Award & Grant Opportunities
Family Literacy – Community College Partnership Initiative
MetLife Foundation and the National Center for Family Literacy
Family Literacy – Community College Partnership Initiative
Making the Dream of College Come True
The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is pleased to announce this request for applications for 10 grants of up to $25,000. Made possible with funding from MetLife Foundation, the grants will expand the reach of the Family Literacy – Community College Partnership Initiative to communities and programs across the country. These grants will broaden the availability and targeted use of a recently developed comprehensive set of tools by community programs, schools and community colleges (available at www.famlit.org/myfamilygoestocollege). The financial support is intended to heighten awareness and address the challenges facing nontraditional Latino college students, other nontraditional students and their families who are working to attain the dream of a college education.
The toolkit includes:
- En Camino: Herramientas educativas para familias (On Our Way: Educational Toolkit for Families) (In Spanish and English) — These five online modules with activities for Spanish-speaking families are designed to increase their investment in and pursuit of educational opportunities.
- On Our Way: Educational Toolkit for Families—A Program Instructional Guide — Designed to be used by literacy programs, this guide features activities that engage adults and families in building knowledge and skills for college and career readiness.
- Turning Points: A Case Study of Family Literacy – Community College Partnerships — This case study provides important insights and best practices of exemplary postsecondary educational transition partnerships between family literacy programs and community colleges.
- Promoting Postsecondary Educational Success for Adults and Families—A Practical Partnership Guide — This examination of what makes a literacy program – community college transition partnership work shares key guidelines for monitoring successful partnership development.
- Family Literacy: A Valuable Gateway to Postsecondary Education — This presentation examines the issues surrounding postsecondary educational attainment and how literacy programs can strengthen the transition and college completion of nontraditional students.
Potential grantees will identify innovative and practical uses of the toolkit of resources and pilot those resources to achieve specified outcomes with participants. Examples of grantee implementation can include:
- Community colleges and literacy programs establishing partnerships to improve the transition and success of nontraditional students in postsecondary educational settings
- Community colleges and literacy programs working to align GED instruction with the skills and knowledge needed for college and careers
- Community-based programs or schools beginning or enhancing their work with families to promote investments in education and successful pathways to college
- Community colleges and literacy programs strengthening existing partnerships and improving upon nontraditional student transitions into postsecondary education
Grantees may choose to utilize one or all of the toolkit resources in their proposed project.
First Stage applications will identify commitment and capacity to carry out toolkit implementation with the targeted audiences. The deadline has passed; NCFL is no longer accepting First Stage applications. Successful First Stage applicants will be notified during the week of September 12, 2011, and invited to submit a full Second Stage application.
Second Stage applications will be due by 12:00 midnight Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on October 26, 2011. Award partners will be announced the week of December 5, 2011. The grant implementation period will begin on January 1, 2012 and can extend through December 31, 2012.
Responsibilities of grantee partners
- Pilot the toolkit of resources with identified participants as proposed in the grant application and within the designated funding period.
- Share brief bi-monthly project updates at the end of the months of February, April, June, August and October. A final project report with budget expenditures will be due on December 31, 2012.
Responsibilities of the National Center for Family Literacy
- Provide support and technical assistance to grantees as requested and needed.
- Recognize innovations and best practices, regarding how the grantee needs are addressed by the materials, from grantee reports submitted. NCFL will use the information to feature outstanding work and also to refine plans for this body of work.
- Invite one grantee to participate in the National Conference on Family Literacy in San Diego, Calif., March 25 to 27, 2012, where materials will be shared and summaries of projects under way provided.
- Compile a compendium of program descriptions and results of toolkit implementation to be featured on its website at www.famlit.org/myfamilygoestocollege shortly after January 2013.
For more information about NCFL, please visit www.famlit.org. For information about MetLife Foundation, go to www.metlife.com.