News 2007

Share Literacy receives a third grant from Kaiser Permanente
to support Northern California programs

Martha Martinez, Director ACOE/ Berkeley Even Start Program reads The Man with Bad Manners with her children.

Our very grateful thanks to Kaiser Permanente Community Grants Program for their third year of support and for their very generous grant in December 2007 of $155,600.00 to help us provide books and Home Literacy Kits to children and their families in Northern California and provide professional development training for their teachers. Click here to read Palo Alto Daily News article Click here to read The City Star article

GRANT OF $90,000 RECEIVED FROM KAISER
PERMANENTE FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE YEARS !

By the end of 2007, the generous support of the Kaiser Permanente Community Grants Foundation, enabled us to ensure that:

• 4,342 Bay Area poverty disadvantaged children received at least one book and CD for their own.
• 151 teachers were trained to use the Hoopoe Curricula by our Education Consultant
• A total of 6,334 Home Literacy Kits (or Books + CDs for older children) were distributed to young people

This second grant enabled us to expand our programs in 2007 in the following way:

Given the enthusiasm of Bay Area Early Childhood Education Agencies to our first program, we were able to add Lisa Quan to our part-time staff as Education Consultant for the Bay Area. Lisa, while the Director of Albany Children's Center, monitored workshops given by Susan Josephs, our original and only trainer who is based on the East Coast. Lisa is paid per training and has no travel expenses. Hiring her has enabled us to reduce the cost of our Bay Area workshops. We were able to expand our program with Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD, Berkeley CA). We worked with Louise Rosenkrantz, BUSD's Early Literacy Coordinator, to expand our program this year and to encourage collaboration and communication between the teaching staff of a number of agencies. The agencies included Albany YMCA Head Start, St. Joseph the Worker School, and Berkeley Even Start. Berkeley YMCA Head Start participated separately. (Click here for a copy of the YMCA Thank-You Letter.) A total of 78 teachers PreK - 1 were trained in the Berkeley area.
We were able to expand our program to include five schools in San Francisco: three Child Development Centers with San Francisco Unified School District (Noriega, Mission, Bryant), plus Wah Mei School & Holy Family Day Home. We were able to provide Home Literacy Kits or books and CDs, plus Teacher Lesson Plans and Activity Guides to Mercy Housing CA for their children ages 3 - 12 for a second year. This time, we excluded the older 13- and 19-year-olds as Hoopoe formats (full-color illustrated books) are for younger ages. We were able to provide a program for 580 children and 65 teachers at Contra Costa Community Services - East Co.		Teacher Oscar Chavez leads preschool kids in a Hoopoe Books read-aloud session at the Mission Child Development Center in San Francisco.

Other Grants Received

In addition to the Kaiser Permanente grant, we received $2,500 from the Wells Fargo Foundation and over $60,000 from volunteers and donors which enabled us to extend our services nationally.

HOUSATONIC COMMUNITY COLLEGE (HCC) RUNS HOOPOE CURRICULA - Learning that Lasts: Teaching-Stories for Early Childhood Education

PreK-1 Pilot Program Using Five Hoopoe Titles:

Starting January 2007, we ran a five-month program Teaching-Stories^tm - Learning that Lasts: Multicultural Literacy Workshops for Early Childhood Educators in partnership with Housatonic Community College (HCC) in Bridgeport, CT.

From January through May 2007, 41 teachers from 16 nearby preschools (including HCC's Early Childhood Lab School-Readiness Pre-School) participated in monthly workshops each using a different Hoopoe book and curriculum and took these back to their schools to use in their classrooms. We were thrilled to note that nearly all teachers benefited greatly from exposure to these stories over a long five-month period. They all noted the richness of the material when contrasted with other children's stories and are delighted to continue using the books in their classrooms.

A total of 639 children and their families received Hoopoe books and ancillary materials as part of the project.

Hoopoe Books were featured at The Week of the Child Event at Housatonic Community College in April. We showed art from the books in their gallery space, one illustrator and the publisher, Sally Mallam, spoke about illustration as a career and about the value of Teaching-Stories for educating young minds. An Afghan storyteller told the Hoopoe stories at regular times throughout the week. The event was attended by M. Ashraf Haidari, Political Counselor, The Embassy of Afghanistan. Click here for a copy of a letter from Heidi Szoboda, HCC Director of Early Childhood Lab School.

April 2007: Hoopoe artist, Jeff Jackson, reads from The Silly Chicken to children at "The Week of the Child Event" at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, CT.

Selected Share Literacy Outreach in 2007

Kno Ho Co, Ashland (OH)
We provided a second Share Literacy Program at Kno Ho Co. for 367 children and staff.

Americorps for Community Engagement and Education (ACEE) at the University of Texas at Austin.
We provided a Share Literacy professional development program, books for school libraries and 1260 paperbacks for the children they serve.

Slam Dunk for DC Camp This summer youngsters read and discussed The Magic Horse for the non-sport part of their program. The program included a visit to view Islamic art at the Hirshhorn Museum

A reader at Slam Dunk for DC Camp enjoying The Magic Horse.

San Bernardino Juvenile Court Schools
Thanks to a grant from The Will J. Reid Foundation, we provided 1780 books to be used by incarcerated students who attend San Bernardino Juvenile Court Schools. These are currently being used in the library classes for:

• Read-alouds and analogical discussion
• First Book distribution for interested students
• Collaboration with behavioral health team for book distribution
• Teacher collaborative activities in the classroom, such as:
• Guest read-alouds with analogical discussions
• Teacher use at Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)
• Teacher read-alouds and class/small-group discussion
• Teacher read-alouds with writing response/reflections
• Readers Theater as teacher/library collaboration
• Theater for Youth exercises with story content
• Writing workshop in collaboration with library media teacher (LMT)
• Language Arts Curriculum Specialist to do read-alouds and learning program
• Use in Family Literacy initiatives retreatment programs

Child Aid PROBIGUA program
www.child-aid.org/wa/child/aid/C13
More than 5,700 Spanish and Spanish-English bilingual Hoopoe Books were sent to Child Aid for Guatemalan school children, including hardbacks for their bookmobiles and paperbacks for the children to keep.

Redlands Christian Migrant Assoc. (RCMA), Raskin FL
www.rcma.org/programs.asp
RCMA serves children of migrant farm workers and rural, low-income families in more than 75 centers throughout Florida. 500 Paperbacks were provided to children served by this program.

Horizons for Homeless Children, Roxbury MA
www.horizonsforhomelesschildren.org
Horizons for Homeless Children provides homeless children in Massachusetts with the nurturing, stimulation and opportunities for early education and play that all children need to learn and grow in healthy ways. 2,000 Hoopoe paperbacks were provided to children served by this program.

Matching-Gift

ISHK has again received a generous opportunity to match a gift-grant of $300,000 with donations in 2008. This grant has been given to us by The Will J. Reid Foundation. This means that your donations this year will be worth twice as much. To donate via our secure web-donation device, click here.

News 2006

Kaiser Permanente
Funds Bay Area Program Fall 2006

This Fall more than 3,700 Bay Area children received books and instruction thanks to a grant from Kaiser Permanente Community Grants Foundation. Click here for the Examiner article (112 KB pdf). This grant enabled us to serve the following six organizations:

Mercy Housing California
Hoopoe Books held three workshops for trainers and coordinators in the Mercy Housing California education program. In addition we provided teacher activity guides, lesson plans and ancillary materials for 53 instructors. The curriculum covered 3 Hoopoe books for 4 age groups, serving children of ages 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 and 13-17. Home Literacy Kits were given for all the young people who attend after-school programs at Mercy's 48 properties in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento. To read more about Mercy in a letter from their director, Tonja Boykin, click here (112 KB pdf).

Alameda County Office of Education, Berkeley Even Start
In August and October 2006, the Berkeley Even Start program received teacher training and home literacy kits for two Hoopoe Books. ACOE/Berkeley Even Start director, Martha Martinez, writes that the families in the program "are very pleased and thankful for having educational materials at their homes which otherwise they could not afford." (To read her letter in entirety, click here (756 KB pdf).) The Even Start program serves low-income, low-literacy, and non-English proficiency families in the Berkeley area. Their main goals are to break the cycle of poverty by providing educational opportunities and materials such as Hoopoe Books' Learning That Lasts program.

Albany Unified School District - Albany Children's Center
This Fall, the Center's teachers received training and materials for two Hoopoe Books, and two Home Literacy kits were given to the 120 preschool children who participate in their full day program for preschool children ages 2.9 to 5 years. Click here for the letter (16 KB pdf).

Berkeley-Albany YMCA Head Start
Hoopoe Books provided training and materials to over 20 teachers of this Head Start program in the Berkeley CA area. This program serves over 200 children who each received two home literacy kits. Pamm Shaw, the Executive Director, writes "The Hoopoe Project comes at a critical time when more and more research points to the crucial role of reading to young children...Many of the families we work with do not have reading materials around their homes, so providing books for children to take home is an important factor." To read more of her letter click here (612 KB pdf).

Berkeley Unified School District Preschool Program
Hoopoe provided early educators in the district the training on using Hoopoe Books in the classroom and activity guides and material to go with the program. In addition, Hoopoe was able to provide 2 home literacy kits to over 120 children participating in the program. Click here for the letter.

St. Joseph The Worker School
Hoopoe was able to provide early educators in this program two workshop trainings on using Hoopoe Books in the classroom plus activity guides and material to go with the program. In addition, Hoopoe was able to provide 2 home literacy kits to 30 families participating in the program. The St. Josephs program serves PreK-1, 1-2 and 3-5 grades in the Berkeley CA area. Click here for the letter.

(Click Below For More Information)
THEN GET THE ALAMEDA COUNTY GLOBE article
or printer friendly (300 KB pdf).
THEN GET THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER article
or printer friendly (420 KB pdf).
THEN GET THE EAST BAY DAILY NEWS article (344 KB pdf).
THEN THE LOS ALTOS TOWN CRIER article (472 KB pdf).

East County Chapter of the
Laubach Literacy Council of San Diego

A class at Grossmont School District Adult School in El Cajon, CA. Above, women enrolled in an ESL class learn to read aloud to their children (ages 2-5) using Hoopoe Books. Ms. Nuttal, their tutor says: "I've gotten great feedback from the ladies about the books," says Ms. Nuttall. "Four of the ladies in one class are rotating the books among themselves so that they get a chance to read each book with their child. The books are a great reading motivation."

Above, Laubach took Hoopoe Books to the Family Literacy Fair in San Diego this Fall. Click here for the Laubach literacy fair photo page.

Long Beach Area Council of Camp Fire USA

Since 2004 Hoopoe home literacy kits have been part of Camp Fire USA WRAPers (Winners Reaching Amazing Potential), a popular afterschool program directed by the Long Beach Area Council of Camp Fire USA. This program has been possible thanks to the Long Beach Area Council and with help from the Long Beach Unified School District and several Long Beach charitable foundations

WRAPers at John Muir Elementary School, Long Beach, CA, prepare theatre production of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water for a recent parent participation night.