For immediate release May 14, 2008

Media contact: Hope H. Davis 410-869-7153

CCBC awarded grant totaling nearly $25,000 from the Barbara Bush Foundation
Grant funds the CCBC/Head Start ESOL Family Literacy Program

Baltimore, Md. – The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy announced that it has awarded a nearly $25,000 grant to the Community College of Baltimore County to fund the development of the CCBC/Head Start English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Family Literacy Program. This year the Foundation awarded a total of $431,028 to 10 Maryland programs. Ranging in size from $24,853 to $50,000, the 10 winning grant applications were chosen from among a variety of grant proposals from non-profit organizations and public institutions.

The CCBC/Head Start ESOL Family Literacy Program, through a new partnership with the Y of Central Maryland Head Start, will expand its family literacy program to serve an additional 20 immigrant families and their children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old in the southwest area of Baltimore County. The vision of this family literacy model is to build school-community partnerships that help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by integrating early childhood education and adult literacy into a unified family literacy program.

The program provides: parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency; training for the parents on ways to be the primary teacher for their children and to be full partners in their children’s education; age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences; and interactive literacy activities to parents and their children.

CCBC’s Head Start ESOL Family Literacy Program comes under the umbrella of the college’s Center for Adult and Family Literacy. CAFL has provided high-performance, literacy education programs since 1998 that include: Academic Skills Enhancement; English for Speakers of Other Languages; family literacy, GED math and reading skills’ workplace literacy and the External Diploma Program. CAFL projects serve over 3,000 students in an array of literacy programs during fiscal year 2008.

“CCBC’s Center for Adult and Family Literacy has been successfully serving the north, west and east sides of Baltimore County with family literacy programs in partnership with Baltimore County Public School’s Even Start program for the last nine years,” said Charlotte VanLonden, CCBC’s Family Literacy Program Coordinator. “This grant offers a wonderful opportunity for CCBC and Head Start to expand English for Speakers of Other Languages Family Literacy to the southern part of the county where we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of immigrant families with young children.”

Since Barbara Bush launched her foundation in 1989, it has awarded over $30 million to nearly 650 family literacy programs in 48 different states and the District of Columbia. In addition to its national grant program, the Foundation also has four statewide initiatives in Maine, Texas, Florida, and now in Maryland.

“We're confident that these ten programs will make important contributions to the literacy of the families in their communities. All of our work involves the parent or primary caregiver as well as the child, because we believe strongly that the home is the child's first school, and the parent is the child's first and most important teacher," said Doro Bush Koch, Founder of the Maryland Initiative of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy."

Other organizations awarded grants include Crossway Community (Kensington, MD), the Literacy Council of Prince George’s County, MD, Inc. (Hyattsville, MD), YMCA of Metropolitan Washington Youth & Family Services (Silver Spring, MD), the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (Baltimore, MD), the Health, Education, Advocacy, Life, Inc., (Baltimore, MD), Montgomery College Foundation (Rockville, MD), Cumberland YMCA Family Support Center, (Cumberland, MD), Queen Anne’s County Board of Education/Sudlersville Even Start Family Literacy Program, (Sudlersville, MD), Friends of the Family, (Baltimore, MD).

For more information about the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, and its work, please visit the Foundation’s Web site at www.barbarabushfoundation.com. To learn more about CCBC’s Head Start and Family Literacy Programs call 410-285-9593.