This week, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation awarded Newton County Community Partnership a $10,000 grant to support family literacy. This local grant award is part of more than $7.5 million in grants awarded to nearly 900 schools, nonprofits and organizations across the 44 states that Dollar General serves.
Newton County Community Partnership’s Executive Director Laura Bertram states, “Our community is so appreciative of Dollar General’s many years of funding for literacy programming. Their support has been vital to our efforts to help families prepare their young children to be reading ready when they arrive at school and to help adults improve their reading skills in preparation for achieving a GED or to gain access to more employment options.”
Newton County Community Partnership currently offers programs in adult literacy, summer literacy support for school age students, and early childhood reading preparation for families with children ages birth to 5. The Dollar General grant will support the expansion of a Family Literacy Center at the City of Covington Housing Authority on Alcovy Road. While adult basic education and GED preparation tutoring are already offered for adults at the Housing Authority community, a new program to prevent summer learning loss for students ages 5 to 12 will be presented in June and July. Also beginning over the summer, parents of babies, toddlers and preschoolers will be able to learn how they can help their children develop the language skills needed to become good readers, which is key for school success.
“Dollar General is excited to provide these organizations with funding to support literacy and education throughout the 44 states we serve,” Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s CEO, said. “Providing these grants and supporting the communities we call home reflects our mission of Serving Others and it’s rewarding to see the impact these funds have.”
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. Since its inception in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $135 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than 8.6 million individuals take their first steps toward literacy or continued education.
