Kellogg Announces $390,000 Springfield Grant for Early Literacy
For Immediate Release
Contact: Sally Fuller
RS4G/Cherish Every Child
(413) 734-8336
SFuller@Davisfdn.org
Springfield— Representatives of the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, the Springfield Housing Authority (SHA) and other officials today launched the early literacy initiative Talk/Read/Succeed! with the help of a $390,000 W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant targeting 200 families in Springfield Housing Authority communities.
The grant will allow the initiative to work with families of very young children in the John L. Sullivan and John I. Robinson public housing complexes, connecting them with intensive resources to develop the early literacy skills needed to improve children’s readiness for learning in the public school system. The goal is to improve literacy development from the time of birth through 4th grade by seamlessly wrapping support and educational services for participating families.
The program is closely aligned with the Davis Foundation’s Read! Reading Success by 4th Grade initiative and will include a component of home visits by Springfield public school teachers, another partner in the Talk/Read/Succeed! program.
Other partners in the initiative introduced at the launch include Pioneer Valley United Way, Hampden County Regional Employment Board, the Springfield Education Association, Springfield Public Schools Principals Tom O’Brien (Boland School) and Rhonda Stowell-Lewis (Dorman School), and Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative.
The Talk/Read/Succeed! project team includes Lynne Cimino, Outreach Coordinator, Anna Grajales, Springfield Housing Authority Program Coordinator, Maura Geary, Program Manager who also oversees literacy programs for the Hampden County Regional Employment Board (REB), and Rosemary Hernandez, Program Manager who will also work out of the REB.
Established in 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern Africa. Further information is available on the Foundation’s website at www.wkkf.org.
