FEEDING HUNGRY MINDS

In an effort to "feed hungry minds", Family-to-Family has launched an initiative that will bring much needed literacy support to our sponsored communities.

Working with LitLife, a national organization dedicated to literacy education, we are eager to nourish and empower parents/caregivers and children to create and "publish" their very own original works.

We are seeking targeted donations that will enable us to bring Litlife’s Family Story Power Project, an effective and beautifully received program used in Yonkers, N.Y., to the children and families in our communities. Read about The Family Story Power Project below, and for more information or to donate, please contact us at famtofamily@aol.com.

The Family Story Power Project
Changing Lives by Nurturing and Supporting Family Literacy

Now, more than ever, our children and families need to be literate and active citizens to participate and thrive in these challenging and changing times. In 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts completed a study that pointed to two pivotal factors ensuring lifelong literacy: children must have time to read and children must have access to books. With that in mind, LitLife has created the Family Story Power Project to bring the joy of the written word and shared stories to families who may not have the necessary resources to develop and strengthen their literacy skills.

WHAT IS THE FAMILY STORY PROJECT?
This project, a six-week program designed for parents or caregivers and their second and third grade children provides the opportunity for families to come together to craft and read stories in a safe and supportive environment. It has been piloted successfully in community centers, churches, libraries, schools and shelters. The recommended number of participants is between 8 and 12 families per site, and they are recruited by members of the community.. Attendees have been fathers, mothers, grandparents, aunts or uncles who commit to attending the program for an hour and a half, once a week for six weeks. Each site provides transportation vouchers if needed, babysitters for siblings, and a warm meal so that families are free to focus on writing and reading together, nourished in all ways.

At each site, there are usually two facilitators: one who is employed by or affiliated with the site and another who is a volunteer from within the community or a neighboring community. Facilitators receive extensive training, led by a team leader from the nationally recognized literacy organization LitLife. At the training, they receive a bound and scripted curriculum for each of the sessions. Additionally, the LitLife team leader provides on-site support and coaching as necessary or requested. Several facilitators described their experiences at the end of the program.

WHAT HAPPENS AT EACH SESSION?
As the sessions begin, participants gather to sing a welcoming song that builds community. Baskets of books, crayons, markers and pencils are laid out, ready for use at the appropriate times. Facilitators read aloud from carefully chosen, colorful and language-rich texts. During this time, the facilitator shows the illustrations and models ways to read aloud and different kinds of questions parents might ask that encourage thinking and connections to text. After the read aloud, families participate in fun, quick and engaging word games designed to build vocabulary and teach ways to decode and pronounce words. There are weekly poems about reading for all to enjoy and time for families to read together, choosing from a collection of gently used picture books. Each week, the families can pick several books from this collection to take home and read together throughout the week. After the time spent reading, families begin to write and draw together on composition sheets. The facilitators distribute composition sheets that focus on the theme of reading. Using a digital publishing program called RealeBooks and the stories that the families have written or drawn, the facilitators create beautiful books for each family to take home at the end of the program. Additionally in the final celebratory session, each family receives a certificate of participation and new books to launch or increase their home libraries.

WHY IS THIS PROGRAM VALUABLE?
The Family Story Power Project has had an enormous impact on the communities it serves. The Project has strengthened bonds between family members, allowed parents and caregivers to acknowledge and address their own reading struggles and yet still convey to their children the importance of reading and writing. For example, at a local community center, a grandfather brought his granddaughter each week. He struggled immensely with reading and writing, but toward the end of the program, during the read aloud, he made a text to life connection for the first time and he and his granddaughter were deeply proud of this small but important step. A mother glowed when her son enthusiastically talked about a book he had read in great detail; an aunt listened as her niece read her a story; a father and his daughter bent their heads together as they illustrated their own book. The reading and writing journeys have impacted not only the children who now see their parents and caregivers as mentors but also the adults themselves. Children are reading more between sessions and talking about books in ways they never did before. The Project has given children and their families the tools to read and write at home and as a result, families are engaging with texts at home and after school in ways they never did before. And most importantly, the families became inspired to see themselves as readers, writers, and storytellers.

HOW CAN I BECOME INVOLVED?
For more information on how to bring The Family Story Power Project to a Family-to-Family community, please contact Pam Koner at famtofamily@aol.com.

To learn more about family literacy go to PamAllyn.ning.com. For more information on the creative and life-changing programs of LitLife, please visit LitLifeInfo.com
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