Deadline: 01-Sep-21
The Children’s Literacy Foundation is seeking applications for its At-Risk Children Program to provide inspiring literacy activities, support, and new, high-quality books to children from low-income families and to other children who are at risk of growing up with low literacy skills.
At each event, a CLiF presenter talks with children about the joys of reading and gives a fun and interactive storytelling presentation. After the presentation, each child chooses two brand-new books to keep.
They provide an onsite library to each organization so children have even more access to high-quality books. They also offer a parent seminar sharing the importance of reading with children and modeling storytelling strategies to support caregivers who may not have strong literacy skills or may not be fluent English speakers.
Their Partnering Organizations Include:
- Shelters and low-income housing: These organizations serve children who often lack access to books in their daily lives. They also provide parent seminars to describe ways to make reading aloud with children easy and fun, even if parents aren’t strong readers themselves.
- Community centers and childcare centers: They work with organizations and providers that support low-income families, foster children, teenage parents, refugees, and other at-risk populations.
- Camp Exclamation Point (CAMP!): They serve children of migrant workers in New Hampshire and Vermont through their partnership with this nonprofit institution that offers a free, weeklong camp for 110 children of local migrant families.
- ELL classrooms: Children of refugees who have relocated to New Hampshire and Vermont from Somalia, Burma, Sudan, Bosnia, Vietnam, and many other countries often face challenges in reading English. Their program in ELL classrooms supports refugees and their parents and increases English-language books in the home.
Eligibility Criteria
An organization, program, or facility must meet these requirements to apply for CLiF’s At-Risk Children sponsorship:
- Be a social service provider, school-based program, or community organization in Vermont or New Hampshire.
- Serve children from birth to age 12 (or within that range).
- At least 35% of the children served must qualify for free or reduced lunch, reduced program tuition, or a scholarship.
- Be able to gather at least 30 children for a storytelling event (events may be virtual or outdoors).
For more information, visit https://clifonline.org/literacy-programs/at-risk-children/