PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College will enhance literacy programs in Port Angeles and LaPush with a $65,000 grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. The college is one of 10 recipients nationwide and the only one in Washington state.
The 2011 grant recipients were selected from more than 300 applicants.
Peninsula College was funded at the top grant amount of $65,000. The money will go toward programs affecting 24 low-income families, said Evelyn Short, Peninsula College dean of basic skills.
The programs, which are on the Quileute reservation in LaPush and at the Clallam County Housing Authority in Port Angeles, address educational activities leading to self-sufficiency, as well as providing instruction to help parents become their child’s first teacher, Short said.
“We are excited about this award to allow us to strengthen and broaden our instructional approaches in our two family literacy programs and to provide the families with the opportunity to learn and grow together,” Short said.
“I’m very proud that our institution received a grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy,” Peninsula College President Tom Keegan said. “An important part of our mission is to provide educational opportunities in the area of basic skills, including family literacy, and this grant will enable us to concentrate even more resources toward fulfilling this vital service to our communities.”
$624,952 award
This year, the foundation awarded a total of $624,952 for family literacy programs in California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia, as well as Washington state.
Applications were submitted by private, nonprofit and public institutions, including libraries, correctional facilities, universities, housing projects and public schools.
Since its inception in 1989, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy has awarded nearly $40 million to 863 family literacy programs in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
