Early in his first term, Mayor Peyton implemented RALLY Jacksonville!, a communitywide early literacy initiative. RALLY Jacksonville! reaches out to local children one year before they enter kindergarten and provides them with the pre-literacy skills they need to read and succeed when they enter school.
To date, RALLY!'s approach is successfully:
Making literacy and reading core values through:
The Mayor's Book Club Members, who are pre-kindergarteners, receive a backpack filled with fun reading tools and the first book in a series that will be mailed to them each month. The Book Club is more than 24,000-members-strong, reaching approximately 67 percent of the program's target population.
RALLY!'s Million Book Giveaway The RALLY Book Drive! is collecting and distributing one million books to Jacksonville's children. To date, more than 784,000 books have been distributed.
RALLY Readers! The RALLY Readers! program matches a group or organization to a neighborhood childcare center. The team of volunteers numbers approximately 200 and regularly reads and builds relationships with the children, the center and the community.
Shifting childcare centers from providing custodial care to offering quality early education to prepare children for school, including:
The Quality Rating system for preschool programs – a consumer-oriented measurement tool to help parents decide which childcare facility best meets their needs. It takes into account director and teacher development, literacy rich learning environments and parent involvement.
The Career Ladder for Preschool Practitioners – a program aimed at increasing and improving the training available to improve and prepare the qualifications of preschool teachers and directors.
RALLY! PEER Teams, which include early literacy coaches and preschool experts who are working with 200 childcare centers and reaching nearly 11,000 low-income children.
Establishing neighborhood literacy demonstration zones The mayor has identified six demonstration zones that will provide the opportunity to pilot best practices for communities to produce children who are ready to learn and ready to read. Demonstration zones are located at the Don Brewer Early Learning and Professional Development Center in east Jacksonville and at S.P. Livingston Elementary School. More are under development.
baby RALLY! In January 2007, Mayor Peyton launched baby RALLY!, an expansion of his early literacy program that better prepares children for school from birth. In a partnership with six area hospitals, each child born in 2007 will receive a kit containing two age-appropriate books, a bib, a burp cloth, a sippy cup, a "key to the city" toy, a Jacksonville Public Library card application, helpful information for parents and a musical compact disc created by local musical director Deborah J. McDuffie and the Paxon High School Honors chorale.
More information about RALLY Jacksonville! is available on the Jacksonville Children's Commission section of this Web site.
Early in his first term, Mayor Peyton implemented RALLY Jacksonville!, a communitywide early literacy initiative. RALLY Jacksonville! reaches out to local children one year before they enter kindergarten and provides them with the pre-literacy skills they need to read and succeed when they enter school. 
Members, who are pre-kindergarteners, receive a backpack filled with fun reading tools and the first book in a series that will be mailed to them each month. The Book Club is more than 24,000-members-strong, reaching approximately 67 percent of the program's target population.
Shifting childcare centers from providing custodial care to offering quality early education to prepare children for school, including:
In January 2007, Mayor Peyton launched baby RALLY!, an expansion of his early literacy program that better prepares children for school from birth. In a partnership with six area hospitals, each child born in 2007 will receive a kit containing two age-appropriate books, a bib, a burp cloth, a sippy cup, a "key to the city" toy, a Jacksonville Public Library card application, helpful information for parents and a musical compact disc created by local musical director Deborah J. McDuffie and the Paxon High School Honors chorale.