Family literacy project builds bridges

From the day 14 years ago that the SAGE Child Care Center opened its doors on the grounds of the Nickerson Gardens public housing project in Watts, it has offered a safe, academically enriching environment to youngsters whose parents are working to build better lives.

In 2003, it added a full-day preschool program, bringing more peace of mind to family members who are working, training for jobs or attending classes. One of six programs of Crystal Stairs, a prominent nonprofit provider of child care and other family-oriented services, SAGE aims to ensure that its young charges are positioned to do well in school and beyond.

But its leaders have long known that parents are key to a child’s success. So they added a family literacy program to build better bridges between home and school.

“Literacy happens to us every day,” said SAGE director Cathy Tate. “It’s involving children in what they need to learn in school and helping the parents help them apply the concepts in everyday life.”

The program seeks to involve parents, teachers and children as a team. Parents, for example, are encouraged to read age-appropriate stories to their children and share their favorite books. Teachers suggest exciting activities that parents can use to encourage a love of reading, often including song, drama and art.

The Crystal Stairs’ SAGE Child Care Center is among a number of Southern California nonprofits featured in The Times Holiday Campaign, part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund. This year, the charity’s family literacy program received $15,000 from the fund.

Although the state pays for most of the center’s preschool and after-school program costs, there is little money for extras, and SAGE finds that it must depend on private foundation grants or individual donations to buy books for its lending library, charter buses for enriching field trips and provide other activities aimed at fostering success.

Officials also are concerned that the state’s deepening financial crisis could spell trouble for their programs.

All of SAGE’s children, ages 3 to 12, live in Nickerson Gardens or the surrounding neighborhood. The older ones attend either 112th Street or Flournoy Avenue elementary schools, both within walking distance of the center. There is no charge to parents but they must be enrolled in school, undergoing job training or working, Tate said.

“Most of our parents are trying to balance work and school,” Tate said. “We make sure they get plenty of feedback and we work with them to see that they know what the school expectations are and how they can help their child.”

The center’s 24 preschoolers get three meals, along with two healthy snacks -- milk and bananas are a favorite -- during a day that typically includes story time, play-acting (with ample props and costumes from which to choose), art and puzzles, all geared at helping youngsters acquire the social and academic skills they will need to do well in kindergarten.

School-age children arrive in midafternoon and spend some time unwinding on the center’s spacious outdoor play areas before heading to their assigned bungalows for snacks and tutoring, assistance with homework or other activities.

Tate makes sure she misses no “teachable moments.” One recent afternoon, when a boy rushed up to show her a mushroom he had found in a corner of the lawn, she asked him why he thought it grew in that particular spot. “Because it’s damp over there,” he replied, then added without prompting, “Some of these are poisonous, so you better not eat any you find in the grass.”

Eight-year-old De’Jyrie Sims, a third-grader at Flournoy Avenue, bounded over, eager to share her day. She was excited because she had done well in her favorite subjects: math and science.

“I know how to make a volcano,” De’Jyrie told Tate and a visitor. “You get some cardboard and you paint it brown, then you get some water and vinegar and baking soda and then you mix them all up and put them in the volcano with some Skittles.”

Skittles? “I make a candy volcano,” she explained.

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jean.merl@latimes.com

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