Impact  >  Family Literacy Project

Project:    Family Literacy Project
Grantee:   Brownsville Literacy Center
Location:  Brownsville, TX
FWF Fund:  Susan Law Endowment

Nothing can propel the well being of a family as much as educating a mother and her children. At the Brownsville Literacy Center, they take a core group of individuals committed to changing their own lives and help them do just that. Participants are young mothers, semi-literate in Spanish and come entirely from low-income Hispanic households.  This mother-child literacy program allows mothers and their pre-schoolers to learn together.   
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Family Literacy Project. Photo credit: http://www.brownsvilleliteracycenter.org/home/family_literacy_project_.
The project’s goals are to bring the mothers to a high beginning level of ESL and learn to become an integral factor in their children’s schooling. The program involves weekly parenting classes and daily interaction time where they read and work with their children.  The adults develop English language, parenting skills and gain self-esteem, while their children learn English pre-reading and language skills. The children are ready to enter pre-school while the mothers gain increased job and educational opportunities. The young mothers must commit to participating for the entire school year.