OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL — Laundry Cares Foundation and Too Small To Fail, the early childhood initiative of the Clinton Foundation, will present the LaundryCares Literacy Summit as a fall webinar series next month.
The three-part series will be made available free of cost for Laundromat owners, early childhood providers and the funding community on September 15, 17, and 22. Sessions on those days will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern and last approximately two hours.
The series focuses on the high need of young children and their families to find early literacy in everyday spaces and why Laundromats are the ideal place to provide those services.
There will be keynotes from former President Bill Clinton; Chelsea Clinton; Cindy McCain; Ralph Smith, managing director of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading; Judge Ramona Gonzalez, immediate past president of the Council of Juvenile and Family Courts; Brian Wallace, CEO of the Coin Laundry Association; and Patti Miller, director of Too Small To Fail.
Also to be featured are “coffee chats” with children’s authors Andrea Davis Pinkney and Mo Willems.
Attendees will receive valuable research updates from Dr. Susan Neuman’s evaluation project in Chicago and will take part in tracks of learning to help develop partnerships and amplify results of early childhood literacy in Laundromat settings.
The first national awards will be given for exemplary partnerships, and awards for Laundromat owners showing best practices and early childhood providers will also be presented.
“The online Summit allows us to accelerate our learning in the critical time of COVID-19 shutdowns,” says Dan Nauman, senior vice president of the LaundryCares Foundation. “We will all learn new ways to collaborate and come together in service of the children who need us most.”
The Summit series has been made possible in part through funding by David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Allstate. Registration is free but seats are limited; visit www.laundrycares.org/summit2020 for more information and to register by Sept. 1.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].