Read Santa Clara has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust toward their work with the teen mothers at the Young Parents Center (YPC) of Wilson High School to encourage them to read for pleasure and to share a love of reading with their young children. The Foundation & Friends teamed with Read Santa Clara to prepare and submit the application.
The Trust agreed with us that these teen Moms are inspirational – they are 15-18 years old and while pursuing their high school diploma they are also raising babies and toddlers. It is hard to fit reading for pleasure into the schedule of young Moms, but Read Santa Clara makes it easier by helping them to find books and encouraging them to make reading fun for their children. The program enables the moms to not only nurture the early literacy skills of their children but begin to view visiting libraries and reading books as pleasurable activities in their daily lives. Before the program, most of these teen moms had earlier considered reading not as a joy, but instead as a requirement for school.