What Needs to be done?

• Fund programs which promote literacy and the love of reading among children and adults in southeastern Connecticut
• Reach children in the region reading under grade level during their school career 
• Support family literacy.
• Build an interest group among local groups and individuals with specialized interest in literacy and reading—including writers, bookstores, libraries…
• Play a leadership role in convening community partners around this issue.  
• Strengthen links with other community foundations and other organizations around literacy.
• Secure support across the region to build a permanent endowment to achieve this.

Why?

• Reading and literacy improve the lives of children and equip them for greater success in their later life.  Reading is the key to the future.
• Children who experience the joy of reading with a family member or close friend at least three times a week do measurably better throughout school than those who do not.
• Early intervention for children reading below grade is proven to be effective.
• There are disparities in achievement among the communities in southeastern Connecticut.  Reading and literacy levels in southeastern Connecticut are strong by national standards but weaker than the state average in Groton and New London. Half of New London students do not graduate from high school. 
• In general, higher percentages of those on welfare and those in prison have lower than average levels of literacy when compared with the population as a whole.
• The CF has a strong track record of effective grant making.  The CF makes grants and involves donors throughout southeastern Connecticut.

how?

• Build a $1 million + permanent Let’s Read endowment  Join as a founding member

• Make a minimum of $50,000 in both large and small grants annually to support programs that:

      Make reading cool!  Generate among our youth the motivation to read.
Foster and develop independent lifelong reading skills among members of our community as a path to success in life.
Address family literacy; create opportunities for nurturing relationships between kids and their parents or mentors around reading.

• Reach 2,000 children and adults annually through these programs.

• Collaborate with The Connecticut Humanities Council to bring Motheread/Fatheread®, a national, research-based program through which parents improve their own reading skills, help their children become better readers and thinkers, and improve family communication, to southeastern Connecticut.