Fall 2009
Dear Librarian,
I am writing to invite you and your community to participate in the Maine Reads Community Literacy Project, an initiative of Maine Reads. Maine Reads is a non-profit that seeks to promote literacy through public policy, fund raising for literacy projects statewide, and providing opportunities for people of all ages to access quality literacy programs. Through the Maine Reads Community Literacy Project, libraries may apply for funding to develop local literacy advisory panels and literacy programs.
This literacy project is designed to help identify unmet literacy needs in your local area and to develop projects and activities to meet those identified needs. Our goal is to increase literacy in Maine through the participation of our communities and use of our libraries. The plan is to generate exciting literacy programs that enlist the involvement of community leaders, literacy, arts, and educational organizations, using our libraries as the foundation for these programs. We are grateful to Verizon's Check into Literacy program, the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the Margaret H. Burnham Charitable Trust and Maine Community Foundation for their support of the Maine Reads Community Literacy Project. Information about previous grants recipients and their communities can be found on the Maine Reads website. We realize many Maine libraries are already presenting literacy activities. We aim to track the outcomes of the many disparate programs happening in Maine: to collect data and information to evaluate, share and use to better target literacy efforts around the state. We also encourage you to submit news of your upcoming events. Please note we have changed the grants deadlines since last year.
Our vision is to have Maine be a state of life-long learners and readers. Every child, family and community is strengthened through libraries and literacy programs that encourage reading. Enclosed is an overview of the project, guidelines for community participation, and a grant application. You must complete a planning grant before going in for an implementation grant. Libraries that completed planning grants last year do not have to repeat that process again for three yearsand so may apply for an implementation grant directly this spring. For the larger implementation grants, Maine Reads may look more favorably on organizations that have not received implementation funding in successive years. Librarians are the chief organizers of each project.
I want to thank you in advance for being a part of the Maine Reads Community Literacy Projectto help raise families in Maine that read and succeed.
Sincerely,
Karen M. Baldacci,
First Lady of Maine