Kathy Young, director of children’s ministry at First Presbyterian Church and a member of Hattiesburg’s Excel By 5 program, is urging Hattiesburg City Council members to get Involved and engaged to help invigorate the city’s excel program to support the city’s youngest citizens.
At the urging of Ward 4 Councilman Dave Ware, Young visited the Feb. 7 council meeting to explain the benefits of the Excel By 5 program, which is an early childhood community certification process that focuses on a community’s young children play helping parent and educators play a role in children’s formative years of birth to age 5.
“I was fortunate enough to get to visit with (Young), one of my neighbors and friends, a couple of weeks ago to discuss what’s going on in our community with Hattiesburg Excel By 5,” Ware said. “I enjoyed the presentation so much, I really thought it would benefit the entire council for her to give us this information so we could all get together and try to make this more successful than it has been in the past.”
Excel By 5 currently works with 38 communities throughout Mississippi to set forth a variety of standards involving parent training, community participation, child care and health. The certification process identifies available resources – and existing best practices – to help ensure that children will be ready to learn when they start school at age 5.
The initiative was started more than 20 years ago by Gulf Coast kindergarten teacher Debby Renfroe, who was concerned with the level of readiness of her students as they entered school. The program was made possible with a grant by the Chevron Corporation.
“Hattiesburg has been a certified Excel By 5 community for about 10 years, but as we work toward re-certification, we want the resources which exist here to be connected and communicated,” Young said. “We want every child in Hattiesburg to be happy, healthy and ready for the learning of kindergarten.
“Excel By 5 is not an organization in itself; it is essentially a hub, a coming together place from which our community can understand what is currently available for families with young children, and assess what needs might exist. It is a gathering of organizations and persons who wish to advocate for, encourage … and communicate to the entirety of our city the importance of the early years.”
According to statistics provided by Young, the first five years of a person’s life are known as the foundational years, when all cognitive and physical structures – as well as social and emotional skills – are formed. Eighty percent of a child’s brain is developed by age 3, and by the time they are 5 years old, 90 percent of the brain is developed.
“It takes 20 years for the remaining 10 percent of a child’s brain to be developed, and yet that’s where we, as a community, tend to spend most of our efforts,” Young said. “So I would advocate for us shifting focus and really spending some time, as citizens and leaders, focusing on birth through age 5.
“Future school success in our community, and future economic outcomes, may be directly connected to this time of life.”
To that end, Hattiesburg Excel By 5 officials wish to assess what the city currently has to promote high-quality child development experiences, determine where gaps might exist and how to fill them, and enhance knowledge and understanding of the city as a whole regarding the importance and availability of those resources.
“We want our city leaders … to be involved in this re-certification process,” Young told council members. “We’ve been certified for about 10 years, but this time we want everybody to know what’s going on.
“We would like you to be involved in the re-certification by attending meetings of the (Excel By 5) Coalition – it’s a quarterly meeting – participating in events with Excel By 5 partners, and just working with us to promote family and community involvement, as well as early education and health opportunities.”
The City of Petal became Mississippi’s first certified Excel By 5 early childhood community in 2006. Excel By 5 resources can be found at the Coleman Center for Families and Children, which is part of the Petal School District and is located on the corner of South George Street and West Central Avenue in Petal.
