Hawkins named Providence Talks executive director

COURTNEY HAWKINS has been appointed executive director of Providence Talks. / COURTESY MAYOR'S OFFICE
COURTNEY HAWKINS has been appointed executive director of Providence Talks. / COURTESY MAYOR'S OFFICE

PROVIDENCE – Courtney Hawkins has been named executive director of Providence Talks, an early childhood intervention program for children entering kindergarten, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza announced.

According to a news release from the mayor’s office, Providence Talks combines new technology with existing home visitation services to empower parents and caretakers with tools and coaching necessary to ensure their child enters kindergarten ready to achieve.

“We are excited to have Courtney Hawkins on board as she brings the right combination of experience, skills and smarts to build on the success of the pilot program. I look forward to working with her to take Providence Talks citywide, so more of our children start school ready to learn,” Elorza said in a statement.
Hawkins, a Rhode Island native, served as senior vice president at FEGS Health & Human Services, a New York City-based human services agency, where she oversaw programs serving more than 25,000 people annually in areas of youth development, education, foster care, welfare to work, workforce development and immigration assistance.
“Providence Talks’ early intervention approach when taken to scale has the potential to be a real difference-maker in improving outcomes for low income children, not only in Providence, but throughout the nation. It is a tremendous opportunity to be able to work on this important, innovative program and an added bonus to be able to do so in my home state,” Hawkins said.
The Providence Talks program utilizes a ‘talk pedometer’ supplied by LENA Foundation to count the number of words and conversational interactions children experience throughout the day. Trained home visitors use this technology, along with complementary qualitative measures, to give parents practical tips about how to do more reading and talking to their children, engage their children in more actual conversations and use the power of positive reinforcement.
The program aims to close the word gap, in which children from low-income families hear many fewer words in their critical early years than children from high-income families. The program has completed a pilot and will be implemented across the city in the fall.
Providence was the grand prize winner of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ inaugural Mayors Challenge and received $5 million to implement Providence Talks.
The Mayors Challenge is an ideas competition that encourages cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life with the potential to spread to other cities.

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