Literacy Team

The Polk Vision Literacy Team is focused on improving the literacy proficiency of students in Polk County.    

During 2018-2019 the Public Education Partnership (PEP) and Polk Vision worked collaboratively in the Winter Haven community to develop better awareness of resources to support Kindergarten Readiness and the improvement of 3^rd Grade Reading Scores.  Currently the Team is working towards replicating and scaling the well-established PEP efforts in other communities across the county.

During the summer of 2019, the Literacy Team piloted efforts to address “Summer Slide” at 9 locations through the alignment of the Polk County Library Cooperative, and the County Public Schools’ Books Bridge Bus and Nutrition Department’s Summer Food Service program. This enabled each organization to maximize the opportunities of bringing summer story time, free meals and free book distribution to Summer BreakSpot locations around the district. Currently, the Literacy Team is looking to continue the alignment of these efforts into the summer of 2020. 

The Literacy Team continues to learn about literacy in our communities, engage partners around literacy resources, align partnerships toward a common goal, and develop solutions that we expect will help improve the literacy rate for young people in our communities. Our team continues to build momentum through the Literacy Directory, focusing on Kindergarten Readiness for our upcoming third edition. With thanks to the Polk County Public Schools Books Bridge program, Polk County Public Schools’ Nutrition, the Polk County Library Cooperative, and Winter Haven Public Education Partnership (PEP), our team is aligning sustainable partnerships around literacy. These partners provide resources and services to nourish young minds and bodies across Polk County.

-Lindsay Persohn, Ph.D. Community Volunteer