Central Carolina Community Foundation Awards $377,650 to Benefit Literacy Improvement Throughout the Midlands
June 6, 2013
COLUMBIA, SC – June 6, 2013 – Central Carolina Community Foundation recently awarded Community Impact Grants totaling $377,650 to seven nonprofit organizations serving the Midlands. The grants reach out to 10 of the 11 counties within the Foundation’s footprint and, collectively, could reach more than an estimated 17,000 children through literacy programs.
As we enter into the second of a three year commitment toward literacy improvement across the Midlands, Central Carolina Community Foundation is pleased to award funding to a variety of evidence-based programs and innovative twists on collaboration and partnerships, said JoAnn Turnquist, President and CEO of the Foundation. These awards include hard-to-reach rural populations through home visiting, integrating early childhood literacy into pediatric practices, transforming communities into those that are ready for school and continuing the overwhelming success of the Midlands Reading Consortium.
The combined $377,650 in funding leaves just over $200,000 remaining in the Foundation’s three-year, $1 million commitment toward literacy.
One Columbia-area grantee is St. Lawrence Place, which received $50,000 for an after-school program and Summer Camp. These programs serve homeless children ages 4-11 living at St. Lawrence Place, the Family Shelter, and the surrounding impoverished community. All children participate in educational and cultural field trips and on-site activities, including an emphasis on literacy and school success.
With the help of CCCF, our children will be given the support they need to grow academically during the summer, instead of falling back, said Lila Anna Sauls, Executive Director of St. Lawrence Place. Through a wide variety of field trips, activities and events, and with the help of committed community volunteers, our children will learn reading can actually be fun.
Other 2013 Community Impact Grants recipients include:
USC Arnold School of Public Health/College of Mass Communications & Information Studies: $95,000 for Get Ready to Read with Cocky. This program combines the successful Arnold School of Public Health pre-literacy program, Get Ready to Read!, with a powerful literacy initiative that resides within the USC School of Library and Information Science, Cocky’s Reading Express. The collaboration between the two colleges aims to eradicate illiteracy through the Midlands of South Carolina by closing the literacy gap for at-risk children when it is most needed, before they start school. The program takes a holistic approach that incorporates parental and caregiver training and education, which reinforces and sustains the children’s progress. It also offers free screening for speech and hearing conditions that can impede child’s ability to read and learn.
Palmetto Project: $49,000 for My First Books in the Midlands. My First Books in the Midlands is an early childhood literacy initiative to increase the number of SC children entering kindergarten ready to learn. The cornerstone of the project will be the book distribution program of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
Reach Out and Read: $65,000 for School Readiness Initiative. Reach Out and Read seeks to book end counties in the Foundation’s service area, launching a deep and systematic look that will expand its impact from 8,000 children to 14,000-16,000 children, and will focus on quality implementation of the Reach Out and Read evidence-based program model.
Save The Children: $56,000 for Literacy and Pre-Literacy programs in Orangeburg County. Funding will enable the increase of school readiness and children reading at grade level in two rural areas of Orangeburg County. The program, Early Steps to School Success, supports early childhood home visitation, school readiness, and in-school and afterschool supplemental literacy programs at Bethune-Bowman Elementary and Dover Elementary Schools.
Richland Library: $21,650 for The Whole Family: Reading Well, Being Well Together. To improve school readiness for preschool children and families hindered by poverty, Richland Library proposes an integrated system of care to mobilize and engage community resources to offer literacy and wellness instruction, activities, books and resources to the two primary influences of school readiness: parents/caregivers and preschool teachers in the communities of Eau Claire, Eastover and Northeast Columbia.
United Way of the Midlands: $41,000 for the Ready, Read, Succeed Initiative. This program develops at-risk children’s literacy by ensuring they are ready to learn when they enter a public school setting, reading at grade level by third grade and succeeding upon their transition to middle school. With CCCF second year funds, UWM will fully implement a model in the current school districts by incorporating lessons learned from the MRC evaluation and Family Engagement Study both conducted by USC, implement Count Down to Kindergarten Summer Home Visitations, support one childcare center in pursuing NAEYC accreditation and match 50 students with volunteer tutors.
About Central Carolina Community Foundation
Central Carolina Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization serving 11 counties in the Midlands by helping charitable individuals and businesses meet the needs of our community. For more information, visit their website at www.yourfoundation.org or www.facebook.com/CentralCarolinaCommunityFoundation.
