The First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative for Texas

A Program of The Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy

The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative Grants Announced

The winners of The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative for Texas 2006 annual grant competition have been announced, bringing the total number of grants to 110 since the Initiative began. This will be 11th year of providing grants for family literacy projects. Launched at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin in 1996 by Honorary Chair Laura Bush, The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative has awarded over $2 million to create or expand family literacy programs in which parents, as well as their children, build their literacy skills by reading and learning together.  To date thousands of families have benefited from participation in these innovative programs in 64 Texas cities, and the Initiative is still going strong.  This year, ten grants totaling nearly $250,000 were awarded.

“A child who can read is a child who can succeed in school and in life.  Parents demonstrate by participation and example that reading is a joy and books are treasures,” said Mrs. Laura Bush.  “The impact these family programs have cannot be measured simply by the number of participants, but more accurately by the depth of change and lasting impact in communities across Texas.”

A program of The Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy, The First Lady’s Family Literacy Initiative for Texas awards grants of up to $25,000, to public and private non-profit organizations that work within the family unit.  Technical assistance for the new grantees is provided by the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning at Texas A&M University in College Station.

The Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy which is based in Houston, Texas, receives the majority of its funding from the annual fundraisers, A Celebration of Reading, held in Houston and Dallas.  These literacy events, at which best selling authors read from their works, also fund The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, the national foundation of which Barbara Bush is the Honorary Chair.

The grant winners for 2006 are:

• Advocacy Outreach, Elgin
• Dallas Public Library, Dallas
• Everman Independent School District, Everman
• Hays Consolidated Independent School District Even Start, Kyle
• Mi Escuelita Preschools Inc., Dallas
• New Summerfield Independent School District, New Summerfield
• Northeast Texas Community College, Mount Pleasant
• Pearland Independent School District, Pearland
• Pilot Point Independent School District, Pilot Point
• The Rapoport Academy, Waco

More information about both the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the Barbara Bush Texas Fund can be found at: http://www.barbarabushfoundation.com