Barbara Bush Foundation’s Maine Family Literacy Initiative Awards New Grants Totaling $445K

Business Wire, June 22, 2009

BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Mrs. Barbara Bush announced today that the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy’s Maine Family Literacy Initiative (MEFLI) has awarded $445,000 supporting family literacy programs in 21 Maine communities. 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. Grants will support programs improving the literacy skills of parents and their children while fostering family learning at home.

“The abilities to read, write and comprehend enable people to create brighter and more prosperous futures for themselves, their families and their communities,” said Mrs. Bush. “The staff and volunteers with the MEFLI programs are making a wonderful difference in many lives, and I am grateful for their work to make Maine a more literate state.”

Twelve grants of $25,000 each were awarded this year from applications submitted by libraries, community-based organizations, colleges, adult education and public schools across the state. Programs receiving support provide family literacy services including adult and early childhood instruction, and time for parents and children to read together. An additional four planning grants of $5,000 each will help communities develop the partnerships and resources needed to implement a family literacy program in 2010.

Five “Lighthouse Grants” of $25,000 each have also been awarded. Recipients are well-established, model family literacy programs that have proposed outreach activities to support the promotion and expansion of family literacy services in Maine. Applicants were 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 over 200 grants totaling more than $3.5 million. Founded by Barbara Bush in 1989, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy supports the development and expansion of family literacy programs -- in settings where parents and children read and learn together -- across the United States. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis to nonprofit organizations, correctional institutions, homeless shelters, schools and school districts, libraries and community- and faith-based agencies. Over the past 20 years, the Foundation has awarded more than $33 million to 773 family literacy programs in 50 states including the nation's capital. The Foundation is a fund of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region in Washington, DC. To learn more, visit www.barbarabushfoundation.com.

The 2009-2010 Maine Family Literacy Initiative Grantees are as follows (alphabetical order by city):

I. PLANNING GRANTS ($5,000 each)

BathRegional School Unit #1To support a partnership between RSU 1 Adult Education and Head Start. The two will plan for programming that allows parents to attend adult learning opportunities while their children attend the Early Learning Center.

HampdenMaine School Administration District #22To support the planning of a family literacy program partnership between The Leroy Smith School and Head Start.

Presque IsleMark and Emily Turner Memorial Public LibraryTo support the planning of a family literacy program by analyzing data from a variety of sources to determine target audience and potential partners.

South PortlandSouth Portland School DepartmentTo support a planning grant for The South Portland School Department as it examines ways in which to increase family engagement and literacy skills by building and broadening community partnerships.

II. FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM GRANTS ($25,000 each)

AshlandMaine School Administration District #32To support Partners in Literacy, a joint project of two neighboring school districts (MSAD #32 and #45) and Aroostook County Community Action designed to provide unwed mothers and single parents and their children opportunities to improve the literacy skills through both home-based and center-based programming.

BelfastBroadreach Family and Community ServicesTo support Project LIFE, which will build on existing partnerships to integrate and strengthen current programs and launch a family literacy program, increasing learning success for community’s most in need families.

BridgtonMaine School Administration District #61To support the Western Maine Family Literacy Program, which builds upon services provided to low-income families and expands the successful Pequawket Family Literacy Program to Bridgton, Sebago, Casco, and Naples, ME.