Author: Erin Mathews

Saluda County First Steps and the City of Saluda held a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week to celebrate the opening of a StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trail project in the Saluda Town Park. The project was a collective community effort led by Saluda County First Steps executive director Kim Chariker.

“My vision for the StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trails (English and Spanish) was to provide the young children of Saluda County and their families a place to come together and share language, literacy, family fun activities, and to encourage learning as a family,” said Chariker. 

Each of SC First Steps local partnerships operates as independent 501-C (3) non-profits, giving them the unique ability to leverage private dollars. Saluda County First Steps took advantage of its unique status and connected private funding from the Save the Children Foundation with city resources.

“When I was contacted by Save the Children to apply for the grant for the StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trail, I immediately made a presentation to our Town Council requesting permission to use the Saluda Town Park for the projects,” said Chariker. “Once they gave their approval, they also offered the use of the town maintenance department to help with the installation of the projects. This has truly been an act of full community support and partnership for the families of young children in Saluda.”

StoryWalk® is an educational activity designed to inspire parents, teachers, and other adults to take young children outdoors to enjoy reading stories together. It helps build children’s interest in reading while encouraging healthy outdoor activity for both children and their caregivers.

“The StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trail have already impacted the young children in our community,” said Chariker. “Providing these projects for our community to encourage families to get outside and share learning with their children will be valuable for early learning and support families as they share educational activities with each other in our Saluda Town Park.”

Media Contact: 

Kim Chariker, ED Saluda County First Steps | kim@saludafirststeps.org | (864)321-1441

Saluda County First Steps Awarded Grant from Save the Children to Support Early Childhood Literacy Program in Saluda County

The $15,000 grant provided by the global humanitarian organization will help fund a StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trails (English and Spanish) at the Saluda Town Park

Saluda, SC (December 8th, 2022) – Saluda County First Steps was awarded a $15,000 grant from global humanitarian organization Save the Children to support the Early Childhood Literacy Program, which will provide a StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trails (English and Spanish) at the Saluda Town Park. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, April 1^st, 2023, at 10 am at the Spring Fest Event at the Saluda Town Park.

Saluda County First Steps was selected by Save the Children to support innovative approaches to early childhood learning. The grant will fund community-wide initiatives that support kindergarten readiness, early literacy, and early numeracy.

“Saluda County First Steps is honored to partner with Save the Children to provide our community with a StoryWalk® and Born Learning Trails (English and Spanish) at our local town park,” said Kim Chariker, Executive Director of Saluda County First Steps. “The need for innovative approaches to encourage literacy and language for families of young children to help improve our kindergarten readiness scores and encourage families to get out and enjoy family time while sharing a book and physical activities with their young child(ren) is invaluable.” “These two projects will allow Saluda County First Steps to offer our families of young children high-quality early learning initiatives in our community.”

The StoryWalk® will provide families with the opportunity to read their child a story as they walk around the Saluda Town Park track together. Each post will have 2 pages of the story featured. As they walk the track, they will have read the entire story to their child. The Born Learning Trails provide families with an activity at each station to do with their child to interact together as a family and enjoy the park together.

“Save the Children is thrilled to work with these local champions for children,” said Tamsyn Oakes, Senior Advisor for Community-based Services at Save the Children. “We are looking forward to supporting all of these innovative projects designed to help young learners grow and develop across rural America.”   

Save the Children believes child deserves a future. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, we’ve changed the lives of more than 1 billion children. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Join us on October 29, 2022 from 5:00pm to 8:30pm for a Halloween Spook-tacular! Activities include: vendors, DJ costume contest, bounce house, pie eating contest, hay ride, and candy parade. Be sure to bring your own chair. We hope to see you there!

Location: Courthouse Square | 100 E. Church St.

Saluda County First Steps would like to say a huge “Thank You!” to Marines Toys for Tots and South Carolina First Steps for their donation of 250 books for young children in Saluda, SC. The first book distribution was held at ABC Academy, LLC in Saluda, SC. The Two-Year-Old Classroom received “What’s a Potty For?” to assist them with their potty-training and the CERDEP 4K Classroom received “Back to School”. Kim Chariker, ED, Saluda County First Steps read the books to each classroom and every student received a copy of the book to take home. Each classroom also received a copy of the book for the classroom library. Thanks again to Marines Toys for Tots and SC First Steps for this incredible gift.

Mayor Amelia Herlong has signed a Declaration that April 2022 is the Month of the Young Child for Saluda County, SC. 

We have an exciting week of family fun events and Give-A-Ways planned for the Week of the Young Child (April 2nd-9th, 2002) in Saluda, SC. The week of celebrating our young children will end with the Spring Fest Event at Saluda Town Park on Saturday, April 9th from Noon until 2pm. Come by Saluda First Steps table to see what we are doing in the community and receive some swag.

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina First Steps has awarded Saluda County First Steps $20,155 in grants as part of its initiative with the South Carolina Department of Education to support parents as the first and most important teacher of their young child. The funding will expand high-intensity, evidence-based parenting programs in Saluda County to address potential learning loss in children due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The award is primarily funded by the American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and will be supplemented with Preschool Development Grant Funds. The South Carolina Department of Education received $211 million in total from the fund and has allocated $14.7 million to SC First Steps.

“We are incredibly grateful for Superintendent Spearman’s vision to apply these federal resources to programs and services for South Carolina’s youngest children, an investment that will generate an exponential return,” said Georgia Mjartan, Executive Director of South Carolina First Steps. “Children and families whose lives have been upended by COVID-19 will be able to participate in proven programs. Compared to their peers, children enrolled in First Steps programs are 74% more likely to
enter kindergarten ready to succeed.”

Saluda County First Steps has a proven record of effectively addressing the high need for evidence-based parenting programs. These intensive home visiting and group parenting models have demonstrated school readiness outcomes nationally through experimental and quasi experimental studies.

Each local partnership that was selected for the Parenting Expansion Grant went through a competitive selection process overseen by senior leadership at SC First Steps. Saluda County First Steps received elevated consideration for being an area of the state that has been negatively impacted by learning loss during the pandemic.

“As Executive Director of Saluda County First Steps, I am excited to receive this grant to expand our Nurturing Parent Program over the course of 3 years. We will be able to extend sessions to parents of young children that we have not reached to this point in our programming,” said Kim Chariker, Executive Director of Saluda County First Steps.