Literacy Coalition awards $10,000 in grants

ONEIDA, N.Y. >> Four local groups in Madison County were awarded program grants recently. The grants were distributed by the Literacy Coalition of Madison County (LCMC), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving literacy in the county.

The four mini- grants of $2,500 each were awarded for innovative literacy project proposals. According to LCMC Co- ordinator Dyann Nashton, the coalition supports small investments in projects that identify and address various literacy needs. These can be literacy issues that relate to areas of life as wide ranging as health, personal finances, workforce development, family literacy and school-aged child summer learn-ing.

The grant recipients are:

• The Community Action Partnership received a grant for a program to train family support workers in adult and infant/toddler literacy.

• Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4H received a grant for an agriculture in the classroom program.

• Boliver Road Elementary School, Chittenango, received a grant for their Literacy Community Connections program.

• Cody Farms, with collabo- ration with Cornell Cooperative Extension, received a grant for its Growing Minds to Feed the Future program.

“We received an overwhelming number of proposals, all with great ideas for improving literacy in our communities,” Nashton said. “It illustrates to us that there is such a need for literacy improvement that our member agencies want to find

ways to help. Keep in mind that many of these agencies are not in the education business and deal with people from all walks of life. They know that many areas of the lives of the people they serve, like economic or health status, would improve with better literacy skills.”

Grant guidelines invited participation by coalition member agencies. These are organizations classi- fied as a nonprofit charitable or those that are publicly supported, such as schools or municipalities. Projects emphasizing collaboration among organizations were weighted in the award determination process.

LCMC facilitates liter- acy improvement in the county through collaboration with the many dedicated businesses, schools, libraries and agencies who serve the needs of our area. Nashton reported that the Literacy Coalition of Madison County offers Madison County Reads Ahead, a free oneon- one program to help adults go back to school, and facilitates the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, offered in county libraries. The LCMC, which is supported in large part by the Central New York Community Foundation, is placing a special focus this on financial and digital literacy for adults as well as kindergarten readiness.

For more information about the Literacy Coalition of Madison County, call 315-749-3654 or email dnashton@midyork.org.