By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune Reporter
COV200, the volunteer group behind the City of Covington’s bicentennial celebration, unveiled the details of it’s educational Legacy Project at Thursday night’s Legacy Launch Event at the Madison Event Center.
Jordan Huizenga, COV200 Education Committee Chair, Covington City Commissioner and director of development at Children, Inc., laid out the details of the project.
Acknowledging the many outstanding developments in the city — new buildings, great businesses and new projects — Huizenga says developing a strong community matters too.
“I believe, as a commissioner, a resident, as a young person who wants to have my family here, that we need to build on all those successes and create a really outstanding community that supports our kids, and supports our families, and really is an outstanding region and outstanding city that is known as a place where kids can be successful and families can thrive,” says Huizenga.
“Bold Goals for Covington Kids by 2020,” lays out the strategic goals designed to do just that:
Get 200 more Covington children ready for kindergarten, doubling the current number.
Get 200 more students reading on grade level by expanding after school and summer programs and recruiting new reading coaches.
Get 200 new one-on-one mentors for students throughout Covington, both directly through schools and through community organizations.
Get 200 more high school students graduating college and/or career ready by expanding dual-credit classes and intern and co-op opportunities and creating appositive, engaging school experience in culturally rich and diverse environment.
“The idea behind these goals is to make Covington a places where children and families are successful and can thrive,” said Huizenga. “They are a collaboration between the various school districts and organizations that work to ensure all of Covington’s students receive a quality education.”
A tool in the strategy for early literacy is the Footsteps2Brilliance program. Huizenga described it as an outstanding app that over the last couple of months that has been implemented and is growing in the city of Covington. The program, he says is an exciting app that provides a very intentional application that is an early educational literacy app, an early learning solution that helps all children become proficient readers by third grade.
The app works on all different kinds of devices, allowing school districts to leverage mobile devices that parents already own to scale literacy city-wide.
Huizenga says the Footsteps2Brilliance app is now available, because of a number of partnerships and community philanthropists and Covington Independent Schools.
The Legacy Project goals are aimed at engaging not just Covington Independent Public Schools and students but students throughout Covington, including Kenton County and Diocese schools.
They were developed to be ambitious but achievable by building on existing partnerships and expanding existing initiatives and programs, such as United Way of Cincinnati’s goal of having 85 percent of children prepared for kindergarten by 2020 and Skyward’s “Pre-K Works” program.
“As COV200 comes to a close, it is clear the role it has played in drawing attention to Covington and its renaissance,” said COV200 Chair Normand Desmarais. “The Legacy Project will ensure that this impact carries on into the future, benefiting Covington’s youngest citizens.”
Desmarais pointed out the the Legacy Project is not just an education initiative, but is an economic development to help give fuel to the education system.
“When we do that as a community, this place will be great,” says Desmarais.
To help fund the goals of the Legacy Project, COV200 will be offering individuals an opportunity to purchase a square of a mural mosaic on which their name or the name of a loved one can be painted. The mural will be part of the City of Covington’s Riverfront Commons project.