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Oct 21, 2021 I
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WATCH: Empowering Families and Community Connections with Flipgrid

This guest blog post is written by Ann Kozma, Educator Innovation Lead at Flipgrid.  "Educators, families, and communities can all embrace the power of play and enhance and strengthen ...  Read more »

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Oct 7, 2021 I
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Guest post: Turning a wish into reality: How a community came together to support youth

This post is authored by Leila Kubesch, 2020 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year.  One afternoon, a student of mine stayed after class to share how much he wished our school still offered a ...  Read more »

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Sep 30, 2021 I
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Guest post: How Virtual Reality forges deep connection

Ways that VR can be a social emotional learning “connection engine” inside-out and outside-in, for building meaningful empathy-rich learning-and-being experiences Caitlin Krause is a partner and ...  Read more »

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Sep 3, 2021 I
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Guest post: Going virtual with 3Ts Let’s Talk Dads!

The Statewide Family Engagement Center (SFEC) Network is comprised of 12 Statewide Family Engagement Centers in 13 states across the country and works to advance family engagement partnerships to ...  Read more »

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Mar 24, 2021 I
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Water, please!

Note: Leila Kubesch is a teacher at Norwood City Schools in Cincinnati and was named the 2020 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year by Toyota and the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL). As many ...  Read more »

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Mar 11, 2021 I
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Hats off, teachers: how we can teach from the heart during a pandemic

Note: Leila Kubesch is a teacher at Norwood City Schools in Cincinnati and was named the 2020 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year by Toyota and the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL). Her ...  Read more »

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Mar 2, 2020 I
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Read Across America: Read with intent

This post is authored by Gloria Pereyra-Robertson, a bilingual kindergarten teacher from Medford, Oregon, who sees the real benefits of books that represent an array of experiences and cultures every ...  Read more »

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Aug 29, 2019 I
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Community builders: Getting started

When starting a meeting, event, or new cohort, it is natural to want to get participants warmed up with a community builder activity. With so many community building ideas out there, how do you go ...  Read more »

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Jul 10, 2019 I
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Guest post: How parents help their children to become readers

The following is part of a series of guest posts by leaders in the field of literacy and family learning. This post is authored by Timothy Shanahan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University ...  Read more »

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Jun 13, 2019 I
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Setting an example: Young children motivating their parents to earn a GED® diploma

Parents and guardians are the first, and often remain the primary, influencer when it comes to how children feel about education and what personal and professional goals they set at an early ...  Read more »

NCFL Partners

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Toyota

Toyota, one of the nation's most successful corporations, began a partnership with NCFL in 1991. In addition to a commitment of more than $50 million, Toyota has also contributed a wealth of in-kind support — including advertising, planning and management expertise — to form one of the most progressive corporate/nonprofit partnerships in the nation.

Three major programs have been developed through the Toyota partnership based on the family literacy model of parents and children learning together. These models have influenced federal and state legislation, leveraged local dollars to support family literacy and led to successful programs being replicated across the country.

Read more about Toyota's commitment to communities

William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust

NCFL received its very first donation in 1989 from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust to promote and implement family literacy programming, first in Kentucky and North Carolina and later nationwide. The Kenan Family Literacy Model in part laid the groundwork for 30 years of subsequent family literacy and family learning programming developed by NCFL.

Kenan has continued to support NCFL’s place-based family literacy programs since our inception. Most recently, it has invested in our organization’s Sharon Darling Innovation Fund, which will launch emerging ideas and programmatic evolutions in the multigenerational learning space.

Learn more about the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust

Dollar General Literacy Foundation

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation began partnering with NCFL in 2006. A signature effort of this partnership is the National Literacy Directory, a resource that launched in 2010 and strives to guide potential students and volunteers to literacy services, community education programs, and testing centers in their communities.

The National Literacy Directory contains over 10,000 educational agencies located across the United States and has a dedicated toll-free number to help support those wanting to pursue educational opportunities in their communities.

Dollar General also provides support for development of NCFL’s innovative family learning resources centered on financial literacy and Parent and Child Together (PACT) Time®.

Learn more about the Dollar General Literacy Foundation

PNC Grow Up Great

PNC Grow Up Great believes deeply in the power of high-quality early childhood education and provides innovative opportunities that assist families, educators and community organizations to enhance children's learning and development.

PNC Grow Up Great has partnered with NCFL since 1994, most recently in Louisville, Kentucky, to support Say & Play with Words, our pre-Kindergarten vocabulary-building initiative.

NCFL's work is also featured on the PNC Grow Up Great Lesson Center website. The Lesson Center includes over 100 free, high-quality preschool lesson plans and research-based instructional techniques and strategies. All lesson plans contain Home/School Connections printouts, in English and Spanish, to help families extend and reinforce the learning at home.

Learn more about PNC Grow Up Great

U.S. Department of Education

Initiated through the U.S. Department of Education in 2018, the Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFEC) program provides 12 grantees and 13 states with five-year, $5 million grants to promote and implement systemic evidenced-based family engagement strategies. NCFL was selected to lead SFECs in two states, Arizona and Nebraska, and is a primary partner for two other SFECs in Kentucky and Maryland/Pennsylvania. 

The SFECs work to support family engagement through state- and local-level agencies while providing both professional development to school districts and direct services to families related to children’s academic outcomes and overall well-being.

Learn more about the U.S. Department of Education

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

NCFL was named a recipient of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s "Voices for Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge," which seeks to elevate diverse voices in order to broaden the conversation about the issues inhibiting economic mobility and generate deeper awareness along with actionable understanding. NCFL will develop and launch a podcast series that will highlight the remarkable stories of low-income, diverse families across the U.S. who have improved their communities through Family Service Learning.

Foundation Website