A community living room with books, learning tools and toys is now available to parents with children ages 0 to 5 at the Northwest Community Center.
It’s the first of 10 such spaces coming to Rockford in 2024 through a partnership among Alignment Rockford, Rockford Public Schools and Illinois Action for Children.
Each space will have its own schedule for story times, programs and special opportunities.
Alignment Rockford Executive Director Emily Klonicki said the goal is to help parents maximize their child’s early developmental years primarily by reading to them.
“Research shows that the experiences a child has from birth to age 5 directly influences his or her ability to learn and succeed when entering school,” she said. “We know that safe, clean free spaces for playing and reading together will help promote the healthy developmental growth of the precious children in our community.”
Kim Nelson, executive director of Rockford Public School’s early childhood, added, “Reading to young children is one of the best things any parent or anybody in this community can do with young children, just looking at picture books and letting them use their imagination. As they do that, that builds their language skills and it also builds their social and emotional skills.”