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Danbury ad hoc committee recommends applying for $5,000 Dollar General youth literacy grant
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Summary
An ad hoc Danbury City committee moved to recommend the city council apply for and accept a $5,000 Dollar General Literacy Foundation youth literacy grant. Library staff said funds would buy laptops and materials and support K–2 instruction plus parent workshops in Spanish and other languages.
Councilwoman Holly Robinson, chair of the ad hoc committee, said the group would consider a $5,000 youth literacy grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and confirmed no city match was required.
Julia Denon, identified in the meeting as the library’s innovation sustainability librarian and the grant writer, said the award would fund a two-part program: direct literacy instruction for kindergarten through second-grade children and workshops for parents (including sessions in Spanish and other languages) to help them support reading at home. “A lot of times if the parents don’t understand the system … what you teach in the classroom is hard for them to learn,” Denon said, describing the program’s emphasis on family engagement.
Denon told the committee the $5,000 grant would be used largely to purchase laptops to teach digital literacy during six sessions over a roughly six- to eight-month period; participants who complete the series would be able to keep the laptop and a mouse. She also said portions of the award would cover books and basic classroom supplies.
Katie Pearson, identified as the library director, explained that the Friends of the Library, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, supports programming by approving an annual budget request and can accept funds for projects the city cannot directly accept. Denon said the library had previously received a separate Dollar General summer reading grant of $3,000 and that this youth literacy grant is a distinct award.
A committee member moved that the ad hoc committee recommend the Danbury City Council receive the communications and approve an amended resolution authorizing the city to apply for and accept the Dollar General Literacy Foundation youth literacy grant as presented; another committee member seconded the motion. When the chair asked for further discussion, committee members recorded no additional remarks. The transcript records the motion and a second but does not include a roll-call vote or tally.
The committee’s recommendation will next be forwarded to the full Danbury City Council for consideration.
