April 29, 2016

The Oce on Children and Youth

Spring Newsletter
In this Issue:
The Story of the Gus Bus
Reading Road Show

All Aboard for Reading

The Story of the Gus Bus Reading Road Show

The Reading Road Show

Announced as Finalist for
2016 NAHYP Awards

Its a chilly Friday evening, and dozens of local Stone Spring

Elementary School students are waiting for the bus. But this
isnt their everyday school bus and these children are already at
school, most of them alongside their parents. The crowd has
assembled in anticipation for the Gus Bus and its twice-asemester Family Literary Night event.
All this excitement over a visit from a bus may seem unusual,
but the Gus Bus isnt a typical vehicle. This was exactly the
intention of Pat Kennedy back in 2004 when she and a group of
other educational professionals set out to address the fact the
half of local kindergarteners at the time were beginning school
unprepared. The winning idea was a "reading road show, as a
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April 29, 2016

Did You Know?

The biggest factor in a childs
educational development and early
success in the classroom is their
access to books and being read to
prior to starting school. But literacy is
just one key aspect of this
development. Every young person
has the capacity for healthy,
successful growth but this is helped
along by support and
encouragement from the child's
surrounding community. Our goal is
to facilitate this process through
building on assets in the
Harrisonburg and Rockingham
County area to result in strong
support systems for a community of
educated, caring, and responsible
young people.
For additional information on what
we do and more of our programs,
visit http://www.theocy.org/.

way to bring reading materials to underprivileged students

who may have otherwise not had the same access to them.
Kennedy worked with the school district and Harrisonburg
police to narrow down a route that would be most effective at
reaching a large number of students.
The project has only grown in the years since, with two buses
now making their way through neighborhoods and apartment
complexes in Harrisonburg, Rockingham, and Page County, not
to mention hosting frequent special events at locations varying
from Chik-fil-A to the Massanutten Water Park to elementary
schools like Stone Spring.

Just like how the bus's range has spread

out geographically, its scope of activities
has also grown to encompass additional
crafts, healthy living activities, tutoring
programs,
and
the
chance
for
participating children to take home two
books with them every week to practice,
as many do not have consistent access to a
library. Funding from the Virginia
Department of Education has allowed the
bus to launch a series of after school
enrichment programs relating to math,
science, and the arts. The Blue Ridge Area
Food Bank has also stepped up to provide
each child with a take-home food bag at
the conclusion of their hour on the bus as
a part of their BackPack program; over

6,000 food bags were given out just in

2014.
This is far from the only example of the
broader Harrisonburg community getting
involved with the buss activities. In
addition to benefiting from grants and
private donations, the program is
sponsored by JMUs Institute for
Innovation in Healthy and Human
Services (IIHHS). And whether as
volunteers or through integration with a
number of majors and classes at the
university, JMU students jump at the
chance to assist the program coordinators
with reading to the children, helping to
run special events and more.

April 29, 2016

It makes sense because these are programs

that benefit everyone. Kennedy names
studies that demonstrate reading to
children before they start preschool greatly
ups their chances of succeeding in school.

The purpose of the bus is to supplement

both sides of this transition, with a focus
on preschool-aged children and younger
during the day and then in the evenings
further opportunities for older students to
receive homework help. The advantages
extend to children of all demographics. As
not all of the children who frequent the bus
speak English, there are books in different
languages to accommodate everyone who
wants to come on and read. The buss
features have even attracted on board
parents trying to learn English as a second
language.
This is not the only aspect of the buss
activities that functions to help parents as
well as children; in fact trying to get
parents and their children learning
together has long been a major goal of the
organization. Haley Springer, program
coordinator for the Reading Road Show,
explains: A lot of great research shows

that learning starts in the home.

Exploring the idea that student literacy
begins with parent literacy before anything
else, the Gus Bus has also been in
collaboration with JMU's branch of the
Career Development Academy to hone in
on strengthening English and civic literacy
skills for everyone in these homes. With
IIHHSs help, families can take classes in
these areas for sharply reduced prices,
fulfilling the dual purpose of bringing
parents in as partners in their childrens
education while they walk away with
tangible real-life benefits as well.
These years of steady expansion and
diversification have cemented the Gus Bus
as an enormous success. In a little over a
decade since the start of the program,
Harrisonburg and its surrounding counties
have seen an increase from about half of
kindergarteners properly equipped to start
school to closer to five-sixths of
kindergarteners. A few years past this
threshold, the next major goal is to have
children reading at standard level by grade
three. Springer cites numerous other
studies that show this is a crucial point not
only in a childs educational development
but also on a more personal level, with the
children under grade level at a greater risk
for various problems at home later in their
school years and beyond. In this way the
Gus Buss multilayered approach to
supplemental education is going beyond
just raising family literacy levels and
striving to carve out better overall lives.
Going by the numbers, by this measure the
program has been thriving.

April 29, 2016

The Reading Road Show Announced as Finalist for

2016 NAHYP Awards
The Office on Children and Youth is
pleased to report that the Gus Bus Reading
Road Show has been announced as a
finalist for the 2016 National Arts and
Humanities Youth Program (NAHYP)
Awards!
The Reading Show was selected as one of
50 programs nationwide recognized for
providing excellent arts and humanities
learning opportunities to young people.
The nominations came from 301
submissions across 41 sates and the District
of Columbia. We are thrilled to have our
program receiving recognition alongside
so many other exceptional organizations
and activities dedicated to improving the
lives of children and teens around the
nation.
Each years NAHYP Awards aim to
spotlight extracurricular programs that
exemplify how arts and humanities
programs outside of the regular school day
enrich the lives of young people
throughout the country by teaching new
skills, nurturing creativity, and building

self-confidence. These activities

complement in-school studies with a wide
array of artistic and academic focuses.
They provide safe and encouraging
environments for young people at times
such as weekends and summer vacations
when they are potentially the most
vulnerable. Previous awardees include
Milwaukees Youth Symphony Orchestra,
Chicagos Storycatchers Theatres
Programs for Detained and Incarcerated
Youth, and Aurora, Colorados Job
Training in the Arts program.
The Gus Bus Reading Road Show, with its
diverse offering of literacy programs,
embodies many of these characteristics,
serving children and families in a number
of Harrisonburg neighborhoods and
surrounding counties. Since being founded
in 2004, the Reading Road Shows scope
has expanded significantly and the
percentage of local children unprepared to
start kindergarten from a literacy
standpoint has consequently dropped by
two-thirds.
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April 29, 2016

This years nominations are currently

under review by a jury consisting of arts
and humanities field experts. The
organizers of twelve programs will be
selected for a $10,000 one-time grant each,
along with an invitation to attend this
years NAHYP White House award
ceremony hosted by first lady Michelle
Obama. Says Obama: These outstanding
programs are expanding horizons,
changing lives, and helping young people
fulfill their dreamsacross America and
around the world. Each of these programs
is using achievement in the arts and
humanities as a bridge to achievement in
life.

Winners will be announced prior to the

tenth annual NAHYP Awardee
Conference, August 35. For more
information on the National Arts and
Humanities Youth Program Awards and
their mission, visit http://
www.nahyp.org/.
For more information on the Gus Bus
Reading Road Show, visit http://
www.iihhs.jmu.edu/thegusbus/
index.html.