| Mini-Grant Program 1996 |
Brief History of Agency/Project
Bellflower Adult School provides literacy training to adults with computer assisted instruction, one-to-one instruction with volunteer tutors, group instruction and work-skill oriented activities. Family literacy is now being offered to the district's Head Start parents at the Child Development Center through a collaborative partnership with the Adult School in a program known as Families Excel.
Collaborating Partners or Agencies
Bellflower Unified School District provided direct services to families and coordinated with Los Angeles County Regional Library, Bellflower (Brakensiek Library) and its family services.
County of Los Angeles Public Library provided presentations to the parents and coordination of the children's literature in the library with the school district's literacy program.
Additional partners included Title I, Emergency Impact Aid, School-to-Work, Head Start, Child Development, Parenting Education, and the Healthy Start "Caring Connections" Community Collaborative.
The State Literacy Resource Center, Baldwin Park, provided staff development for the Project as well as an orientation and tour of its facilities.
Project Budget:
SLRC grant of $28,000:
District categorical funds:
Success of the Project
Consistently high attendance was maintained throughout the project, even during the summer months. 61 parent participants were enrolled in the program through June, 1996, totaling 103 including the children. For the summer 1996 session, 39 parent participants were enrolled, with a total of 68, including the children. The children were able to enjoy meaningful and fun learning activities while their parents were receiving their instruction. The 183 evaluations which parents completed at the end of each workshop revealed:
| Statement | Yes | No |
| The purpose of the workshops were clear to me. | 98% | 2% |
| The information was useful and easy to understand. | 98% | 2% |
| The literacy program was well organized. | 96% | 4% |
| I would encourage other parents to attend the class. | 100% | 0% |
| I plan to use one of the activities at home. | 100% | 0% |
Program success was demonstrated by the fact that many of the parents enrolled in continuing parenting education classes offered in the district after participating in the project. Developing Capable People and Parent Expectations Support Achievement (PESA) classes which began October 1, 1996, completely filled. Student pre- and post-evaluations completed by the parent participants indicated a greater awareness of creative ways in which they can be involved with their children, reading to them at home, and doing homework with them.
Personal Anecdotes
One mother who began the program as reticent and unsure of her abilities as a parent shared with the group mid-way through the program that she was telling her husband it was not good for him to spank the children, that she felt they should try to work with them by attempting to change their behavior through more positive ways.
A district administrator, the school principal, and a PTA mother supported the program by serving the weekly meals to the families. This experience was very rewarding.
A comment on the evaluations stated that, "The class should be held more often!" Another evaluation expressed an appreciation for the opportunity to interact with other parents.
Several Head Start moms began the program because they said they were unable to read to their children. They all agreed that their awareness of the importance of reading to their children was heightened. They enjoyed and appreciated the class and found the training provided them with the discipline to read. One of the moms said that she really liked the way the teachers coordinated the children's crafts and songs with the book the parents were reading each week. In the words of Martha Stewart, they all agreed the Family Literacy Project: Read: Succeed was a "good thing!"