From February until April of 2010 Mohegan Elementary used funds from the Montville Education Foundation to help pilot an amazing and new family literacy program. This family literacy program was the first to be piloted in Montville. The programs, called clubs, were named The Raising Readers Parent Club and Raising Readers Student Club. The program helped 38 families from various backgrounds with children in grades Kindergarten through Third Grade.

           The Raising Readers Parent Club (RRPC) was an adult education program. The program enhanced the literacy backgrounds and skills of 38 families. The parent program assisted Mohegan Elementary School with helping adult family members learn about reading to their children, inform them of available resources, discuss issues related to literacy, and receive free children's books. Each parent session lasted for one hour and included discussion, activities, modeled reading and sharing opportunities.

          The Raising Readers Student Club (RRSC) was a student activity and literacy exploration based program. The RRSC of the program was created by a team of Mohegan Elementary School Teachers with input from local families. The student program’s main purpose was to reinforce literacy skills and show students the various reasons why reading was important. The program also helped the children to see a variety of ways to make reading fun and a “cool” thing to do. The student program provided literacy based experiences through music and dance (with Connecticut College dance instructor Lana Burton), two author visits, and culture through books and fine motor enriching art activities.

         The Raising Readers Parent Club and Raising Readers Student Club: Explorers of Literacy accomplished the following goals through funding from the Montville Education Foundation, Inc.'s grant-

1. Implemented a very successful adult and child literacy education program. Parents have asked for this program to continue and Montville Public Schools would like to bring this program district wide. The documented plan was completed.

2. Successfully implemented Raising Readers in Montville which allowed the Connecticut Center for Parent Advocacy to use it as a “model district” for beginning the program in other districts across the state.

3. Increased the number of children and adults who become capable and enthusiastic lifelong learners and readers. We touched the lives of 38 total families. Of those 38 families, 34 were English Language Learner participants, 42 Adult Parent or Guardian members and 54 Mohegan Elementary School students.

4. Pre-taught, supplemented and reinforced skills learned in school and those taught by caregivers after their experiences in the Raising Readers Parent Club.

5. Offered information, materials, skill development, and encouragement in all areas of literacy, which enabled caregivers and other adults to promote the literacy development of the children in their lives.

6. Broadened the literacy exposure of children and adults in the areas of technology, art, science, music, character education and culture.

7. Supplied nourishment and time for socialization for families who would not have typically socialized or met together to promote literacy.

8. Provided translation services for Chinese and Spanish language learning families.

9. Helped to spread the word on resources provided by Montville Education Foundation and the “greatness” of Montville Public Schools. There were at least two newspaper articles citing Montville Education Foundation as the primary and major contributor. The newspapers showed that we really are proud of our schools!

10. Helped to get the other Elementary Schools in Montville interested in family literacy program and coming up with a district wide enrichment-based curriculum and program. If one school were able to successfully pilot the program in Montville, Connecticut, the other schools in the district would be willing to try this program.

11. Supplied 20 families with almost perfect attendance with $20 gift cards to Boarders. This enabled families to get books that were age appropriate, reading level appropriate, in the family’s native language and of interest to the students.

         Our raising Reader Facilitators and Leaders learned how successful the program was by examining the data from pre and post club evaluation forms, and from speaking with families who participated. The “Raising Readers Parent Club Registration Form” (9-6 and 9-7) showed that many families did not read nightly, could not define literacy, did not take their children to the library and were concerned about their child’s academic future. The “Raising Readers Parent Club Evaluation Form” (9-8 and 9-9) assessed what had changed for the families since beginning and finishing the program. The families expressed that they wanted to continue the program; many felt strongly that the program should be offered for more than 1 hour sessions at a time, and that they learned the skills to help their child with reading. Some even said that they were able to teach their child to like reading. Both programs were incredibly successful.

          Without the support of the Montville Education Foundation, The Raising Readers Parent Club and Raising Readers Student Club at Mohegan Elementary School would not have been possible. The funds that your foundation provided were invaluable and generous. The families of Montville truly benefited. Thank you.

 The District was successful in obtaining a grant for the sole purpose of implementing this program throughout the District. 

MEF Makes Computer Donation to Montville Youth Services

If you are looking at this brand new website, you are looking at a success story! This year was a formative year for the MEF and we feel hugely successful in that we formed and passed by-laws, grew and learned to work together as a Board through our meetings and newly established committees, ran our First Annual Golf Tournament, created this website, and much more. We know though, that you must make money to give it away! One year ago at this time we had ten (donated) dollars in our checking account! Still we reserve with great optimism this portion of our website for the stories of the grants we know we will award in the very near future and beyond.

Not to be deterred by lack of funds, and knowing that there are other ways to share the wealth, we were able to partner with, and capitalize on, the generosity of Computer Sciences Corporation of Norwich. Through the CSC PC Refresh Donation Program, we were able to obtain four personal computers. Two we have given to Montville Youth Services, and two will be put into use at the Raymond Library. Due to the pipes bursting this past winter, the library is expected to re-open in mid-October, and we hope our two computers will enhance the beautiful new library space.

Director of Youth Services, Barbara Lockhart was very excited to receive the computers for the center, “Thank you so much for the computer donation. I am so glad that you thought of us when being charitable.” 

Do you know of companies or individuals who have goods and or services to share? We might just have a fit for them in our community through our programs and projects! If so, contact us through this website! Thank you!