Sesame Street in Communities

Porter-Leath Teacher Excellence Program

Rocio Galarza, AVP US Social Impact, leading a SSIC Family Workshop

Cookie Monster at Porter-Leath Toy Truck

Sean Lee (President, Porter-Leath), Kelley Nichols (VP of Teacher Excellence at Porter-Leath), Rob Hughes (President of Development at Porter-Leath)

Sesame Art with Mommy

Sean Lee (President, Porter-Leath)

"Elmo! Can I touch your nose?”

Porter-Leath Toy Truck

Learning with SSIC

SSIC Parent Workshop

Porter-Leath is the oldest child-serving agency in the State of Tennessee, founded in 1850. For over 160 years, Porter-Leath has been the primary resource for Memphis’ at-risk children and families.  By focusing on the essential building blocks of healthy development, Porter-Leath not only gives them access to the tools they need, but also a sense of hope.  Porter-Leath helps build stronger children, stronger families and a stronger Memphis through its mission of empowering children and families to achieve a healthy, optimal and independent lifestyle.  Porter-Leath serves over 50,000 children and families through six program focus areas each year. The programs include Preschool, Connections, Cornerstone, Generations, Books from Birth, and Teacher Excellence Program.

Porter-Leath is embedding and integrating SSIC into a collaborative systems approach within Porter-Leath by providing professional development opportunities to staff, utilizing SSIC resources to fill in gaps related to Early Head Start/Parent Engagement, and bringing awareness of the SSIC resources to the larger community by:

• Training Porter-Leath staff on how to use the SSIC resources.
• Embedding SSIC into elements of five programs: Cornerstone, Teacher Excellence Program, Books from Birth, Connections, and Preschool.
• Leveraging the SSIC brand and partnership to raise awareness of the tools and resources that SSIC offers across Porter-Leath and the Memphis community.
• Working with the SSIC research team to identify ways in which impact data can be collected from the SSIC integration into its programs.