September
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 by generating exciting literacy programs that enlist the involvement of community leaders, literacy, arts, and educational organizations, using our libraries as the foundation for these programs.
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. This web site includes an overview of the program, guidelines for community participation, and grant applications.
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 years and 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,
Former First Lady of Maine and Maine Reads board member