At Risk Children
We provide inspiring literacy activities, support, and new, high-quality books to children from low-income families and to other children who are at risk of growing up with low literacy skills.
At each event, a CLiF presenter talks with children about the joys of reading and gives a fun and interactive storytelling presentation. After the presentation, each child in attendance can choose two brand-new books to keep. We also provide an on-site library to each organization so children have even more easy access to high-quality books.
We partner with organizations like these on a regular basis:
- Shelters and low-income housing: These organizations serve children who often lack access to books in their daily lives. We also provide parent seminars to describe ways to make reading aloud with children easy and fun, even if parents aren’t strong readers themselves.
- Community centers, childcare, and daycare centers: We work with organizations and providers that support low-income families, foster children, teenage parents, refugees, and other at-risk populations.
- Camp Exclamation Point (CAMP!): We serve children of local migrant workers in New Hampshire and Vermont through our partnership with this nonprofit institution that offers a free, weeklong camp for 110 children of local migrant families.
- ELL classrooms: Children of refugees who have relocated to New Hampshire and Vermont from Somalia, Burma, Sudan, Bosnia, Vietnam, and many other countries often face challenges in reading English. Our program in ELL classrooms offer refugees and their parents an opportunity to discover the wonders of reading and increase English-language books in the home.
To Apply:
An organization, program or facility must meet these requirements to apply for CLiF’s At Risk Children program:
- Be a social service provider, school-based program* or community organization in Vermont or New Hampshire
- Serve children from birth to age 12 (or within that range)
- At least 35% of the children served must qualify for free and reduced lunch, reduced program tuition or a scholarship
- Be able to gather at least 25 children for a storytelling event
*Example of eligible school-based programs: ELL classrooms, afterschool programs, extracurricular programs. Educators cannot apply for this grant on behalf of their entire school.