Community Action Grants to Support Local Literacy Efforts

Read On Arizona has awarded 10 community action grants, totaling $101,000, to support local Read On Communities in improving school readiness and early literacy for children from birth through third grade.

Awarded through a competitive application process, the grants are intended to help Read On Communities enhance and expand efforts to engage families, address gaps in early literacy services, and scale up evidence-based literacy strategies in their local areas.

• Read On Casa Grande will expand its successful AARP Experience Corps tutoring program to serve more high-needs students in Pinal County.
• Read On Chandler will braid funding to offer additional cohorts of Story School, an evidence-based, two-generation family literacy program provided by Make Way for Books in collaboration with the Chandler Unified School District. "These programs will reach Chandler’s neediest children and families," said Joanne Floth, community lead for Read On Chandler.
• Read On Flagstaff will provide literacy workshops with books and educational resources at events in communities served by Title I schools.
• Read On Surprise will provide books and school readiness workshops for families with young children residing in local affordable housing complexes. "Many preschool-age children in Greater Surprise do not have access to formal early childhood education," said Juan Marquez of the City of Surprise, who serves as community lead for Read On Surprise. "The workshops will help children develop the language and literacy skills necessary for school success."
• Read On Yuma will supplement the Somerton Parent University Project with evidence-based workshops designed to boost language acquisition and early literacy skills. "Working in collaboration with a local school district, we will provide literacy-based programming for families and their children, in addition to offering early literacy training opportunities for kindergarten teachers," said First Things First Regional Director Rudy Ortiz, who serves as community lead for Read On Yuma.

Other communities receiving grants are Read On Buckeye, Read On Phoenix, Read On Pima, Read On Southwest Valley, and Read On Tempe.

Additional support for the community action grants was provided by Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, a founding partner in Read On Arizona, as well as the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative.

Read On Tempe and Read On Yuma also received funding for fiscal mapping to analyze funding streams for early learning services and supports in their surrounding areas.

Capacity Building

Read On Arizona supports local literacy efforts through a network of Read On Communities. Each works in coordination with local stakeholders — schools and school districts, local governments, early learning programs, businesses, faith communities, and nonprofits working directly with families — to improve school readiness and early literacy in their community.

Capacity building is one of Read On Arizona’s collective impact core functions, and these grants are a small example of how it leverages collaboration around shared funding opportunities to bring additional literacy resources to local communities and our state. In the past five years, collaborative efforts have brought over $150M in external funding to Arizona.

Like the many strands of skilled reading, the core functions of Read On Arizona interconnect with our shared strategic priorities in a comprehensive approach to improve language and literacy outcomes.