Thrive by 5 Initiative Offers
Critical Early Learning Supports
Available resources boost school readiness and success
Written by Elisa Chemayne Agostinho
Thrive by 5, a comprehensive array of early learning supports
and resources for children and parents funded by The Children’s
Trust, is being touted as a way to level the playing field for all chil-
dren in Miami-Dade County when it comes to school readiness
and the lifelong success that brings.
“Thrive by 5 is a strategic roadmap guiding all of our investments
that support children ages birth to 5, with a goal of ensuring that
they’re ready to learn and have the skills they need to do that
by the time they enter kindergarten,” explains Rachel Spector, a
senior programs manager at The Trust and the director of the
Thrive by 5 initiative. “Knowing that 85 percent of the brain is
already fully developed by the age of 3, we’ve put together a broad
spectrum of supports that all work together to make sure that
every child – regardless of their family’s income or where they
live – has access to high-quality early learning experiences.”
Those supports include things like early intervention services for
children that may be showing signs of developmental delays; par-
enting and home visitation programs that offer individual learn-
ing and skill-building for parents of infants and young children
in supportive, culturally sensitive settings; a number of literacy
resources, including the Read to Learn Book Club, which sends
a free book each month to the home of participating 3-year-olds
and will soon expand to include other ages; early childhood
health supports in the form of oral health and vision services; and
an early learning quality improvement system, which focuses on
advancing the level of care provided at childcare centers through
professional development, financial incentives and scholarships,
for both families and early learning staff.
“It’s an innovative approach to improving the quality of early
learning programs,” says Spector of the latter. “And the wage sup-
plement program and teacher scholarships for continuing educa-
tion are open to staff at all licensed childcare programs in Mi-
ami-Dade County, not just those working at childcare programs
actively participating in our quality improvement system – those
are important resources all early learning center staff should
know about and take advantage of.”
It’s a part of the initiative that Merline Pierre, owner and director
of Garden of Light Academy in North Miami, affirms has posi-
tively impacted the school’s teachers and students.
“My staff is able to attend intensive trainings that are better pre-
paring them for the children and the classroom, trainings that
they would have had to pay for out-of-pocket,” says Pierre, whose
early learning program is funded in part by The Trust and who is
a member of its quality improvement system. “They’re also tak-
ing part in the wage program, which supplements income based
on their level of education and training.”
Parents, too benefit, as tuition scholarships allow those who don’t
meet the eligibility threshold for receiving a federal childcare
subsidy but still cannot afford to place their children in a high-
quality early learning program the ability to do so.
“It’s helping more parents put their kids in school, and more
schools provide a higher quality learning environment,” says
Pierre. “Without Thrive by 5, all of that wouldn’t be possible.”
To learn more about Thrive by 5, visit www.thechildrenstrust.
org/content/thrive-5-0; to learn how to access Thrive by 5 ser-
vices and supports, call 211.