“Imagine a kid living in 63107 living in a drug-infested neighborhood, who hears gunshots and ambulance and police sirens outside their windows every day. They’re at home eating a tuna fish, peanut butter, or an air sandwich because the mother doesn’t have food stamps. Now, what do you think happens to this child who has a pack of homework that they can’t figure out on an empty stomach while being traumatized?”
“I’m that black girl with a loud voice. I’ve never been afraid to go toe-to-toe with elected or educational officials.”- Alecia Deal, co-founder of Village of Moms StL.
Alecia Deal, one of the founding members of Village of Moms StL, painted a depressing but common scenario to underscore the reasons her organization is dedicated to “literacy empowerment” and educational success for low-income St. Louis children. It is a cause that has been exacerbated by a worldwide pandemic.
The literacy crisis in struggling neighborhoods throughout America was already in full bloom before the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, in its more than two-year wake, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities are facing even greater challenges meeting reading and educational benchmarks. For example, last year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that in some St. Louis public schools, fewer than 10% of third graders test proficient in reading.
Similar findings about four years ago, Deal explained, inspired her group to take a proactive approach to improving literacy outcomes in some of the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
In 2018, Deal and a group of mothers mostly from the 63107-zip code area, responded to a grant initiative offered by the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, headed by Dr. Vetta Sanders-Thompson, PhD. After interested parties participated in a 7-week course on planning and implementing community service projects, they had to submit proposals. Village of Moms won a $2,500 mini grant based on their plan tobuild a reading village for young children. Initially, the group placed reading boxes in disadvantaged neighborhoods. But, after reading a newspaper article about a survey of 569 public school kids where only 102 read at grade level, Deal said the group shifted focus.
“We found out that book boxes were not going to work. Anybody who is an educator or does educational enrichment work knows that there’s no way a kid should pass third grade without being able to read.”
Deal said she, executive partner Mia Daugherty and other participating mothers went to St. Louis Public school officials, to ask what they could do to help. They were told about “all the great intervention programs” the school system offered. But, Deal added, school officials couldn’t explain why kids couldn’t read.
After more research, she said her group landed on the fact that, what she described as “wrap-around services,” weren’t addressed sufficiently.
“Even with all their intervention programs; if a kid is hungry, afraid, traumatized, abused or not comfortable; their brains are on high-alert, they’re constantly in ‘fight or flight’ mode because of their environments. Teachers, especially white teachers, don’t understand kids from disenfranchised black or brown communities. So they ask, ‘what’s your problem, why do you have an attitude?’ Most don’t understand that kids can’t learn how to read, can’t process, because he or she is worried about what’s at home or even if they have safe homes to go to.”
Village of Moms members then partnered with social service agencies. One was Vision for Children at Risk (VCR) which uses socioeconomic and racial inequity data to promote the well-being of children, youth, and families. With their partners, Village of Moms began hosting parenting seminars, literacy caravans, digital illiteracy activities and other events aimed at tackling educational and socioeconomic needs such as food insecurity, mental health services, gun violence and much more.
A Feb. 2022, report from the curriculum and assessment company, Amplify, found that in classrooms nationwide, young students are at risk of not learning to read. The data showed that COVID-related instructional loss was especially great in kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 2, and that Black and Hispanic students in those three grades have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
COVID-19 also impacted Village of Moms and Deal personally, who worked as a teacher’s aide at Arch Community School, a public charter elementary school in the Hyde Park area.
“Everything shut down. We lost funding, I lost my job as a teacher’s aide, Mia lost her job as a social worker. We both had kids at home doing virtual learning. My head was spinning. My kids weren’t used to being at home. I had to be a teacher, a doctor, and a social worker. I had to be everything for my kids.”
Deal is confined to a wheelchair. During the pandemic she was diagnosed with lymphedema (build-up of fluids in soft body tissues)and neuropathy (damage to the nerves). Still, Deal said she’s perfectly suited to speak up for voiceless parents about their educational concerns. One of her biggest fights, she said, stems from the fact that mental health services for children do not cater to “black and brown” communities.
“A lot of these programs are not accessible for black folk from North St. Louis. And, if you don’t have access to the Internet, you may know nothing about these programs.
“Decisions about what’s right for the community are made without the community’s input,” Deal added. “I live smack dab in 63106, the hot zone. I’ve been an activist for more than 20 years. I’m that black girl with a loud voice. I’ve never been afraid to go toe-to-toe with elected or educational officials. I’m that one who’s always trying to make sure those parents and children have a voice at the table.”
Deal said one part of Village of Moms’ post-COVID mission is to convince more grass-roots organizations to collaborate with larger agencies for maximum impact.
“We cannot continue to operate in silos, we cannot. All these big-name organizations with all these big grants and money, will not partner with mom & pop organizations that operate on a grassroots level. They have no relationship with the community. If we work in partnership the resources won’t be one-sided.
Because let’s be real; it’s going to take a village to serve our kids.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.
