Project Description
72 preschoolers and their parents graduated from COA’s Home Instruction for the Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program on May 14th, at the Milwaukee Public Library’s beautiful Centennial Hall. See the picture album here.
COA’s Executive Director, Tom Schneider, can’t help getting excited describing the program, “The HIPPY early education program is a core part of our integrated approach to community building – by actively involving and empowering parents as leaders in their child’s education, we don’t just help the child, but the entire neighborhood. Parents share that valuable knowledge, students become role models – the pieces all work together.” COA first brought the program to Milwaukee (and Wisconsin) in 1998, and there have been many studies since showing how HIPPY boosts literacy and reading achievement, including those by Marquette University and UW-Milwaukee’s Center for Urban Initiatives and Research (CUIR) showing the effectiveness of COA’s HIPPY program in promoting academic success locally.
Jessica Namaste, COA’s HIPPY Program Director, can explain more personally how the program works, “Again and again, parent involvement has been proven to be a critical part of a child’s development, and the HIPPY program takes that fact and runs with it. My own daughter is a graduate of HIPPY, and I am too. I know it works, because I see the results with her – and in all the parents and children we’re so lucky to work with. Most of COA’s HIPPY Parent Partners are a graduate of the program – they really understand what matters to the people we serve and know how to present the curriculum in ways that are fun and positive.”
Over 250 families and community members joined in the celebration, including longtime supporters of COA’s HIPPY program in Milwaukee, Margie Margolies of the National Council for Jewish Women’s Milwaukee Chapter and Board President of HIPPY USA, and Linda Frank, the former Board Chair HIPPY USA. COA is proud to partner with The Parenting Network as the sole providers of the program here in Wisconsin. Learn more about HIPPY here.
Special thanks to all of our supporters, including Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, City of Milwaukee Health Department, Cousin’s Subs Make It Better Foundation, Laura and Dan Eder, Eli and Linda Frank, Gardner Foundation, Peter Glicklich, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, H.L. Epstein Foundation, The Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, HIPPY USA, Hupy & Abraham., S.C., Gene and Stephanie Klurfeld Fund, Sheldon and Marianne Lubar Charitable Fund, Marjorie and Jon Margolies, Susan and Ron Miller, Milwaukee Admirals, Milwaukee Public Library, Timothy Newgard, Brewers Community Foundation/Brewers Buddies, National Council of Jewish Women – Milwaukee Section, Northwestern Mutual Foundation, PNC Foundation, Gene and Ruth Posner Fund, Lucy Rosenberg and Friends, Susan and Cary Silverstein, Barbara Stein, United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County, David Wasserman, and Wells Fargo Foundation.