Neighborhood Planning Grant Awarded to Fresno

By KSEE News

December 22, 2011 Updated Dec 22, 2011 at 8:05 PM PDT

The United States Department of Education has announced that it will be awarding Reading and Beyond a Promise Neighborhood planning grant, which is expected to be just under $500,000. Over the next year, Reading and Beyond will formulate an implementation plan and proposal to ultimately break the cycle of poverty in the Lowell/Jefferson/ Webster neighborhood, through alignment of academic and family support services. This grant is one of 15 proposals approved, out of 200 organizations who applied, nationwide.

Submitted in September, the planning grant was developed as a collaborative effort with over 40 public and private partners. The goal of the planning is to align and strengthen cradle-to-college/career programming designed to break the cycle of poverty in the target neighborhood, the Lowell/Jefferson/Webster neighborhood. During the planning phase, a collaborative will identify needs and service gaps in the target neighborhood by conducting a needs assessment and developing a plan to improve education and family and community support results and indicators. In addition, a longitudinal database management system will be developed to track children served in the target zone. At the end of the planning phase an implementation proposal will be submitted to the US Department of Education, and if approved would result in additional federal dollars for Fresno to execute the plan.

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