Santa Paula, CA (November 11, 2008) Each year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation provides grants to national organizations whose local affiliates are working directly with families in their communities. These National co-sponsoring organizations, in turn, make awards to exemplary local programs with their networks whose work improves the odds for the most vulnerable children by giving them what they need most—strong, capable and economically successful families. The honorees embrace a simple but powerful principle: Children do well when their families do well, and families do better when they live in supportive communities.

The Santa Clara Valley Neighborhood for Learning (SCV NfL) in collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley were selected for the 2008 Boys and Girls Clubs of America/Annie E. Casey Foundation Family Strengthening Award. The amount of the award is $10,000 to continue with some of the SCV NfL’s family strengthening strategies.

One such strategy is the Motheread/Fatheread Program, which is a nationally recognized, award winning, family literacy program that builds parenting, critical thinking and literacy skills, improves family communication, and promotes reading and story sharing in the home. Multicultural children’s books are utilized to promote reading and discussion while encouraging parents to use their imaginations to connect universal themes, values, and ideas to their own lives and families. The importance of reading as a family cannot be understated as it helps build family ties, allows parents to serve as role models, and enable children to become better readers and learners.

The Santa Clara Valley Neighborhood for Learning is funded through First 5 Ventura County with the goal of helping families prepare young children for school by offering a multi-faceted, integrated system of service delivery. For more information about the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley or the Santa Clara Valley Neighborhood for Learning, and the other services available, please contact us at 525-7910.