Santa Maria Community Services, Inc. is pleased to announce that it received a $25,000 grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation for its Promoting Our Preschoolers (POP) program.
“We are thankful for Scripps Howard Foundation for providing funding for this program. Funds from this grant will be used to enrich the POP program by adding literacy and reading components to the program during summer,” said H.A. Musser, Jr., President and CEO of Santa Maria Community Services.
Santa Maria will offer summer reading camp groups three times in July for children participating in the POP program. This program is in partnership with University of Cincinnati Speech and Pathology Department (UCSPD) and the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. The focus will be on phonological awareness, common sight words, and educating parents on the importance of home literacy.
“The Scripps Howard Foundation is delighted to support Santa Maria’s POP program, which aligns perfectly with our mission to improve childhood literacy,” said Liz Carter, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. “Giving children books opens their imagination and plants the seeds for future success.”
UCSPD Master Program students will offer two literacy camps online and one in-person with language-based lessons. Simultaneously to children’s group sessions, students will hold parent groups where they will discuss literacy and language topics.
The reading camps will meet online on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 and Wednesday, July 27, 2022, and in-person on Friday, July 29, 2022 at the Price Hill Branch of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.