BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION’S MAINE FAMILY LITERACY INITIATIVE AWARDS $385,000 IN NEW GRANTS

(Biddeford, ME) – The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy’s Maine Family Literacy Initiative (MEFLI) has awarded a total of $385,000 to 17 communities in Maine. Maine Family Literacy Initiative funds are used to support parents and children as they improve their reading, writing and comprehension and share the bond that reading together creates. At a special ceremony today at the J. Richard Martin Community Center in Biddeford, ME, representatives from each program accepted their grant awards from Mrs. Bush. Mrs. Bush was joined by First Lady Ann LePage at the celebration.

"The abilities to read, write and comprehend empower people to create brighter and more prosperous futures for themselves, their families and their communities," said Mrs. Bush.  "The Foundation thinks it is important this year in hard times to volunteer more, give more money, and use our resources to support family literacy programs."

Ten family literacy grants of $25,000 each have been awarded this year on a competitive basis from applications submitted by libraries, adult education programs, and public schools across the state. An additional 2 planning grants of $5,000 each will help communities develop the partnerships and resources needed to implement a family literacy program. 

Five "Lighthouse Model Programs" grants of $25,000 have also been awarded to well-established, model family literacy programs with significant outreach activities to support the promotion and expansion of family literacy services in Maine. Awardees are selected based on their ability to demonstrate experience and success in providing family literacy programming, the creativity of their outreach activities, and the diversity of their partnerships and target audiences.

Since 1996, The Maine Family Literacy Initiative has awarded 243 grants totaling $4,341,991. To learn more, visit www.mainefamilyliteracy.com 

This year's Family Literacy Grants are:

Auburn School Department: The School Comes to You grant will create a virtual Pre-K and family literacy program to bring the school into the homes of families who need support and assistance in reaching their goals through the use of i-pads, computers and DVDs. School Comes to You is an Auburn School Department project in collaboration with Advocates for Children, Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care, Auburn Public Library and Auburn Adult Ed.

Freeport Community Services: The Greater Freeport Family Literacy grant brings together the Freeport Housing Trust, Freeport Community Services, Freeport Child Care Services, Freeport Rotary, Regional School Unit (RSU) 5 Recreation and Community Education and RSU 5 Morse School to focus on comprehensive family literacy programming for low income and English Language Learner (ELL) families living in public housing.

Gorham Adult Education: Gorham Literacy Outreach Workshop (GLOW) brings Gorham Adult Education, Baxter Memorial Library and Head Start together to foster increased educational levels for parents and strong literacy skills among children. Parents will be engaged in planning literacy activities so they will feel more connected to their community and empowered.

Moosehead Region Literacy Volunteers: The Healthy L.I.F.E. in Greenville brings the community together to focus on health literacy through nutrition education and family meal planning, community outreach, child safety, adult education, library services and intergenerational programming.

Noble Adult Education: Expanding Capacity for Intergenerational Learning expands the partnership among the Martha Sawyer Community Library, Hanson School and Noble Adult Education to provide a variety of learning opportunities for families in the previously underserved are of Lebanon.

Regional School Unit (RSU) 1 Lower Kennebec Region: SAIL into Literacy will bring the literacy programming of RSU 1 Adult Education program, Family Focus (Pre-K), RSU 1 elementary schools, Tri-County Literacy Volunteers and Bath Regional Career and Technology Center into a comprehensive family literacy program. High school students studying early childhood at Bath Regional Career and Technical Center will work with their teachers to provide innovative early literacy activities for the family literacy children as part of their high school course work.

Regional School Unit (RSU) 13 Adult And Community Education: The Know and Grow program is a partnership between RSU 13 Adult Education and Literacy Volunteers of Mid-Coast Maine that seeks to expand a thriving adult literacy program to include intergenerational learning in the areas of health, technology and literacy. The project will focus on parental literacy as well as key developmental stages of early childhood. Know and Grow will combine home- and community-based activities to assist adults in earning a credential while helping transition youth to school and beyond.

Regional School Unit (RSU) 24 :Families at Work will utilize Family Literacy Mentors to develop and implement family action plans that empower families to access existing early literacy and adult education services, provide opportunities for families to learn together and create a cohort group to encourage family persistence.

Regional School Unit (RSU) 54 Adult And Community Education: The Families Learning Together is a partnership among the Maine Department of Health and Human Services ASPIRE program, RSU 54/MSAD 54 Adult Education and Kennebec Valley Community Action Program (KVCAP) which integrates children’s readiness for school with adult literacy development to create a pathway to family literacy and lifelong learning.

York School Department: The Together is Better program will expand its focus to include financial literacy, technology training, nutrition education, career pathways and early childhood and adult literacy services into a comprehensive family literacy program. Partners include: the York Public Library, the Museums of Old York, the Kittery/York Head Start Program, Caring Unlimited, and the Eat Well Nutrition Education program of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

This year's Planning Grants are:

University of Maine Cooperative Extension - Parents Are Teachers Too: The Parents and Children Together planning grant will explore the development of a literacy program with an emphasis on families developing and enhancing their own literacy skills and having opportunities to engage in literacy building skills with their children.

Learning Works: The Learning Works Family Literacy Initiative planning grant will enable the design of a community-based family literacy program at Riverton School in Portland to serve impoverished parents with young children, by engaging agencies, parents, institutional leaders, reading experts and other stakeholders.

The Community School: The Passages Program of the Community School is a home-based high school diploma program for teen parents, aged 14-20, residing in Knox, Lincoln, Waldo, and Washington counties. The Passages Program provides individualized instruction to students in their homes, thereby eliminating student need to secure daily childcare and transportation to attend school. Students and teachers form strong relationships based on mutual learning and respect for students’ strengths, needs and their desire to be the best parents they can be. Students work at their own pace to meet 24 core skill requirements in Academics, Parenting, Life Skills, including math science, social studies, English language, budgeting nutrition, family literacy, child development and more. Both parents and their young children participate in this program, which includes strong adult, early and intergenerational family literacy components. For more information, contact Martha Kempe at Martha.thecommunityschool@gmail.com or 207-236-8404 x 208.

Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) # 27: The Center and Home-based Instructional Program for Parents and Youth (CHIPPY) program works to improve the educational and workforce development opportunities of needy families in the St John Valley region of northern Maine through the integrated delivery of pre-literacy and literacy services for children, literacy for adults, intergenerational activities and parenting education. Through four days a week of center-based programming and regular home visits by a teaching team, children acquire the literacy and social skills necessary for school readiness and success, while adults learn valuable literacy, academic, parenting, life, workforce development, career and college ready skills. For more information, contact Peter Caron at petercaron@sad27.org or call 207-834-3536.

Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) #61/72: Western Maine Family Literacy provides adult education, early childhood literacy, intergenerational literacy, parenting education, career exploration and job training to families through a combination of center-and home-based services. They provide free adult education and a licensed childcare center at the Crooked River Adult Education Center, as well as programming at Fryeburg Head Start, Brownville Public Library, and Molly Ockett Middle School. Services are also provided at the libraries in Bridgton, Sebago, Denmark, Fryeburg and Lovell as requested. For more information, contact Kristia Merriam at kristia9@yahoo.com or call 207- 627-4291.

Regional School Unit # 3 Adult Education: Students and Parents in Cooperative Education (SPICE) Family Literacy Program has always been a home-based program serving most in need families in a 440 square mile, 11 town district in western Waldo County. The program sends adult education and early childhood instructors into the homes using laptops, computer-assisted curricula and Internet to alleviate the barriers of child care and transportation. In 2005, the SPICE Program was recognized as an Effective Program and listed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Lifelong Learning database. In 2010, the SPICE program created a virtual school with assistance from a NASA engineer and with help from England and Mexico. Today that virtual school is helping families reach their educational goals and overcoming the issues of rural isolation. For more information, contact Pat Hughes at phughes@rsu3.org or call 207-568-3426.

Sanford Community Adult Education - FAMILIES READ: FAMILIES READ operates on Sanford Community Adult Education’s academic campus in Springvale. Family literacy participants attend academic classes at the Anderson Learning Center and participate in intergenerational time, playgroups, and support groups at the school’s childcare center, First Steps. Families READ pays 100% of the parent’s education and family support costs, including payment for books, classes, childcare (at First Steps) and transportation to classes and Families READ playgroups. In addition, if a parent graduates from SCAE while in the Families READ program, he or she continues to receive free childcare while pursuing the next step in his or her education. For more information, contact Allen Lampert at alampert@sanford.org or Leah Caverno at lcaverno@sanford.org or call 207-490-5145.