WATERBURY CENTER — The Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) has several literacy grants currently available to public libraries, schools, and organizations serving low-income, at-risk, and rural children in Vermont and New Hampshire. All grant applications are available on clifonline.org.
Grants currently available are:
•  Year of the Book — $25,000 worth of literacy programming and new books will be awarded to qualifying elementary schools in New Hampshire or Vermont. Eligible schools have a minimum of 35 percent of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch and at least 30 percent scoring below proficient on reading and writing assessments. Programming includes author visits and writing workshops, family literacy events, mini-grants for classroom projects, new books for the classrooms and the school and local public libraries, as well as ten new books for each child to choose. Applications are due Jan. 30 for the 2019-2020 school year.
•  Revive Your Literacy Programming — Funding is available for additional literacy programming completed in the 2018-2019 school year, open to any organization that has received a CLiF grant since 2014. Applications are due Feb. 1.
•  Community Building — Funding is available to build connections between kids and their communities through a Reading with Seniors program, a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge, a songwriting workshop, or the Young Writers’ Project’s My Community Story platform. The project must be completed in the 2018-2019 school year. Applications are due Feb. 6.
•  Rural Libraries — A school-year-long program awarded to public libraries in towns of 5,000 or less includes two storytelling sessions with professional authors/storytellers, new books for the public library and local elementary school library, mini grants for new library programming, and two new books for each child to choose. Applications are due April 2 for 2019-2020 school year.
For more information about CLiF visit clifonline.org.