Super Stars Literacy Receives $15,000 Grant

Super Stars Literacy (SSL) has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF). EBCF selected the award-winning after-school program to receive the funds, in part, because its early literacy and social development programming speaks directly to one of the greatest needs EBCF identified in local communities: ensuring very young children are successful in the education system.

"Year-after-year, Super Stars Literacy has had an amazing impact on improving the early literacy skills and social development of the students we serve," commented Super Stars Literacy Executive Director Mike Mowery. "This grant is proof of the strength of that success, and will help enable Super Stars Literacy's expansion into new communities so that even more young students from throughout Oakland and the East Bay can gain the literacy and social skills that are integral to success in the classroom, and beyond."

For the 2008-09 school year, Super Stars Literacy, Inc. tripled the number of students and school sites benefiting from its curriculum. Currently serving six school sites and 270 students in Oakland, Calif., Super Stars Literacy is now on the verge of an exciting new strategic planning phase, the results of which will guide its continued expansion to additional deserving children throughout the Bay Area. The EBCF funds will directly support after-school programming, including the maintenance of a low instructor-to-student ratio, which is integral to successfully building the literacy skills and emotional resiliency of Super Stars Literacy students.

Designed to directly combat studies suggesting children, especially those from low socio-economic backgrounds who are not reading at grade level by the end of the third grade are at serious risk of never developing strong academic skills or graduating from high school, Super Stars Literacy curriculum builds early literacy and social skills in students from underserved communities. Since its founding in 2002, the program has achieved outstanding results in meeting, and often exceeding, its goal of having 80 percent of its students read at grade-level as they enter the third grade.

The East Bay Community Foundation (www.eastbaycf.org) connects community needs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties with individuals, families and organizations interested in charitable giving.

Dedicated to building early literacy skills in primary grade children in communities with limited resources, Super Stars Literacy (www.SuperStarsLiteracy.org) currently serves 270 students at six Oakland, Calif., elementary schools.