Four local groups in Madison County were awarded program grants recently. The grants were distributed by the Literacy Coalition of Madison County (LCMC), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving literacy in the county.

The four mini-grants of $2,500 each were awarded for innovative literacy project proposals. According to LCMC Coordinator Dyann Nashton, the coalition supports small investments in projects that identify and address various literacy needs. These can be literacy issues that relate to areas of life as wide ranging as health, personal finances, workforce development, family literacy and school-aged child summer learning.

The grant recipients are:

•The Community Action Partnership received a grant for a program to train family support workers in adult and infant/toddler literacy.

•Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4H received a grant for an agriculture in the classroom program.

•Boliver Road Elementary School, Chittenango, received a grant for their Literacy Community Connections program.

•Cody Farms, with collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension, received a grant for its Growing Minds to Feed the Future program.

“We received an overwhelming number of proposals, all with great ideas for improving literacy in our communities,” Nashton said. “It illustrates to us that there is such a need for literacy improvement that our member agencies want to find ways to help. Keep in mind that many of these agencies are not in the education business and deal with people from all walks of life. They know that many areas of the lives of the people they serve, like economic or health status, would improve with better literacy skills.”

Grant guidelines invited participation by coalition member agencies. These are organizations classified as a nonprofit charitable or those that are publicly supported, such as schools or municipalities. Projects emphasizing collaboration among organizations were weighted in the award determination process.

LCMC facilitates literacy improvement in the county through collaboration with the many dedicated businesses, schools, libraries and agencies who serve the needs of the area. Nashton reported that the Literacy Coalition of Madison County offers Madison County Reads Ahead, a free one-on-one program to help adults go back to school, and facilitates the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, offered in county libraries.

For more information about the Literacy Coalition of Madison County, call 315-749-3654 or email [email protected].