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Feb 20, 2023 I
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The Heart of Family Learning: Advancing equity in communities through multigenerational learning systems

Greetings to our community of families, practitioners, and supporters. It’s Black History Month, and NCFL is proud to honor and celebrate the contributions made by members of the Black community. ...  Read more »

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Jan 25, 2023 I
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The Heart of Family Learning: Driving positive change in communities through policy

Hello and happy new year! After taking a much-needed rest at the end of December, here at NCFL, we’ve hit the ground running in 2023! The turn of the year brings renewed hopes and dreams for ...  Read more »

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Dec 16, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: A year in review

Greetings to our community of families, practitioners, friends, and advocates. As 2022 comes to a close, I am reflecting on my travels across the country to meet with community partners and see ...  Read more »

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Nov 22, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: Families leading and learning through service

November is National Family Literacy Month, and NCFL has been sharing resources in family literacy throughout the month in a variety of ways, including on social media. We hope you’ve found these ...  Read more »

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Oct 20, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: Families learning, families leading, equitable communities

Excitement is in the air as we gear up to host the virtual portion of our hybrid 2022 Families Learning Conference on October 25-26! In my blog post this month, I highlight conference sessions that ...  Read more »

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Sep 27, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: Fostering collaborative partnerships for learning systems

In Dr. Dana Suskind’s recent book, “Parent Nation” she writes, “Real, essential change will occur only when there is a concerted, collective, national effort to bring it about” (p. 23). In ...  Read more »

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Aug 25, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: The start of the school year brings potential for engaging families

Greetings to the NCFL community of families, educators, and practitioners. After taking a break in July, I’m eager to resume my monthly blog, just in time for the start of school! This time of year ...  Read more »

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Jun 17, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: Building the conditions to support transformational change

Since January, I have shared NCFL’s 60x30 vision for building equitable and thriving communities across the country; that is, by 2030, we will have established aligned and coordinated Family ...  Read more »

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May 23, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: Building capacity of educators and families through family engagement

Over the past few months, I have advanced a description of NCFL’s vision for what it would mean to have Family Learning Systems in communities across the country. These systems are grounded in and ...  Read more »

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Apr 20, 2022 I
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At the Heart of Family Learning: Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through family leadership

Greetings to our community members! Past blog posts of my monthly column have focused on defining a Family Learning System and how building coordinated and aligned systems of family literacy, family ...  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