In August, Early Matters Chattanooga, an action team of the community-wide coalition, Chattanooga 2.0, announced the appointment of the first two Chattanooga Basics personnel. Sylvia Ramos was hired as the Chattanooga Basics Program director and Caroline Shepard was hired as the Program’s marketing specialist. Together in their new roles, Ms. Ramos and Ms. Shepard said they hope to continue to spread awareness of the Chattanooga Basics program, educating even more local parents on the importance of early learning for children aged zero to three.
"The Chattanooga Basics are five evidence-based parenting and caregiving principles that can benefit children from all backgrounds.
Decades of research have shown that a high quality early education lays the foundation for the development of cognitive and social skills that impact later success in school, career, and life," officials said.
“The Early Matters Chattanooga coalition is extremely excited to welcome the two dedicated Chattanooga Basics staff. For the past year, we have been working collectively as early childhood organizations to spread the word, but we expect the impact of this focused effort to be even greater,” said Dr. Robin Cayce, director of Programs for Chattanooga 2.0.
Ms. Ramos joins the Chattanooga Basics from North Carolina, bringing experience in community work related to inclusion, equity and education. Ms. Ramos will be based at the United Way of Greater Chattanooga, while Ms. Shepard will be working from First Things First. Ms. Shepard recently graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she majored in Communications.
The Chattanooga Basics is a program launched by Early Matters Chattanooga in the Fall of 2017 in association with the Boston Basics organization, a public-private partnership that grew out of work by the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. It promotes five simple strategies that every family can use to give their child a great start in life through everyday activities like reading a story, counting breakfast cereal or singing during bath time, officials said.
The five Chattanooga Basics are: 1) Maximize Love, Manage Stress; 2) Talk, Sing & Point; 3) Count, Group & Compare; 4) Explore through Movement & Play; and 5) Read and Discuss Stories.