Parents as Teachers (PAT) is an evidence-based home visiting program designed to build strong communities, thriving families and children who are healthy, safe and ready to succeed. PAT Services include: Learn more about Parents as Teachers with our one page overview Visit SC Parents as Teachers

Early Intervention & Referral First Steps’ Early Identification and Referral (EI&R) programs serve families with young children with suspected delays in development and coordinates public awareness for BabyNet services, acting as a local portal to connect families to community-based services they may need or desire to ensure the school readiness of their children. Services include: Screenings (developmental, vision, hearing) for children … Continue reading Early Identification & Referral

Childcare Training High-quality child care hinges on high-quality professional development that meets the needs of the local child care workforce. First Steps-sponsored training is certified through the SC Center for Child Care Career Development and includes topics in the areas of nutrition, health and safety, curriculum, child guidance, professional development and program administration. Best practices in training include not only the … Continue reading Child Care Training

Countdown to Kindergarten (CTK) is a summer home visitation model connecting rising kindergartners and their families with their future teachers. The program is designed: to forge strong and lasting home-school relationships, to acquaint children and families with the state and classroom expectations to increase the likelihood of school success, to increase parent involvement in the … Continue reading Countdown to Kindergarten

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth to age five in participating communities within the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write Dolly started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. … Continue reading Imagination Library

Jasper County First Steps is proud to be a Stewart Partner of 14 Little Free Libraries (LFL) around Jasper County! Our vision for sponsoring LFLs is to create literacy-rich environments in unexpected places by placing free book-sharing libraries in public places throughout our county. We would like to thank our generous literacy supporters through whose efforts we are able to … Continue reading Little Free Libraries

>> State Program Permanently established by the SC Read to Succeed Act in 2014, the SC Child Early Reading Development and Education Program (CERDEP) provides full-day four-year-old kindergarten programs in 64 South Carolina school districts.  Enrollment is offered at no cost to eligible children. In addition to the offerings of the state’s public school districts, SC First Steps … Continue reading First Steps 4K