TLA Newsletters

MCAN News and Meeting Reminder: February 17, 2021

February 17, 2021
Register today for our next MCAN meeting
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Time: 9:30 -11:00 am – Register here.
Log in early for optional networking 9:15 am – 9:30 am

View a Recap of our January 27, 2021 Meeting

Our first 2021 MCAN group meeting together was quite productive, with our bold idea teams working in groups on their key priorities. The Bold Idea 1 Team presented our 2021 outreach campaigns, and Dr. Moore and Mr. Myhre shared an update from the School District. We welcomed several new Moonshot supporters, and are grateful to each of you for joining the journey!
The meeting was recorded and can be viewed with this link.

Moonshot in the Community

Bold Idea 1: We introduced the exciting 2021 awareness and impact programs!

  • Social media campaign
  • Video documentary series
  • Moonshot Hero recognition
  • Training programs so the community understands how to support early literacy

MCAN members are encouraged to co-create the campaign with us! Vote for your favorite social media design template below! Commit to sending out our one “Moonshot Monday” post each week, to maximize the impact of our messaging.


Bold Idea 3: We are working to bring the science of reading to our community. Our current focus includes:

Evaluate the current landscape of early childcare classrooms; Work on a shared definition of “Quality” PreK seats; Meet on Feb. 18th with SDIRC (Rick Myrhe and Brooke Flood) to discuss increasing quality PreK seats; Celebrate and work with IRSC as they will be offering an early childhood bachelor’s degree; Develop a Theory of Change document and work plan; Explore research-based curriculum to be used in the preK arena.

On Feb. 11, the publisher of Sunform presented to several BI-3 members. View their training videos to learn more. Here is a link to the classroom training videos to learn more about the project.


Bold Idea 5: We have been working on our four key priorities:

1. MCAN Case Statement (strategic plan) to identify our proven and promising programs and the funding needs to ensure we are supporting every child in need. 2. Advocacy work so that the first 3,000 days are considered an essential investment and top priority, which includes making literacy a value rather than an outcome. 3. Creation of a transparent, local data dashboard to document and measure our impact. 4. “Lift Every Voice” equity and deep inclusion work.

Bold Idea 2: We will provide attendance “Did You Know” tips for the Moonshot social media campaign. We’ll create a book of these tip sheets to share with parents, truancy officers, educators, and community members so that we may cultivate the belief and understanding that every day is an opportunity to learn — believing in the value of attending daily and on time.

We will be working to share attendance resources within the community, such as these informative video resources from Attendance Works.


Bold Idea 4: Our Bold idea 4 team includes both the School District of Indian River County and community before school/in school/afterschool/summer providers. We met as a group (via Zoom) on January 22 to provide updates on our student needs and upcoming programs.

Durig our MCAN small group time, we continued our work to create a full picture of the academic extended learning programs currently available to students, so we may identify where we have gaps and then develop a work plan to support all students who need extra time and intervention.

Together, we aim to reduce/reverse learning loss from Covid and summer slide.


Bold Idea 6: Our sub-committee met after the January MCAN meeting and identified the next steps in our work plan, which include reaching out to the Office of Early Learning to discuss a potential data sharing agreement with the ELC.
 We also will be working with bold idea 1 to create an awareness campaign for local families around ASQ (ages and stages questionnaire) and the importance of early screening and intervention.

MCAN Member to Member Opportunities

Let’s co-create the Moonshot Awareness Social Media Campaign! Vote for your favorite template here.

MCAN is a Moonshot Community Action Network. We invite YOU to take ACTION by being part of this campaign!

1) Vote for your preferred social media template below; 2) Commit to distributing the weekly Monday post on your social media sites, to maximize our reach; 3) Contribute “Did you know” facts and literacy tips for the campaign.

HOW IT WORKS: We will send you the post in advance, to upload to your social media accounts on “Moonshot Monday.” One week the post will feature an awareness “Did You Know” fact, and the following week it will feature a letter/word from our social/emotional campaign using the “ALPHABET FOR HUMANITY” book. Learn more here.

Option 1: White background

Option 2: Yellow and blue background

Vote Now – Select the social media template design you prefer for our Moonshot Campaign:

Option 1: (White background)

Option 2 (yellow and blue background)

I don't want to support the Moonshot outreach programs

More MCAN Opportunities

The Hunt Institute Race & Education series: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and The Arts
February 18, 2021 – 2:00 pm ET

Culturally responsive pedagogy has made headlines as a way to promote education equity in the classroom. Join The Hunt Institute to discuss how this method can be applied to art, dance, and music in schools.

Panelists include:
  • Dr. Amelia Kraehe of University of Arizona College of Fine Arts Edwin Sorto of KIPP DC/li>
  • Shana Tucker of Kidznotes/li>
  • Rosa Rodriguez Williams of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mini Grant for Summer Learning March 5, 2021 – 10:30 -11:30 am

Join Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign for the announcement of our first ever mini-grant opportunity for local GLR partners! To assist local campaign community partners in offering summer literacy learning opportunities, working toward our overarching goal of having all students read proficiently by the end of third grade, mini-grants (up to $5000) will be awarded to local K-5 Summer Learning Programs operating in-person or online this Summer 2021. We’ll dedicate the first 30 minutes of this webinar to detailing the grant criteria and will then answer questions to assist you in preparing informed responses within the application.
The goal of this 5-hour SLSA course is to prepare out-of-school time (OST) practitioners to foster the development of reading and writing in school-age children, and to identify and address risk factors for delays in literacy in order to mitigate or prevent future illiteracy.
Bonus Offered for DCF “Supporting Literacy in School-Age Programs” Certification

Beginning March 1, the first 350 SLSA course completers (in established FGLRC Communities) submitting the official SLSA completion form with DCF certificate to the Florida Grade Level Reading Campaign (FGLR) will be awarded a $50 B&N gift card.

Sign up here for the 5-hour course, which costs $10 and includes CEU credit. (If you are one of the first 350 to finish, you get a $50 gift card!) – https://www.myflfamilies.com/service-programs/child-care/training-alerts/SLSA.shtml

The Moonshot Community Action Network (MCAN) is coordinated by The Learning Alliance – the managing partner of MCAN. We invite you to join the journey!

www.MoonshotMoment.org | www.TheLearningAlliance.org2