SYLACAUGA Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement has received a $100,000 federal grant to implement a literacy program for families of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children in Talladega and Coosa counties.The grant is through the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The announcement was made Tuesday by Margaret Morton, executive director of SAFE, and Amy Pope, SAFE special services coordinator.
In addition, SAFE has received a Reading Is Fundamental grant to provide three books to all children involved in early intervention programs, including the children in this new program.
The new program is called Parental Enhancement Project.
Funds from the ARC grant will be used to provide a quality family literacy, family support program that prepares these preschoolers to enter school ready to learn. It will also empower the parents or caregivers to become their child's first and best teacher while enhancing adult literacy skills and employment capabilities, Morton said.
The project will utilize the Home Instruction Program for Parents of Preschool Youngsters model. HIPPY is a nationally recognized program that serves 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children with educational enrichment. The program focuses on early literacy skills and problem solving skills. Thirty weeks of activities are provided for parents and children.
The project will employ paraprofessionals from local communities in the counties. They will be parents in the program.
Pope said these parent educators will be crucial to the program and will be trained extensively in the curriculum.
They will make weekly home visits to participating families, role playing the curriculum materials with the parents while providing additional enrichment materials and parenting information.
In addition to the storybooks that accompany the HIPPY materials, each participating family will receive three children's books provided through the Reading Is Fundamental grant. A bilingual component is available as needed for participating families. All storybooks and supplemental materials are provided at no cost to the participating families, Pope said.
Morton said SAFE applied for the Reading Is Fundamental grant thanks to Elaine Liveoak, children's librarian at B.B. Comer Memorial Library.
Monthly parent support group meetings are to be provided for these families at a location that is accessible. These meetings will be provided in collaboration with the library and will focus on parenting issues and parent/child interaction activities.
Life skills classes, on-site adult education classes, relationship development training, parenting specific classes and parent/child modeling classes will also be available. The SAFE Family Service Center will provide office space for families in Talladega County, and the Coosa County Department of Human Resources will have office space for these activities at its office building in Rockford, Morton said.
The TCRC Child Care Corporation has also agreed to make available meeting space within its facilities, either in Talladega or Coosa.
Trained literacy coaches will provide tutoring instruction in literacy skill development, computer literacy, employability and life skills training. Morton said lap top computers are available for use by participating families, with appropriate software for both preschoolers and parents.
Pope expects 100 families with 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds to participate in the program. This includes children from throughout Talladega County.
SAFE is partnering with the Talladega County School System, Talladega City School System, Sylacauga City School System, B.B. Comer Memorial Library, Coosa County and Talladega County Departments of Human Resources, Cheaha Regional Head Start and TCRC in providing the program to these 100 families.
Morton said the expected results of the program are the 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds participating will enter school ready to learn. Meanwhile, Morton said there are expectations for participating parents.
"We hope they will enhance their parenting skills by becoming involved in their child's education, increase their literacy skills and knowledge, thereby enhancing their opportunities for employment and self-sufficiency," she said.
Pope said the program will recruit two parent educators and two literacy coaches from the north Talladega County area and one each for the Goodwater area.
"We are going to serve approximately 60 to 75 families from Talladega County, including Sylacauga, and 25 to 30 from the Goodwater area," Pope said.
Morton said SAFE was counting on all its partners to make this new program work.
"We want to be successful for these families," she said.
