An innovative approach to reaching out to kidsThe city of Dayton is using $150,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds to support an innovative preschool-on-wheels approach to serve parts of the city without easy access to high-quality preschool.
The plan is to convert RVs into preschool classrooms that can each drive to two locations a day offering four hours of preschool at each location in “preschool deserts” around the city, according to Kimberly Jarvis, founder of the Pop Up Preschool project.
Jarvis is executive director of the non-profit On Purpose Academy and Mentoring Center, which serves 60 children at their facility on Best Street in Dayton and runs a Pop Up Preschool in the DeSoto Bass community room.
Jarvis says she has the teachers for the Pop Up Preschool on wheels, but needs funding to convert the RVs into classrooms that can serve nine to 12 kids at a time.
“My ultimate goal is that families that don’t have access to quality preschool education will get it,” she said. “We are trying to change generational poverty.”
Click here to see more from Josh Sweigart at the Dayton Daily News.
