Grant Application for
PoWeR! Book Bags
Mission Statement:
Our mission is to increase children's experiences with language, literacy and human interactions to better understand themselves, communicate with others, and connect with the world.
Fiscal agent if applicant is not tax exempt:
Tax ID Number:
81-2406342
Contact First Name:
Contact Last Name:
Kara
Gregory
Address:
PO Box 533, Suttons Bay, MI 49682
Email:
Phone Number:
231-343-0255
Website:
Project Name:
PoWeR! Books Bags Charlevoix and Emmet Counties
Project start and end dates:
January 2, 2021
January 1, 2022
Amount Requested:
$
4000
Project Description:
PoWeR! Books Bags (PBB) will provide new, high quality, age appropriate books and book bags filled with literacy tools to low-income families in Charlevoix and Emmet County. Our Founder has a PhD in Family & Child Ecology. She created PBB with a passionate and educated heart to provide children with literacy tools, building blocks for life success.
Literacy is a foundation to life success. Language, the foundation of literacy, is developed by PLAYING, WRITING and READING.
PBB distributes books and book bags withliteracy tools via 5 programs enabling children to pick a book bag containing a finger puppet for Play, crayons and tablets for Writing and then choose a book to Read and keep for their personal library. That is the P, W and R in PoWeR! Book Bags!
In the Char-Em area, PBB distributes books and book bags with literacy tools to Women’s Resource Center, Early Head Start Home Visit program (EHS) and WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants & Children).
Goal of the Project
How many people will you reach?
610
What percentage are female?
50
If your program serves both males and females, how will Hestia funds specifically target women and girls?
All PoWeR! Book Bags program include women and children both female and male. Funding from donors can be directed to specific needs and in this case, all funding received from Hestia Women's Giving Circle would be directed to support two programs in Charlevoix and Emmet Counties that focus on women: Women's Resource Center and WIC Literacy Support program. The cost of these programs is $7800 annually.
Women's Resource Center serves women impacted by domestic and sexual violence. A bookcase filled with books is available for children to choose a book and book bag to keep and add to their personal library. This outlet can provide a moment of comfort for both mother and child during a very stressful, scary time.
PBB partners with WIC through the Health Department. WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, serves women with children age zero to 5. In Char-Em we provide materials to mothers of 250 children. WIC recipients have 4 to 12 site visits per year. At the first visit children receive 2 books and a book bag, then 2 more books and writing supplies at each subsequent visit. WIC enrollees will receive 8 to 12 books per year, if enrolled at birth they'll have 40 to 60 books by age 5!
How are recipients identified or selected to receive services? Is financial need considered?
PoWeR! Book Bags is a research driven organization. Because language building begins at birth, PBB serves age zero to 18. Research shows a word gap between children from print 'rich' environments (homes with lots of reading and writing supplies) and those from print ‘poor’ environments. Those from print ‘rich’ homes enter school with a larger, more developed vocabulary than children from print 'poor' environments, homes absent of literacy supplies. While we would never deny access to books and literacy tools to any child, PoWeR! Book Bags focus on low-income families. When a mother is struggling to keep shelter over head and food on the table, they don’t have resources to purchase tools (books, crayons, paper) critical to language building.
Partnering with organizations that serve low-income women enables us to enrich print poor homes. By providing tools for literacy, PBB empowers mothers to increase language building at home, increase vocabulary and help bridge the word gap!
What do you hope to achieve? What difference will this make in the lives of women and girls?
How will this project meet Hestia's mission statement?
In 2019, 48% of the children in Charlevoix County and 42% in Emmet County failed the M-STEP, a test that measures 3rd Grade reading proficiency. Research indicates after 3rd grade, children read to learn rather than learn to read. This failure rate means a large percent of children are deficient in a basic skill necessary for life success.
Greater exposure to language, the number of words spoken directly to a child and the number of books a child owns are two proven ways to impact vocabulary and kindergarten readiness.
By providing literacy tools to mothers that help them interact with their child, we hope to help mothers create a home environment that increases language and human interaction and motivates their child to read and write.
Many things influence learning but data shows children who are reading proficient in 3rd grade are more likely to succeed in school and are more likely to graduate from high school and experience long-term financial security. Promoting the economic security and well-being of women and girls is the mission of Hestia. What better way to meet that mission than helping mothers lay the foundation for a lifetime of reading and learning for their child!
How will you evaluate or measure your success:
We recognize to say we caused a change in school readiness or reading proficiency would be very inappropriate as we cannot measure that. Instead success is measured by number of people served and number supplies provided as they are proven tools for language building.
Building a child’s personal library by as few as 20 books is proven to have a positive impact on school readiness. With Hestia assistance, 550 children will receive at minimum of 4400 books plus book bags with literacy tools, an average of 8-12 books per child per year!
We also measure success based on feedback from women and children who receive literacy supplies and the agencies who distribute them. Invitations from sites to continue or expand our work demonstrates we are having a positive impact in the community.
Grant Project Budget Form
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