knew this was one way KC Ready 4s could help.

In July of 2021, KC Ready 4s introduced Thriving Teachers Thriving Children, an employee assistance program that provides all of the teachers and staff in 26 of our partner providers access to telemedicine, counseling, a crisis line and wellness resources at no cost. PCCN Preschool Director Laurie Kreg said, “The Thriving Teachers initiative is going to gift our teachers and their families the opportunity to seek necessary health supports that our programs simply cannot afford. It’s another example of how KC Ready 4s continues to not only support young learners in Kalamazoo County but also the programs that are leading the way in high quality early childhood education.”

For more information, visit www.kcready4s.org

The Kalamazoo Experiential Learning Center (KELC), together with our college interns, was challenged to find unique ways to gather and create community placemaking while being safe and addressing COVID protocols. Throughout the year, the event team looked at many ways to host events that authentically addressed the activity’s mission while assuring safety in the event execution. Two important programs emerged through this challenge.

First, challenged with how to keep our food truck entrepreneurs sustainable and help our artists find unique and safe venues to perform, we relied on a very strong partnership with the Kalamazoo Health Department and our local municipalities. Together, we identified the needs of the community slowly emerging from a pandemic and protocols that would support the best mix of blending distanced gathering and an authentic feel of community. Unique outdoor spaces provided a fabulous blend where artists could perform in their “pod” and food trucks could offer the unique experience of street food. The funds helped us to host seven Friday Night Food Truck Rallies and 12 Tuesday night rallies with over 5,000 people attending.

Also in 2021, as the neighborhoods slowly emerged from the pandemic, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department understood at their core that kids needed to get out of their apartments to safely engage with others in the community. Working to identify pockets of communities experiencing this challenge, KELC and the team of interns popped up five carnival events where kids and officers played, competed and enjoyed winning prizes. Trust was built and kids simply had fun.

For more information, visit www.experientiallearningcenter.org

Like most educational institutions, the Kalamazoo Literacy Council (KLC) is adapting to the changing learning environment brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic. During the first year of the pandemic, the KLC had the largest and most diverse range of virtual options for adult learners in Kalamazoo County thanks to the creation of its Virtual Learning Center and Laptop Loaning Program. The KLC also added an outdoor classroom in the Read and Seed Community Garden and Interpretive Learning Center in partnership with Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Michigan to safely provide multi-generational learning options for adults and their families.

Now, the KLC is building a hybrid learning model to accommodate the needs and preferences of adult learners who choose to learn virtually, in-person or in both settings. Despite the challenges and uncertainty, the KLC has continued to successfully lead the Everyone Needs to Read Adult Literacy Initiative, which has strengthened and expanded instruction for adults with low literacy skills in Kalamazoo County since September 2010. This initiative has aligned services across the adult learning continuum from adult literacy, English as a Second Language, Adult Basic Education and post-secondary education to deliver better outcomes for adults who struggle to read.

In total, KLC served 524 adult learners and their families, including immigrants and refugees who have settled in the greater Kalamazoo area in the past year.

For more information, visit www.kalamazooliteracy.org

The National Institute of Health reports that an astounding 20% of children entering our schools face signifcant challenges in learning to read. Their research fnds that if these children do not receive appropriate intervention by the age of nine, 74% of them will never close the reading gap.

SLD Read’s vision is a community working together for literacy that empowers all individuals to achieve their full potential. To reach this vision, we: help individuals with dyslexia, learning differences, and other reading challenges to develop lifelong language skills through our multisensory program; assist educators to identify learning challenges and provide training and techniques to enhance their reading curriculum; and increase community awareness and understanding of literacy issues.

We make reading possible through the following programs:

• Testing and evaluation services that assess reading skills and focus areas to determine an individualized plan of action for each student we serve.

• Highly-trained tutors that provide one-to-one tutoring using an explicit, sequential and cumulative, multisensory approach to address key literacy elements. These services are available to parents who come directly to SLD Read. Fees are on a sliding scale based on family size and income. Tutoring is also available through school-based programs that happen during the school day with no charge to the parents or students.

• Professional development courses that help educators to understand reading challenges and incorporate strategies to help all learners succeed in the classroom. Individual educators can attend these courses, and school-building and district-wide trainings are available.

• Community workshops for community organizations, parents, educators, tutors, and students that promote literacy and increase the understanding around struggling readers.

For more information, visit www.sldread.org