St. Louis Public Schools Awarded Barbara Bush Foundation Grant
Literacy initiative is one of 10 to be funded nationwide

St. Louis - The Barbara Bush Foundation has awarded a $64,000 grant to the St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) to fund the development of The Parents as Storytellers project. Through The Parents as Storytellers project, 40 parents/primary caregivers will receive training in storytelling and literacy development from professional storytellers, children’s librarians, and early literacy specialists. Every parent/primary caregiver will apply their new literacy and storytelling skills with their own children at home, on family literacy field trips, and with preschoolers in their classrooms. The St. Louis Public Schools was one of ten grant recipients chosen from nearly 550 applications.

“Reading aloud to children, early and often, is the single most important thing that a parent can do to help a child to start school ready to learn,” said Barbara Bush. “And parents who are able to read, write, and comprehend can get better jobs, improve their families’ lives, and participate more fully in their communities as well. That’s why the projects we fund must provide literacy instruction for parents as well as their children.”

“We are so excited to have this opportunity to extend and enrich our program services through this highly motivational family literacy project,” stated Marcia Hayes-Harris, SLPS Project Even Start Program Coordinator. “We have seen first-hand what happens when parents/primary caregivers have an opportunity to learn a skill that they can pass on to their children. The impact is far-reaching.”

The St. Louis Public Schools serves 33,000 students, pre-kindergarten through grade 12. One of the district’s highest priorities is early literacy development. Its Even Start Program represents one of its strategic efforts. Established in 1999 with funding from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Project Even Start program is an integrated adult basic education, early childhood education and parent education program for parents/primary caregivers who are functioning at a low level of literacy.

“We support the ongoing development and improvement of family literacy in our district,” said Diana Bourisaw, Superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools. “The parent is every child’s first teacher. Good reading skills are very much at the heart of student success in the classroom – and we want each of our students to experience that success.”

Since its inception in 1989, the Foundation has awarded over $17 million to more than 500 family literacy programs in 47 different states and our nation’s capital. This year’s grant recipients were announced at the Foundation’s eleventh annual fundraiser, A Celebration of Reading, which was held at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston on April 26. The evening was hosted by George and Barbara Bush and star authors: Karyn Frist, father and daughter David McCullough and Dorrie McCullough-Lawson, Bob Newhart, Nathaniel Philbrick, as well as other surprise guests.