Family Literacy P roposal Coversheet

Literacy Foundation                                                                   

Completed coversheet must be attached to your full proposal. Please print or type. Submit one, stapled original copy of your proposal. Facsimile or electronic copies will not be accepted. Proposals must be received, not postmarked, on or before the submission deadline of March 4, 2008. 

Name of Applicant Organization: __Pinellas County School District___________________________

Does your organization have a 501(c)3 status or is it an educational institution with a minimum of two years experience providing adult education? Yes _____X____ No _________

Distance to nearest Dollar General store: __4.3 miles______(Store locator available at www.dollargeneral.com)

How long has your organization been in existence? __16 years _________________________

Have you received previous funding from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation? Yes ______  No ___X____

If yes, what was the grant amount and when did you receive it?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Does your family literacy program have the following four components: adult education instruction, children’s education, parent and child together time, and parenting classes?   Yes ____X___ No_________

Address:  (Please provide a street address. Correspondence will not be mailed to post office boxes.)

___Pinellas County School District, Region I Office____________________________________

___2499 25^th Street South________________________________________________________

___St. Petersburg, FL 33712______________________________________________________

Phone: (_727)_552-1568_____   Fax: (_727)__552-1569_____   E-mail: _mettetalb@pcsb.org_

Name of Contact Person: __Bonnie Mettetal__________     Title: _Project Manager_________

Phone: (_727)_552-1568______   Fax: (_727)_552-1569______   E-mail: _mettetalb@pcsb.org

Title of Program: ___William F. Goodling Family Literacy Program – Pinellas Even Start ______

Program Objective:

Our mission is to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty by providing a comprehensive, quality family

literacy program  that promotes school readiness, academic achievement and economic self-sufficiency.

Number of individuals to be served by requested funding:        ______30____________

Budget Information Summary:

Total Budget for Project:                                                    ____$ 281, 002     _____   (Mt. Zion Site)                      

Funds Requested from Dollar General

Literacy Foundation:                                                         ______ 20,000________

Total Annual Budget of Agency:                                       ____$ 965,679________

Approval of Board Chair and Executive Officer

We approve submission of this grant to the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

We understand that the signatures of both individuals certify approval of the Board of Directors.

Executive Director (print): ______Clayton M. Wilcox__________________________________________

Signature of Executive Director: __________________________________________________________

Applicant Organization Board Chair (print): ___Nancy N. Bostock________________________________

Signature of Board Chair: _______________________________________________________________

NARRATIVE

1.   Applicant Information/Cover Sheet 

            Project funds will supplement the William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program (Pinellas Even Start) managed by Pinellas County Schools, Region I Office, 2499 25^th Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33712.  The $20,000 requested will serve 15 adults enrolled in ABE/Pre-GED, GED, and English acquisition classes in South St. Petersburg and their children, at least 1 child per family, for a minimum of 15 children.  Funding for the Pinellas County Even Start Program is currently at $480,988 plus a match of $464,691 for a total of $945,679.  With the $20,000 requested from the Dollar General Family Literacy grant, the total funding for the agency would be $965,679.  This is the total budget for all the sites of the Even Start Program.  The project cost referred to on the cover sheet, budget narrative, and worksheet apply to the Mt. Zion site for the funded amount of $281,002, including the $20,000 requested, and the match amount of $147,377.          

2.   Pinellas Background and Need for the Project 

            The purpose of the Pinellas Even Start program is to break the cycle of inter-generational poverty and illiteracy through education and employment.  The funds from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation Family Literacy Grant will be used to hire a parent educator to provide early childhood education in a two-year-old classroom, parenting lessons in the adult classroom, and home visits to the families.  The target population is parents (with children under the age of 8) who have low literacy skills and various at-risk factors such as low income, disabled child, and single parent.                  

            With a population of about one million, Pinellas County has pockets of high poverty and low education attainment. The median household income is slightly below the state average, and 12 percent live in poverty, including 19 percent of the county’s children.  South County, the targeted area for this Even Start site and one pocket of high poverty and illiteracy, has the county’s highest rates of infant mortality, unemployment, poverty, and juvenile crime.  Approximately 75% of the population in South County is African American.  Only 23% of African American males in Pinellas County graduate with a regular high school diploma. In only two of the 15 schools in the area did at least half the African American students score at or above grade level in reading in 2006-07.     

            The 2007-08 profile of the South County area, published by the Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board, shows the area is in significant need of services Pinellas Even Start can provide.  The report noted that the South County area produces:

• 42% of all the county’s juvenile offender referrals to the Department of Juvenile Justice;
• 47% of all the county’s delinquency felony referrals;

·         64% of all the county’s delinquency referrals for children 0-9 years of age; and

• 67% of the all the county’s births to mothers less than 18 years of age.

            The Pinellas Even Start Program has been successfully providing services for 16 years in various pockets of Pinellas County similar to South Pinellas County.  Even Start programs coordinate with local agencies to provide all the services desired by Dollar General—adult education, child education, PACT time, and parenting education.  As with all Florida Even Start programs, Pinellas Even Start is evaluated annually on its success in meeting the 10 Florida Standards. Pinellas is one of the few Florida programs that regularly meets all standards.  In the past five years, Pinellas Even Start has helped 55 adults earn their GEDs, and served 337 children. Last year, Pinellas Even Start documented that at least 75% of adults showed gains in literacy, 75% showed an increase in parent involvement in children’s educational settings, and 83% of preschool children showed gains in all development domains.  One hundred percent of families engaged in regular PACT activities.

            Currently, Pinellas Even Start operates at three sites; the Dollar General grant would provide the final piece needed to fully develop a fourth site at Mt. Zion Human Services (Mt. Zion).  Mt. Zion already offers ABE/GED classes for adults and high-quality childcare beginning at age 3. This grant would fund a position to provide parenting education and home visits, completing the circle of family literacy services.  Home visits would support parenting education and provide structured PACT time.  It would also provide early childcare for a new two-year old classroom at Mt. Zion.  Mt. Zion currently provides a plethora of services to children, youth, families, and adults in need to serve and strengthen the local community and has acted on behalf of Mt. Zion Missionary Progressive Baptist Church to provide these services since 1983.  In addition to adult basic education and child care for ages three to five, Mt. Zion also currently offers before and after school programs, life skills, tutoring, and housing. 

3.   Project Purpose and Outcomes

            The goal of Even Start is to break the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy by supporting both parent and child together. Even Start provides adult, child, and parenting education, as well as PACT.  Home visits are made regularly to reinforce classroom learning.  The proposed Mt. Zion site would provide services to 15 parents and their children (if a family leaves the program during the grant year, another family will be recruited to maintain an active enrollment of 15). The program would target those most in need—adults with the lowest literacy levels (lower than 9^th grade on at least one area, as tested by the TABE) and families below the Federal poverty line.

            As a Florida Even Start site, Mt. Zion would have the same goals as required by the state.

Applied specifically to the Mt. Zion site, a selection of the Florida Even Start standards and indicators are shown in the table below.

4.   Project Design                

Pinellas Even Start is designed on the Keenan Trust Family Literacy Model.  Data compiled by the National Center for Family Literacy reveals that adults and children who participate in family literacy programs based on this model show greater gains in literacy than when participating in adult-focused or child-focused programs.  This model integrates the four components of the program:  adult literacy, early childhood education, PACT time, and parenting. Adult educators incorporate parenting and literacy skills in the ABE/GED classroom instruction. Activities are modeled by staff during parent training and home visits; parents practice these skills in a variety of settings.  Research demonstrates that the more children know about language and literacy before they arrive at school, the better equipped they are to succeed in reading.  Instructional activities are founded in educational research.  Individualized, experience-based, and in-context learning strategies enable parents to overcome many barriers to success often associated with returning to school.  Teachers use problem-centered activities that enable students to learn problem solving and cooperative learning structures as defined by Kagan. 

            Pinellas Even Start develops students’ team-building and problem-solving skills as they work in cooperative learning groups.  Parents are asked to volunteer and to complete PACT activities in their children’s educational settings.  Through parenting lessons, students will learn, “The parent is the child’s first and most important teacher.”  They will also cover such topics as:  anger management, financial responsibility, school readiness strategies, budgeting, discipline, nutrition, organizational skills, goal setting, and problem solving skills.  They will prepare for interviews and various employment situations, enhance their technology skills, and develop self-efficacy to pursue a rewarding career or goal of choice.

The weekly schedule of components is shown in the table below. This schedule is similar to that used at the other Pinellas Even Start sites and has proven to be effective. Each week, adults would be offered 15 hours of adult education and 5 hours of parenting education. PACT time would be offered for a total of 1.5 hours each week. Pre-school children would be offered 20 hours of high-quality early childhood education. Monthly home visits would support all four components and last for one hour each.  Services at Mt. Zion would be offered year-round in accordance with the Pinellas County Schools calendar, with the summer schedule to reflect a three-week break in August.   

Research shows that in order to impact parenting skills and improve adult literacy, students need to be in the program at least six months. Every effort would be made to retain at least half of the 15 families for six months or more.  At its other sites, Pinellas Even Start always meets or exceeds this mark; some families, where the parent enters with very low literacy skills, remain in the program for several years.  Pinellas Even Start measures participant progress on a regular basis and reports on that progress quarterly to the Florida Department of Education.

5.  Project Evaluation                                                                                                                      

            Because it is funded partially with Florida Even Start funds, the Mt. Zion Even Start site would follow those evaluation requirements, in addition to providing Dollar General-required reporting.  Florida Even Start requires an annual review conducted by an independent evaluator that includes both process and outcome measures. The evaluation is an ongoing, year-long process that includes multiple meetings between program staff and evaluator to review data, discuss challenges, and assess upcoming needs. The Florida review requires assessment of the program in meeting 10 Standards and 17 Indicators.  These include specific, measurable results, as shown in the table below.  The Pinellas Even Start program has, for the past several years, met or exceeded all these goals.  We expect similar success at the Mt. Zion site.

6.   Partner Information

            A significant strength of Pinellas Even Start has been the coordination and collaboration with literacy organizations, school resources, and community agencies.  The co-applicant for the Pinellas Even Start federal grant is READ Pinellas, the local literacy coalition whose members come from faith-based organizations, tutor groups, libraries, schools, community associations and organizations, government agencies, businesses and individuals from the community at large.  READ Pinellas promotes awareness of Even Start family literacy services, assists in volunteer recruitment and training for placement in Even Start classrooms, and maintains a resource and referral system to recruit Even Start students.  Even Start students also receive GED scholarships and participate in a countywide graduation ceremony thanks to READ Pinellas sponsorships.  Pinellas County Schools directly operates the program and provides administrative, training, and clerical support along with salaries and benefits for classroom teachers and resource teachers.  The Title I program provides opportunities for joint student recruitment and staff and parent training.

            The Pinellas Even Start project manager serves on the Service Delivery Board for the Early Learning Coalition and meets monthly with Pinellas County child care organizations and service providers which include Florida First Start, Head Start, Florida Diagnostic Learning and Resources System, and the Juvenile Welfare Board.     

            The Mt. Zion Even Start site would join these collaborations with the resources of Mt. Zion Human Services Inc., which has childcare resources in place. This grant would allow the opening of a much-needed new classroom for two-year-olds.  Mt. Zion already offers a number of PACT activities as well.

            The adult education component is currently provided through Pinellas County Schools Lakewood Community School for three days a week/four hours a day.  The Florida Department of Education Family Literacy for Households grant would provide the adult education component for five days a week, four hours a day.

Letters of collaboration and support are attached to this proposal.

7.   Key Personnel and Resource Capacity

The Mt. Zion Even Start site would be developed as a full family literacy site with the support of a well-qualified cadre of Pinellas Even Start staff.  The proposed Mt. Zion ABE/GED teacher is Ms. Mary Flynn.  Ms. Flynn has her bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in English and some graduate work in reading.  She has taught adult education classes since 1989 and is in her first year with Even Start.  She has experience working in a child care center training lab. 

This grant project will provide for one new paraprofessional position.  This paraprofessional would be the key piece to make this site a strong family literacy center.  With the hiring of this paraprofessional, a two-year-old classroom could be opened and partially staffed.  This paraprofessional would also make home visits to families enrolled in the adult basic education/GED classroom and provide parenting instructional support.    

            All individuals working with the Mt. Zion site have met or will meet the school district’s hiring requirements.  All will have undergone background and fingerprint checks.  All teachers have academic degrees, appropriate certification, and teaching experience with adult learners.  All individuals hired through the project will participate in ongoing staff development training. 

Bonnie Mettetal, the Even Start project manager, has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with graduate hours in early childhood.  She has taught classes from early childhood through adult education levels for 15 years.  She has been with Pinellas Even Start for eight years, the last two as its director.  She has taught the child care worker training classes for the last ten years.  Ms. Mettetal will serve as the project manager for the Dollar General grant.  Fiscal reporting and financial requirements of Pinellas County Schools will be followed.   

            Patricia Fried, the Mt. Zion executive director, has over 20 years’ experience in the areas of quality, organizational effectiveness, and training in a multi-state, non-profit organization.      

            Tatia Prieto, the project evaluator, has thus far consulted for school districts in 18 states in a variety of areas, including evaluations of family literacy programs. She has completed 14 annual evaluations for three different Florida Even Start programs, including Pinellas County. Ms. Prieto will ensure that all of the Pinellas Even Start sites collect necessary output and outcome data and will complete all evaluation reports.                                    

            The Mt. Zion site has the necessary facilities, equipment, and supplies to implement a full family literacy program. A letter of support from Mt. Zion Human Services, Inc., is included.

The Mt. Zion Even Start site would utilize various technology tools to support family learning. The ABE/GED classroom is equipped with 12 student computer stations on which students work with a variety of programs to enhance academic and parenting skills, including OpenBook, Pre-GED, GED Interactive; Skills Bank, and READ ON.  Pinellas Even Start also has 12 laptops for student use in practicing academic and computer skills. 

8.   Budget and Budget Narrative

Families enrolled in the classroom would meet the qualifications of the William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program.  Pinellas County Schools currently receives a William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy federal grant in the amount of $330,988 and a Family Literacy for Households grant from the State of Florida in the amount of $150,000.  There is also matching funds in the amount of $464,691.  The match funds come from rental space for classrooms; childcare through Coordinated Child Care, VPK, and Head Start; free and reduced lunches; donated instructional materials, books, and supplies; training provided by various agencies; and salaries for administrative and instructional staff.  With these moneys, three family literacy sites provide services to 45 students and 70 children in three different high-poverty areas of Pinellas County.  Between the two grants, there are six full-time positions funded, three adult education classrooms, and child care and transportation totaling approximately $100,000 for families to successfully complete their education and obtain economic self-sufficiency.  The funding for the 2007-08 Pinellas County Even Start Program totals $945,679 with the match included.  With the $20,000 requested from the Dollar General Family Literacy Grant the total budget would equal $965,679. 

The actual cost to fund the Mt. Zion project would be $280,002.  This is calculated from $113,625 paid from the other grants to pay the adult education teacher salary and benefits (.64 FTE), supplies, meals, field trips, the paraprofessional benefits, 25% of the project manager’s salary and 25% of the clerk typist’s salary and fringe (.5 FTE) and the $20,000 from the Dollar General grant.  The in-kind costs do not include other child care workers’ salaries as these were taken into account in the child care costs, but they do include 15% of the administrator’s salary and fringe (.15 FTE), 10% of the data prep’s salary and fringe (.1 FTE), and .025% of the computer technician’s salary (.025 FTE).  In-kind funds amount to $147,377 for the above salaries, rental space from Mt. Zion, child care expenses provided by Coordinated Child Care, Head Start and Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten, meals provided through the U.S.D.A. food program, and training, hardware, software provided by the Adult Education Geographic grant.           

The amount of $17,414 from the Dollar General grant will provide a major portion of the paraprofessional salary (1 FTE) at Mt. Zion.  The paraprofessional would be the key piece to make this site a strong family literacy center.  With the hiring of this paraprofessional, a two-year-old classroom could be opened and partially staffed.  This paraprofessional would also make home visits to families enrolled in the adult basic education/GED classroom and provide parenting instructional support. 

The budget would also provide for $2,000 in supplies for interactive family literacy activities to be used in home visits and designated family events at the child care center.  Some of these materials would be available for checkout to the families and children’s books would be provided to families to give children access to high-quality children’s literature in their home.  The remainder of the amount, $586, would be used to provide professional development family literacy training to the paraprofessional, child care staff, and adult education staff.

Using the total project budget of $280,002, the cost per family is $18,667.  Using the actual cash funds of $133,625, the cost per family is $8,908.