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Volunteer USA Proudly Announces Grant Applications For Family Literacy Academy Programs!

Grant awards available ranging from $10,000 - $70,000

Volunteer USA’s grant process is now underway in an effort to support high quality family literacy projects during the 2010-2011 academic year.

If your nonprofit is ready to make a positive impact on the families in your community, click here to apply now! The deadline is August 20th.

To learn more about this opportunity and our network of Family Literacy Academies, click here.

Making NEWS…WE'RE HELPING MORE FAMILIES OF DEAF CHILDREN LEARN SIGN LANGUAGE!

JUNE IS NATIONAL FAMILY MONTH ~ ENJOY TIME TOGETHER!

National Family Month encourages family relationships and focuses on developing healthy, confident kids. Here are some simple ways to make your family bonds stronger:

1. Read a book with your kids and have them read it back. Encourage them to create their own end to the story
2. Spend a day giving back as a family. Perhaps you can volunteer to help clean up a local park
3. Go for walks together and let your kids collect pieces of nature… then learn more about them at home
4. Get the kids involved with your household; they can help write the grocery list, clip coupons or map out a vacation route
5. Relax & enjoy the lazy days of summer

GET READY FOR WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY -- IT'S A PERFECT TIME TO HELP PROTECT THE GREAT OUTDOORS!

People now more than ever, are passionate about preserving and protecting the great outdoors. If you’re part of this passion, we'd like to invite you to help champion our cause benefiting Florida's pristine parks and waterways! Please click here to learn how you can help.

Your Gift of Giving….Brings Sweet Story of Success

Ricardo, a sweet and energetic second-grader, was struggling with reading at the beginning of the school year. On his first standardized assessment, he scored a 54% Probability of Reading Success. But Ricardo’s mom knew her son needed to do much better to achieve in school and later in life. So, they got involved with their local family literacy program. She learned how she could help her son improve his reading skills using a fun and educational take-home kit. “Mom” recently reported, with a huge smile on her face, that Ricardo scored a 95% on his latest Probability of Reading Success assessment. That’s what family literacy and a second chance is all about…creating smiles filled with pride and confidence! Good work Ricardo!

We NEED BOOKS TO HELP INSPIRE YOUNG READERS AND YOU CAN HELP!

CHECK OUT OUR NEW SLAM DUNK BOOK DRIVE - PSA WITH THE ORLANDO MAGIC!

ECO-VOLUNTEER USA

OIL SPILL CLEAN-UP-VOLUNTEERS STAND READY

Helping to protect our gulf coast’s shorelines and waters from the impact of the massive oil spill is a top priority for Americans right now.
Join our new eco-Volunteer USA facebook page to see some of the latest volunteer needs in Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi and Alabama.
Click here to visit the eco-Volunteer USA website.

THE MONTH OF MAY IS GREETED WITH LOTS OF SMILES AND SIGNS FROM FAMILIES IN SOUTH FLORIDA!

The Month of May is greeted with lots of smiles and signs from families in South Florida! Our Deaf Family Literacy Academy provides families with deaf children a fun-filled Signing Stories @ Your Library program. Parents and children enjoy a featured story told in American Sign Language (pdf.362.58 kb) as well as activities centered around the book that was read. One of our generous program sponsors is CVS/pharmacy and local store manager Eliezer Suliveras enjoyed a weekend visiting with families who love the story time event!.

NEVER TOO EARLY TO LEARN!

^{(From left to right, Ginny Kirkland, Pearson Foundation and Dollar General's Henry Forrester spend time with Georgia Governor Perdue at a recent Pre-K event)}
The school year may be coming to a close, but the state of Georgia continues it's charge to make sure Pre-K students love learning. Our Foundation is proud to be a partner in Georgia’s early learning initiative, offering Love.Read.Learn!, a Pre-K parent workshop to 50,000 families so parents can learn fun ways to be great teachers to their kids. From trips to the grocery store to writing letters with colored bath soap, little ones love to learn. Thanks to our friends at the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and Pearson Foundation, parents get to attend the workshops free of charge.

Congratulations 2010 Teen Trendsetters Excellence in Leadership Award Winners!

High School students across the southeast are being honored with an award of excellence, as part of April’s Volunteer Recognition Month. The students all participate in our Teen Trendsetters™ Reading Mentors program, pairing high schoolers with 2nd and 3rd-graders for weekly reading mentoring sessions. Click here .(pdf,133 kb). to see the list of 100 Teen Trendsetters winners, selected as the best-of-the-best, based on their dedication to community service and demonstration of excellent leadership qualities.

ECONOMY SPURS SUNTRUST FOUNDATION AND VOLUNTEER USA TO TEAM UP FOR "FAMILY-FRIENDLY" FINANCIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

We’ve got a fun new way to provide young students with math and money lessons. The program also offers evening parent/child workshops to get the whole family thinking about how basic math skills relate to every day spending, saving and investing decisions. The family financial education program is being offered free of charge to elementary schools in several Florida school districts. To learn more about our Financial Education for Families Program click here. Interested schools should email Teecy.Matthews@volunteerusafund.org or call 850-562-5300.

For the full story about our financial education program launch go here.

VOLUNTEER USA'S DEAF FAMILY LITERACY ACADEMY LAUNCHES PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Our Deaf Family Literacy Academies, DFLAs, are the first step for inclusion of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in their own homes, in school, in making friends and fully functioning in society. Our model offers early intervention for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, parental involvement with their children through education in signing, reading together for parents and children and English for non-English speaking families. Click here to view the PSA!