#DFGives: Let’s Talk, Dreamforce! Volunteer to Support Early Math and Language Development

By Kara Dukakis, Director of Too Small to Fail

Too Small to Fail and Dreamforce are joining forces to bring early learning opportunities to thousands of families in Oakland. Join us on Wednesday, September 16 from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. at the Dreampark, to assemble tote bags filled with materials to help parents and caregivers support their children’s early brain development, including a new focus on early math concepts.

Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of the Clinton Foundation and The Opportunity Institute, aims to help parents, communities and businesses take meaningful actions to improve the health and well-being of children ages zero to five, so that more of America’s children are prepared to succeed in the 21st century.

Last year, we launched “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing,” an innovative community-based campaign that partners with trusted messengers to provide parents and caregivers with the information they need to turn ordinary moments and everyday routines into opportunities to boost their child’s language and brain development. This year, the campaign has expanded to include early math and language development.

Research has found that a strong understanding of early math concepts predicts both a child’s future math and literacy skills, and that the roots of early math skills begin developing from birth, through a young child’s everyday play and interactions with parents and caregivers.

Thousands of the totebags for Oakland families assembled at Dreamforce will contain new tools designed to encourage parents to engage children in everyday math conversations, such as finding shapes in the grocery store and counting steps going into a building.

The Salesforce.org provided generous funding for the totebags and they will be distributed to families through the primary care clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. In addition, through our Oakland community-wide effort, the campaign will reach families outside of the hospital through librarians, home visitors, pediatricians in community clinics, child care providers, and more.

This is the second year that we have assembled bags at Dreamforce, but this partnership is far more than one day a year. Over the course of the past year, members of the Salesforce community assembled more than 3,000 additional bags at Salesforce.org volunteer events to distribute to families in Oakland.

We are thrilled to be a part of this year’s conference again and we are so excited to meet the thousands of Dreamforce attendees who will help us assemble these bags to help prepare Oakland kids for success in school and in life.

Learn more about Too Small to Fail and the Talking is Teaching campaign at toosmall.org and talkingisteaching.org and Twitter @2SmalltoFail.