Smart Start Central Oklahoma

Early birds - early birds is a free school readiness program for parents and caregivers of young children and community partners in Oklahoma. Parents and caregivers attend classes three times per year where they learn about their child's health and development, purposeful parenting, and opportunities for everyday learning. At each class parents receive a kit of educational toys and books tailored to their child's age. In 2022-2023, early birds kits were given to over 1,500 families. Parents who participate in early birds report reading and playing more with their children. Furthermore, early birds children consistently outperform their peers on kindergarten entry assessments.

Childcare provider program in partnership with the Oklahoma partnership for school readiness, early birds curriculum and educational kits were adapted for childcare settings, both center and home based, to ensure Oklahoma childcare providers throughout the state are well equipped to prepare young children for school.

Community engagement - the mark twain elementary parent resource room (prr) provides educational resources and programs for parents of mark twain students. A coordinator helps lead school readiness programming and other activities for parents and their young children. Ssco also operates a community room at the harbison education center next door to mark twain. Examples of programming include community meals and gatherings, healthy activities, art activities, literacy classes, parenting classes, computer access, and english and spanish classes. Community engagement - the community connector is a position funded by a contract with the Oklahoma state department of health to improve the coordination of homevisiting services in Oklahoma county. Ssco conducts regular outreach to recruit families and to inform all members of the community about the availability and benefits of home-based family support programs. Ssco also holds regular meetings for all home visiting providers to promote collaboration and cross referrals. The community connector makes an average of 100 referrals each year to home visiting programs on behalf of parents looking for services. The community connector also maintains an online resource binder for both parents and professionals that contains links to over 600 resources for goods and services such as counseling, housing, and childcare.