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Plano: Verizon Foundation supports Plano ISD Family Literacy Program
By Kim Nguyen, Staff Writer
The Verizon Foundation continued its ongoing support for the Plano Family Literacy Program with the recent presentation of a $10,000 grant.
This is the third year that the Verizon Foundation has presented a $10,000 grant to this program. As part of the district’s Student and Family Services Department, the Plano Family Literacy Program works with children and families to support the mission “of building healthy families by working with the entire family.”
“The grant monies pay for reading books in the classroom and book clubs and instructional reading materials,” said Jane Lilliston, Plano Family Literacy program coordinator. “It’s wonderful to have received the grant again because we see day to day how much literacy can help people’s lives.”
Bush was appreciative of the progress of the literacy initiative in her name that she recently returned the books with a hand-written letter saying, “If every man, woman and child could read and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving the problem our country faces.”
The Plano Family Literacy program strives to build a strong reading foundation with five basic components. Adult Education, multi-faceted literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency; Early Childhood Education, age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life; Parent Education, training and support for parents on how to be the primary teacher for their children. Teaching parents how to be full partners in the education of their child; Integrated Literacy, interactive literacy activities between parents and their children; and Home Visits, personal visits to participants’ homes teaching collaboration of school and home learning
Lilliston said the Plano Literacy Program can have and help about 45 families, about equivalent of 175-200 Plano ISD students, during the academic school year. The program also helps between 35-40 adult community members who live within the Plano ISD boundaries but have either no children attending Plano ISD or children who are not attending Plano ISD. Literacy Program staff and volunteers are trained to help families of up to six different languages and Lilliston looks forward to helping many more.
Family Literacy is important to improve a student’s educational status by giving the children a better chance for school success and for parents to learn English to gain employment skills. Families come to the program for very basic reasons. They understand that unemployment and dependence on public assistance follow low literacy skills. They also recognize that their children probably will continue the pattern of low literacy. The family literacy design springs from the belief that synergy occurs when basic components that build on one another are incorporated together, making the composite more powerful than any single component.
The Family Literacy Program was established in January 2000 and is funded partially by a federal grant that served local families in the Plano community. The program now resides under the Plano ISD and is a support program through the Family and Student Services Department. It works in conjunction with the district and other community partners.
The Plano Family Literacy Program is based out of the Alan Bird Education Center, located at 1300 19th Street in Plano. The facility is located close to many of the families served. Families walk to the facility or provide their own transportation.
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