NISD receives grant to fund literacy project for refugee families

NISD Communications Department

May 29, 2009

Northside ISD is one of nine school districts to be awarded a $50,000 grant by the First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative for Texas, a program of the Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy.

The grant will support Project Tumaini, a family literacy project for refugee families. Project Tumaini, a Swahili word that means to hope and believe with confidence, will provide refugee families from various countries with intensive and differentiated instruction focused on becoming English literate.

"This grant gives our refugee parents and children the opportunity to acquire the literacy skills they need to participate and succeed in society, said Rebecca Barron-Flores, Principal of Mead Elementary School.
  
Programs will provide children and families with linguistically appropriate educational support services, prepare students (adults and children) for academic success, provide awareness of the importance of literacy to this population, educate school personnel on the unique needs of refugee students, help restore the parent-child bond that was lost or weakened due to the refugee experience, and help refugee parents become active participants in the children's education.

Now in its 14th year, Houston-based First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative for Texas awards grants of up to $50,000 to public and private non-profit organizations that strengthen literacy skills within the family unit.  Launched at the Governor's Mansion in Austin in 1996 by Honorary Chair Laura Bush, the Initiative supports the development and expansion of programs in which parents and their children build literacy skills by reading and learning together.  To date, the Initiative has awarded 138 grants totaling in excess of $3 million to organizations serving more than 70 Texas cities.  Technical assistance for new grantees is provided by the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning at Texas A & M University in College Station, TX.

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