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Organization Details

Team Lead Details

Solution Details

One-line solution summary: In 20 words or less, summarize your organization's product or program that is the focus of your LEAP Project.

Supplemental learning for children between 3-12 years to thrive using Jolly Phonics Learning and innovations for a holistic child development.

Define the problem that your solution seeks to solve. [200-500 words recommended]

Children in deprived communities in the Northern, Volta and Oti regions of Ghana do not have access to supplemental learning for a holistic child development.

Describe your solution and how it works in simple terms. [200-500 words recommended]

Child Dream Foundation over the years has been a keen member of the Project Literacy Community of Practice Leadership Committee; a diverse group of Community of Practice colleagues who guide and moderate on best practices for a holistic child development. Through our study and observation, we have discovered variability is the hallmark of children’s development and learning. Hence our current collaboration with Reach for Change under the Readiness to Scale program in partnership with Jacob Foundation, focuses on supporting children to read and write through play as well as helping these children define shared values, goals, and expectations of diverse communities to align efforts going forward and moderate, recognize contributions, and encourage conversations and connections among children through these learning centers.

Creating an innovative community learning environment for a holistic child development with key focus on literacy, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) among others for a holistic child development.

Select the key characteristics of your target population. Select all that apply.

Pre-primary age children (ages 2-5)
Primary school children (ages 5-12)
Rural
Peri-Urban
Poor
Low-Income
Middle-Income
Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons
Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
Persons with Disabilities

In which country or countries does your solution currently operate?

Ghana

Upload your solution's Theory of Change or Logic Model.

62450_CDF_Theory of Change.pdf - 510 KB

Where would you place your solution on Nesta's Standards of Evidence?

Level 3: You can demonstrate causality using a control or comparison group.

To date, what research/studies has your organization conducted that have helped demonstrate the effectiveness of your solution? [200-500 words recommended]

With great results under the Gender Responsive and Education Transformation (GREAT) project with Right To Play Ghana in the Volta region, couple with the on ongoing readiness to scale programs in partnership with Reach for Change and other international engagements over the years, CDF is in the right position to make a great social impact in its target regions and beyond.

What has the research/studies you have conducted revealed about your solution and how did it inform your work moving forward? [200-500 words recommended]

Ghana has made significant strides in education (EMIS report, 2018). However, the large enrolment levels however, cannot commensurate the academic performance of learners especially the early graders. Reports from Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) over the years show significant figures of children’s poor reading abilities. In 2015 EGRA report indicated that 98% of grade 2 children are unable to read with comprehension and 50% are unable to identify a single alphabet letter. These data affirm the importance of early grade education as the pillar for reading that leads to lifelong learning.

This is a key motivational factor for Child Dream Foundation (CDF) towards creating community learning centers for pupils within the Keta and Anloga district providing unique opportunities for pupils and parents to thrive using Jolly Phonics Learning; a synthetic phonic approach to teach reading and writing in multi-sensory approach

LEAP Project Details

Describe your organization's need to strengthen the evidence base of your solution. [200-500 words recommended]

The goal of CDF under the LEAP Project is to improve the reading skills of learners using multiple approaches. Moreover, this project we believe will sensitize stakeholders to be aware of the learning needs of boys and girls in order to facilitate learning for children at home. The specific objectives for the CDF will include:

To improve the reading skills of children through the use of playful activities and supply of reading books
Strengthening our supplemental learning for a holistic child development
To support communities to identify learning centers and engage community volunteers to facilitate learning after school.

What are 2-3 research questions that you would like your LEAP Project to help you answer? [100 words recommended]

1. What are the advantages of Variability in children’s development and learning?

2. Why do children show inconsistent behavior, skills, knowledge, and characteristics from one-time point

to the next?

3. How can we facilitate children’s successful adaptation within and across them?

What type of research/studies do you think will help answer your stated questions? Select all that apply.

Formative research (e.g. usability studies; feasibility studies; case studies; user interviews; implementation studies; pre-post or multi-measure research; correlational studies)

Please elaborate on your selection above by describing your desired outputs of the 12-week LEAP Project sprint. [200 - 500 words recommended]

Our desire output after the 12 weeks LEAP project is to engage community members, teachers and other key stakeholders sensitizing the community using forum session during consultative meetings and social media among others.

This is a deliberate effort to communicate the project findings that will emanate from the LEAP project engagement and stakeholder commitment interventions to the challenges raised during the LEAP project recommendation.

How will your organization put these outputs into action? [200-500 words recommended]

CDF will continually be on the field to monitor, supervise and encourage all stakeholders to play their roles respectively in supporting the academic growth of all children. A continuous monitoring visit will be conducted to center's, schools and beneficiaries’ homes to see progress, challenges and suitable ways or solutions in some cases. This will be done regularly throughout the project duration and afterwards for a lasting impact.

Describe your desired short-term and long-term outcomes of the 12-week LEAP Project sprint for both your organization and solution. [200-500 words recommended]

Outcome:

Children have improved literacy and STEAM competencies.

With the key objective of having each child attains its holistic development, promoting the growth of children through quality education and respecting the rights protecting children is our long term outaomes. Hence, this engagement is pivotal to delivering a policy document that would feed into the development of a well-structured and informed curriculum and ultimately, a roadmap for achieving the LEAP Project. This engagement will happen twice. Once at the start of the project and a review before the end of the project. CDF engagement with parents and caregivers will focus on providing an environment: To create a collaborative and consultative platform for stakeholders to get involved in their wards learning.

Continuous engagement with over 500 parents and caregivers across our centers on issues bothering child protection, education and their respective roles in ensuring the overall development of the growth of their wards.
To facilitate and deepen relationships and collaboration among parent /community members, to forge a focused agenda in the area of literacy development and innovations at the grassroots.