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Creating Communities of Readers |
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“Sharing Our Past — Shaping Our Future” Since 1974 |
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Three communities—Barre, Bennington, and Milton—are participating in the Council’s Creating Communities of Readers (CCR) program to develop ways to increase literacy and build community. In each of the three communities a collaborative of adult basic education sites, libraries, schools, businesses, and other organizations will develop and manage this four-year program.
Each of the three communities faces challenges in creating a fully literate community. Their traditional economic bases are struggling to hold on, often with nothing to replace them. They are also facing a shift in population demographics.
These factors contribute to lower literacy rates and a need for early childhood and adult literacy programs. Each of the communities has committed organizations and volunteers who want to tackle illiteracy in their communities.
Since 1996, the Vermont Humanities Council has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Vermont communities through its CCR program. From 2000 to 2003, the Council gave $270,000 to Bellows Falls, Lyndonville, and Leicester. The three communities organized bookmobiles, literacy fairs, family literacy workshops, and one-book programs for their communities. Funding for the multi-year CCR programs is from a generous anonymous foundation. |
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Office in Montpelier
11 Loomis Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 802.262.2626 Fax: 802.262.2620 E-mail: info@vermonthumanities.org |