Mini-Grant Program 1996

Project Name: Raiders Readathon/Between the Lines
Funded Agency: Mt. Diablo Unified School District/Mt. Diablo Adult Education
Project Address: 1266 San Carlos Avenue, Concord, CA 94518
Contact Person: Pam Norgaard, Assistant Director, Continuing Education
Phone Number: (510) 685-7340 FAX Number: (510) 687-8217
E-mail address: N/A
RRC Partner State Literacy Resource Center of CA

Background

Mt. Diablo Adult Education serves the educational needs of adults in its community in Contra Costa County and is constantly looking to improve access and delivery of educational services. In this endeavor, a distance learning project was started in 1994 with the goal of reaching students unable or unwilling to come to school. A major focus of this project was family literacy and effective programming for parents in our community.

Collaborating Partners and Agencies

Mt. Diablo Unified School District, Mt. Diablo Adult Education provided staff support and the use of its facilities of Mt. D TV.
Project Second Chance, Contra Costa County Library’s Adult and Family Literacy Program provided technical support and advice, promotion of the project as well as children’s librarians and a family literacy specialist as participants in the TV shows; volunteers also provided literacy assistance for adults requesting one-on-one literacy tutoring.
Diablo Valley Literacy Council, a non-profit community-based adult literacy agency, provided technical advice and volunteer ESL tutors for adults.
Contra Costa Cable Television provided the live and recorded transmission of the shows developed through the project.
Contact Care.
California’s State Literacy Resource Center Director Dr. Carole Talan advised on the project and appeared on the show discussing the value and use of children’s books in a family setting.

Description of the Project

The goals of the project were:
1. To produce a live-interactive cable TV show on family literacy. These shows were also taped for distribution and use by literacy agencies and families on an ongoing basis.
2. To increase enrollment in family literacy and basic education classes.
3. To build awareness among the television viewing public of the connection between family literacy and the success of the child.
4. To refer viewers to readily available resources to achieve family and literacy goals.
To improve the delivery of family literacy program services by Project Second Chance.

Project Budget

The mini-grant provided $29,897 of funding and Mt. Diablo Adult Education contributed in-kind and direct funding of $91,500.

How the SLRC Grant Benefited the Project

The grant from SLRC was vital in augmenting funding needed to produce the TV show, and for the purchasing and copying of the TV tapes. The grant also forced us to collaborate with other agencies in our and they proved very helpful in developing the focus and content of the shows. Having a cable TV show of this nature was new and innovative and was very popular with the community.

Success of the Project

Family Literacy courses at the Bay Point Project increased enrollment four-fold. This is a low income, high minority community were recruiting adult learners has been difficult, so this was a very significant accomplishment! Additionally, qualitative surveys were used to determine the effectiveness and quality of the family literacy program and the results from these showed an "excellent" rating from 96% of the respondents.

Parents who watched the cable shows were introduced to the public library as a free and excellent resource for books, materials and programming for their children and their family.

Many parents were also connected to resources for their children when they had the opportunity to call into the cablecast program with their questions and requests for information.

Personal Anecdotes

One highlight of the series was the participation on the show of a grandparent who had profited from literacy tutoring at Project Second Chance. He is now a poet and is featured on Project Second Chance infomercials. He was a great inspiration to any adults who were watching who might also have problems with literacy. He now serves as an adult literacy advocate and supports the efforts of other adults in his program.

Many requests came from the community for a list of the books which were reviewed and highlighted by Carole Talan on one of the shows. The heightened interest level in these titles was very satisfying.