November 30, 2004

Verizon Grant Expands UCSB Family Literacy Project

Eileen Conrad

The Verizon Foundation has contributed $127,000 to a coalition based at UC Santa Barbara to help schools improve family literacy in Goleta, Isla Vista, and Santa Barbara.

The foundation presented the award at a recent campus ceremony.

Called Project SUCCESS: Sustaining University and Community Collaboration to promote Educational Success in Schools, the initiative offers integrated services for both children and their parents.

It expands a comprehensive family literacy project launched last year that was also funded by the Verizon Foundation.

"By expanding family literacy services, Project SUCCESS will have a cumulative increased impact on approximately 300 additional adults, 430 children, 15 teachers, and 10 schools and sites," said Vishna Herrity, director of UCSB'S Gevirtz Research Center in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education (GGSE), which will administer the grant.

"We are grateful for Verizon's generous support."

UCSB is among 18 nonprofit organizations in California that were awarded a total of $1 million by the Verizon Foundation to promote literacy and job development.

The UCSB initiative will strengthen adult English language development and improve computer literacy and school readiness for pre-school children. It will also provide additional tutoring services and increase the number of UCSB undergraduate mentors involved in this effort by 70.

Project SUCCESS is a collaboration involving the university and its outreach partners. In addition to the GGSE, participants include the University Libraries, the Engaging Latino Communities in Education Program, the Goleta Union and Santa Barbara school districts, the Isla Vista Youth Projects's School Readiness Program, the Parents, Children, and Computers Project, the Community Affairs Board's Corps Program, and the Boys and Girls Club.

The Verizon Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the nation's largest local telecommunications provider.

Said Tim McCallion, president of Verizon's Pacific Region: "Verizon strongly believes in investing in the communities it serves to create a literate, well-educated, and technologically fluent work force."

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.