LEH Awarded $350,000 from Baptist Community Ministries for PRIME TIME

New Orleans based Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) has awarded the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ PRIME TIME Family Reading Time $350,000 for Preschool programs in St. Bernard, Jefferson, and Plaquemines parishes. This expansion builds upon BCM’s earlier support for the successful Preschool pilot, implemented in four Orleans Parish sites in 2015.

Approximately 2,000 economically vulnerable preschool children, with their parents and caregivers, and 250 early childhood educators across 12 sites will receive high-quality training and literacy programming that enriches lives, and changes academic trajectories towards success. The programs take place in elementary schools, preschools, and other community centers.

The program’s inclusion of parents and caregivers with their preschool children in 90-minute sessions of humanities-based book read-alouds, discussions, and exploratory pre-literacy activities raises the parents’ awareness of the important roles they can play in their children’s future academic success. Parents and children are encouraged to try new skills, and they receive a set of books with which to begin their home library. To learn more about PRIME TIME Preschool, click here.