Mary Andrews isn’t sitting still in retirement. On the contrary, she’s building on her 40-year teaching career by expanding family literacy programs throughout the Chapel Hill community. Today, Toyota and the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) surprised Andrews during a reading event with local families with the news that she is the 2017 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year.Andrews and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation also received a $20,000 check to further Family Reading Partners (FRP) program outreach.
“Mary’s dedication to working with families to change the academic and life trajectories of vulnerable parents and children is impressive,” said Dr. Joshua Cramer, vice president, NCFL. “Her work is in alignment with NCFL’s mission to eradicate poverty through two-generation education solutions for families. We are proud to recognize her as our 2017 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year.”
Andrews’ FRP and READ2ME programs are designed to model and encourage reading together as a family. Facilitators teach parents how to interact with their children to promote kindergarten readiness and reinforce that parents are their child’s first and most important teacher.
Additionally, the program works to address the 30-million word gap many low-income children face upon entering kindergarten.
“Mary’s work with Chapel Hill and Carrboro families makes a visible impact on our school system and our community,” said Superintendent Pam Baldwin, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS). “We are grateful for her continued work to support families in our district. She is building a legacy of family literacy that is contagious and inspiring.”Andrews’ literacy programs began on a small scale during her teaching career and were later adopted district-wide. Once retired, she expanded programming to reach more low-income community members with young children, including:
• Teenage parents: high school students join Andrews monthly during lunch to complete an FRP session and receive books for their babies;
• Recovering mothers: monthly in-home sessions are held through the UNC Hospitals’ HORIZONS program;
• Refugee families: In partnership with the Refugee Support Center, Andrews finds bilingual books and hires interpreters to spread the message;
• Parents of newborns: Andrews visits low-income parents referred by Orange County Health Department and, upon invitation, returns every six months with new books until the child reaches kindergarten;
• Early Head Start: Andrews meets families at Early Head Start centers for FRP lessons and book giveaways; and,
• Family Success Alliance: a county-wide collaborative using a multi-generational approach to overcome poverty for families.
The Toyota Family Teacher of the Year award, a national honor now in its 21st year, recognizes families play a crucial role in the success of children, and salutes educators who are exceptional at using intergenerational approaches to engage students and their families in education.
Andrews and runner-up Fernando Gonzalez, of Tucson, Ariz., will be recognized for their accomplishments at the annual NCFL Families Learning Conference in Tucson on October 9. The conference convenes the nation’s most progressive experts in education, policy, and family and parent engagement to discuss and share the latest information regarding multigenerational approaches to learning.
“We’re proud to recognize Mary Andrews as Toyota Family Teacher of the Year for the dedication to countless children and families through her unique literacy programs,” said Mike Goss, general manager, social innovation, Toyota Motor North America.
Gonzalez, a family literacy specialist with Make Way for Books in Tucson, was chosen as the Toyota Family Teacher of the Year runner up. Gonzalez works to empower parents to embrace their role as the first, best and most important teacher in their child’s life, as well as to become advocates for their children’s education. With this recognition, Make Way for Books received a $5,000 grant to continue Fernandez’s work engaging families through six-week programs that meet families where they are – in apartment and mobile home communities, social service agencies, and neighborhood centers.
Goss added: “The work of Mary and Fernando will increase children’s upward mobility and ability to break intergenerational cycles of poverty. This will pay dividends for these students, their families, their schools and their communities for generations to come.”
ABOUT NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAMILIES LEARNING
The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is a national nonprofit organization working to eradicating poverty through education solutions for families. Partnering with educators, literacy advocates, and policymakers, NCFL develops and provides programming, professional development, and resources from the classroom to the community that empower and raise families to achieve their potential. For more information on NCFL visit familieslearning.org.
ABOUT TOYOTA
Toyota (NYSE:TM), creator of the Prius hybrid and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota and Lexus brands. Over the past 60 years, we’ve built more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.6 million cars and trucks (2.45 million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road today.
