Program Profiles
Toyota: Committed to Families Moving Forward
Toyota, one of the nation’s most successful corporations, began a partnership with NCFL in 1991. In addition to a commitment of more than $36 million to establish model literacy programs throughout the country, Toyota has also contributed a wealth of in-kind support — including advertising, planning and management expertise — to form one of the most progressive corporate/nonprofit partnerships in the nation.
NCFL and Toyota celebrated 20 years of this partnership in 2011 — learn about the results of this 20-year commitment to family literacy.
Three major programs have been developed through the Toyota partnership based on the family literacy model of parents and children learning together. The models, as described below, have influenced federal and state legislation, leveraged local dollars to support family literacy and led to successful programs being replicated across the country.
Today, Toyota has funded 256 family literacy sites in 50 cities and 30 states that have impacted the lives of more than 1 million families.
Following the tremendous success of the first Toyota initiative, subsequent programs have built upon the best practices identified by their predecessors.
Communities that have received Toyota grants have been able to leverage millions of dollars in additional funding to replicate and sustain the different models of family literacy. For example, Los Angeles, New York and Providence alone have leveraged almost $27 million to replicate family literacy. The combined investment leveraged in other cities, some of which spans an 18-year program implementation, includes federal dollars and private funding from local foundations. Through collaborative partnerships with local universities and colleges, adult education services have been funded. These efforts, combined with in-kind dollars and services, have multiplied the efforts of the Toyota/NCFL partnership.
And the partnership continues to grow.
Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP)
Improving the lives of immigrant families: Established in 2003, TFLP is addressing the growing educational needs of Hispanic and other immigrant families by increasing English language and literacy skills for adults while also supporting their involvement in their children’s education. Today, Toyota has funded 256 family literacy sites in 50 cities and 30 states that have impacted the lives of more than 1 million families.
Toyota Teacher of the Year (TOY)
The Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year award has been presented annually since 1997 and recognizes individual teachers’ contributions to improving literacy among youth and adults. The 2010 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year award was presented to Louisiana educator Kay Brown from the Northeast Louisiana Family Literacy Consortium.
Toyota Families in Schools (TFS)
Reaching at-risk children: Established in 1998, TFS was designed to increase achievement of at-risk children from ages 5 to 12 by implementing strong family literacy services in elementary schools. The program, which was implemented in 15 communities, emphasizes parents’ roles as learners as well as supporters of their children’s education.
Toyota Families for Learning (TFFL)
Supporting local programs, preparing preschool children: Established in 1991, the TFFL program was created as an innovative approach to improving the education of preschool children and increasing economic stability within our country’s most disadvantaged communities. A total of 20 communities participated in this national program.
All Toyota programs use initial start-up funding for three years, while building local funding collaborations to sustain their operation after that three-year period has passed. This has been standard practice in every model program opened through NCFL since 1991.