Grant to go toward literacy nights
Dec. 2—The University of Texas Permian Basin College of Education on Thursday received a $3,000 subgrant from the Literacy Coalition of the Permian Basin.
The grant was awarded at the Welcome Center at UTPB. Assistant Literacy Professor Tara Wilson said the grant will go toward two evening family literacy events at two local daycare centers at First Baptist and Aladdin's Castle. She's planning to hold them in February 2023.
All the families that attend will receive books and a calendar with ideas on how to promote literacy in their homes. It will be for families from those daycares, so it's not open to the public.
"... Both daycares serve (about) 500 families, so we're talking close to 1,000 families that will get served ...," Wilson said.
The idea behind the literacy nights came from the Education Partnership of the Permian Basin's Power Bag Initiative where moms discharged after giving birth at local hospitals are provided with a bag that includes a brochure with basic information about the importance of speaking, interacting, and reading to your newborn, as well as a link to the POWER Bag website and other resources; baby books; a baby toy; a book called Milestone Moments and the book "O is for Oil" by Education Partnership of the Permian Basin Executive Director Adrian Vega.
Wilson and College of Education Dean Larry Daniel have been conducting research on the POWER Bags.
When the Literacy Coalition grant opportunity came up, they applied for it.
Wilson said they are now in the process of writing up their findings.
Literacy Coalition Executive Director John Trischitti III said they are excited about the collaboration between the College of Education and the coalition.
The College of Education is reaching into an where "we know that there's a need and they already have the capacity built out."
"What we've discovered through this sub grant process is that there are a lot of people doing good work, but they just need a little bit of a shot in the arm. Funding can be a challenge for some of these really small ... literacy programs. We're hopeful and confident that the dollars that we're putting to work through these organizations are really going to have a broad reach," Trischitti said.
He added that he pitched the idea of awarding sub grants to smaller literacy organizations to his board because it can be kind of intimidating to approach the Abell-Hanger or Scharbauer Foundation for grants.
"We were fortunate that local philanthropy bought into my idea and we raised $100,000," Trischitti said.
He added that 14 organizations from all over the region applied and 11 were awarded. The hope is to have a fall and spring grant cycle.
"Just over $50,000 has been awarded so far," in slices of up to $5,000, Trischitti said.
"I think that some of the larger foundations, the Warren Foundation, the Pevehouse House Foundation, helped to fund the sub grant pool; PSP (Permian Strategic Partnership) also did. They see that that our reach is much more rural and so they liked the idea of those dollars, not just staying in Midland-Odessa," but having a broader reach, he said.
Trischitti said they are going to go back to the board and see what they thought about it.
Daniel said it's always fabulous when their faculty is recognized for their work.
"It allows our faculty to share their expertise, to get involved with important events in the community and to be part of something bigger than we are," Daniel said. "So from that point of view, I'm very excited about it. Dr. Wilson has a very good track record of connections with the community in so many ways with volunteering and working with students out in schools in the community. She's a very right person to be recognized with this award. ... Her previous work with the POWER Bag project lends a lot of credibility to what she's doing here, so we're very excited about it."
He added that having the POWER Bags is very helpful. That project, he said, is helping educate parents on what they need to do to help their children learn to read.
"... We know a lot of families in the community may not have had the best educational experiences themselves, so they may struggle to help their kids be successful. The POWER Bags not only provide the books and the nice resources for the kids to use directly, but also provide a lot of helpful suggestions for how the parents can be of assistance in making sure kids learn how to read, so that's the real advantage of it," Daniel said.
Daniel said they are finalizing the report on their POWER Bag research and it should be officially submitted to the Education Partnership soon.
"The most surprising thing and it will be in our report is a question we had about when parents thought their child would learn how to read and the answers ranged substantially from very early preschool on up to maybe age 7 or 8," Daniel said.
