Our Early Building Blocks
Established Since 2010
For over ten years, the Foundation has been a vehicle to ensure our younger generation is prepared to meet the 21st century learning, and innovation outcomes known as the 4CS: Communication, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Creativity.
Multidisciplinary Approach
The Foundation used a multi-disciplinary strategy to work in schools and communities and drew upon community building, parent involvement, youth development, and partnership development strategies to execute programs and services.
Over the years, the Foundation has transformed classrooms into stimulating learning environments through our R2R - Read to Rise programs using student-centered teaching strategies with high parent involvement participation, strong community support and university partnerships.
Created Stimulating Classroom Learning Environments
We have placed books in the hands of children through building accessible classroom libraries, facilitating school to home book exchange and implementing action-focused family - community engagement activities.
With support of trained teachers, university students alongside reading ambassadors, and children book authors, we have made books come alive. Collaboratively, they have conducted interactive reading in classrooms, guided student art and literature classroom activities and participated in R2R family and community literacy programs.
Encouraged Student Volunteerism & Community Engagement
The Bridge Foundation requested the participation of The University of the West Indies, Department of Creative and Festival Arts (UWI-DCFA) to join our literacy efforts to enhance artistic efforts in the classroom and promote student volunteerism within T & T communities.
In response, for over five years, UWI-DCFA professors have volunteered themselves and their student’s time in classrooms, and jointly created the Public Art Project with the Bridge Foundation. The Project used indigenous materials from the community collected by students, and artistically created murals filled with visual student stories placed throughout school yards, and playgrounds.
Public Art Projects later evolved from artistic murals to the development of children books for student stories to come alive in in classrooms.
Children’s book creation is now an institutional hallmark within the R2R program.
UWI-DCFA students portfolio’s have been enhanced and they learned the importance of artistic community-school engagement and volunteerism.
Written by University of West Indies Department of Creative and Festival Arts (UWI-DCFA) students in collaboration with primary school students participating in our Read to Rise (R2R) programs.
Children’s Books
With the quest to sustain the shelf life of students ideas and experiences, the creation of children’s books became the vehicle to memorialize their experiences.
Our R2R books reflect children’s dreams, vivid imaginations, and their peculiar and colorful circumstances. Our children’s books, known as R2R books were created through the lens of children who expressed a renewed sense of pride about their experiences, family life and their community, and with the hope of becoming illustrators and authors.
During the school year, student stories and experiences were shared during read aloud, storytelling time and classroom discussions.
See other book examples. Other books are available on-line and will be accessible through this website soon.
Eye on the Environment
Our commitment to environmental sustainability grew over the years through our R2R Green Space environmental literacy program. This program introduced environmental awareness and advocacy curricula to the youngest of our population including their families.
The Green Space program built upon the R2R strategy and created environmentally focused children’s books to promote UN sustainable development goals. With Bridge Foundation’s environmental sustainable consultants, university students studying art and design were taught the basic’s of environmental bio-diversity and ways to protect environment to create environmental children books and met with students and their parents to hear their stories and solutions to protect their community environmental assets.
Simultaneous environmental asset mapping helped students and their parents discover the strengths and environmental resources of their communities and to proposed “living green” solutions.
Community Platform
We created a community platform for parents to share community traditions that held values of conversation and lessons of environmental responsibility.
Environmental signs were created and placed strategically in schools for community view. Advocacy placards were designed by students for environmental school demonstration walks and parent environmental lessons and commitments were shared through theatrical performances by secondary students who listened to their stories and solutions. Performances motivated community dialogue and action.
Knowledge Building for Environmental Protection
In previous years, Bridge Foundation facilitated the first Caribbean Knowledge Fair vehicle for UNDP GEF SGP to share lessons and exhibit best practices among GEF UNDP grantees committed to environmental protection and conservation. The knowledge fair heightened the importance of knowledge transfer to formulate strategies for sustainable environmental action.
Mentorship
Engaging university students in the importance of Creative Mentorship to promote reading, and literacy has propelled the Foundation to expand the mentorship boundaries beyond schools to other youth serving organizations.
We began by introducing a Step Up Youth mentorship to Trinidad and Tobago Police Services (TTPS) to enhance police community engagement with youth. Police officers interface daily with the most vulnerable youth and require best practice strategies for youth engagement. The Foundation also uses Mentor 360 programme to engage police youth clubs to embark on gender - focused mentorship strategies to address at risk young boys and girls. See our Men as Mentors programme and other mentorship programs.
International Global Literacy Promotion- Jumpstart’s Read for the Record
Each year, Bridge Foundation delivers books to over 70+ schools and promotes literacy on Read for the Record (RFR) day. Each year, student reading participation exceeds 10,000 in one day. Weeks prior to RFR day, and on RFR day, the foundation staff with local authors & celebrities visit schools to spread the importance of reading.
