TBLR SPOTLIGHT: Chris Hancock

Meet Chris Hancock!

Chris Hancock is part of the TBLR Steering Committee and the Education Task Force. He is also Vice Chair of Create Little Rock, the young professionals of the Little Rock Regional Chamber. Chris serves on the Little Rock City Beautiful Commission and is Communications Officer of Winrock International.

When asked why he is involved with Think Big Little Rock, he said:

"Think Big Little Rock is a unique opportunity to influence the future of our community for young professionals in a way that benefits our greater community. 

Over the past year, I’ve been developing a policy proposal to increase access to affordable quality PreK. This issue directly affects many young professionals but the benefits of increasing access cascade across our community – from the ability of employers to attract and retain talent, to preventing crime and avoiding future costs of literacy intervention and remediation services.

​Access to PreK is a key indicator for future literacy rates. At first, a child learns to read, then they read to learn. Literacy is the gateway to all other disciplines and lifelong learning. 

We’re fortunate that LRSD has an exceptional PreK program. We need to build capacity so that more families and the broader community can reap the benefits. My proposal is a market-based solution that will gradually build capacity to meet demand and make the program more sustainable. 

Without TBLR, I would not have had the opportunity to think big about PreK or to work with local experts while collaborating with this passionate group of committed community developers."

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