Faye Flanagan
Co-Director
504.620.2485
flanagan@leh.org
Miranda Restovic
Co-Director
504.620.2486
Dianne Brady
Senior Consultant
318.728.0026
bountifulw@aol.com
Olivia Pass, PhD
Associate Director
225.635.0092
pass@leh.org
Shantrell Adams
Assistant Director
504.620.2625
adams@leh.org
Christopher Robert
Program Assistant
504.620.2639
Michael Sartisky, PhD
President
504.620.2480
sartisky@leh.org
National Partners:
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| Changes to PRIME TIME Staff Announced |
 Effective January 2009, Miranda Restovic, formerly Assistant Director, will serve as Co-Director of PRIME TIME, along with Faye Flanagan. Having begun working with PRIME TIME in 2000, Faye has served as Co-Director and Director since 2005. "It is going to be a pleasure to have a Co-Director once more since the project is growing exponentially. Miranda is outstanding in so many ways that it is hard to list all that she will bring to this role. Her ability to build collaborations, her fluency in other languages, and her deep appreciation of the PRIME TIME goals, methodology, and impact make her the ideal candidate for this position," said Flanagan. Dr. Michael Sartisky, President/Executive Director, of the LEH added, "This was a long-planned transition that allows us to retain our most senior and experienced staff and begin the transition through a co-directorship of a new generation to a new phase of PRIME TIME." "I am honored to help continue the legacy of successful humanities-based family literacy programming across our state and nation. PRIME TIME is an outstanding program with outstanding people supporting its mission. I look forward to our continued successes together," said Restovic. Beginning in January 2009, the PRIME TIME staff will be comprised of the following individuals: Faye Flanagan and Miranda Restovic, Co-Directors; Dianne Brady, Senior Consultant; Olivia Pass, Associate Director; and Shantrell Adams, Assistant Director. In addition, the team welcomes a new staff member, Christopher Robért as the Program Assistant.  Christopher Robért is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston where he studied audio production and art history. During this time, he also worked for the Boston Public Library. After a five-year tenure at a Chicago record store, he has returned home to New Orleans. Christopher says he is thrilled to be a part of the PRIME TIME team. |
| LEH Public Humanities Programming Award |
The 2009 Public Humanities Programming Award goes to:
 Karen McPheeters, director of the Farmington Public Library in New Mexico which has conducted more than two dozen PRIME TIME programs, is a major player in the national expansion of the LEH's PRIME TIME literacy program. Karen has worked tirelessly to secure funding to sustain PRIME TIME programs in New Mexico; which are among the most successful in the nation. She has committed her entire staff to the effort by ensuring that they are knowledgeable about PRIME TIME, and in many cases; trained in its philosophy and methodology.
McPheeters continues to be an important ambassador for the award-winning family literacy model, serving on many state and national committees. For the last eight years, she has spread the news about PRIME TIME all over the U.S., and has served as a PRIME TIME panelist on national panels for the American Library Association, the Public Library Association, the Federation of Humanities Councils, and the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color. The LEH and PRIME TIME staff are immensely appreciative of Karen and her commitment to the humanities and literacy on behalf of New Mexico's families. |
| Training Workshop in New Orleans |
 PRIME TIME hosted the first Training Workshop of 2009 in New Orleans during the weekend of January 17 - 18 at the Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners' Hall in the LEH's Education Center. PRIME TIME Training Workshops offer intense instruction and practice in program philosophy, methodology, and implementation for new scholars, storytellers, program coordinators, community organizers, and preschool coordinators. The PRIME TIME staff met with more than 80 team members from Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, and New Mexico who were trained to work with Spring 2009 sites. For more information regarding upcoming PRIME TIME Training Workshops, contact Shantrell Adams. |
| 2008 NEH Sites Evaluated |
 With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 20 successful PRIME TIME programs in 5 states (FL, MI, NJ, NY, OK) were conducted in 2008. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities once again partnered with the American Library Association Public Programs Office to expand PRIME TIME nationally by bringing to public libraries a non-traditional audience of low-literacy, Spanish-speaking families for a six-week series of reading and discussion programs under the guidance of trained humanities scholars and storytellers.
"Working with the talented state project directors, program coordinators, scholars and storytellers involved in bringing bilingual PRIME TIME programs to their communities was an exciting and gratifying experience. We greatly appreciate the funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities that once again made national expansion possible," says grant project director, Dianne Brady.
The success of the project is reflected in an average attendance of 55 participants per session with 440 library cards being issued. In his preliminary evaluation report of 12 sites, project evaluator, Dr. James Barr, stated, "Based on the evidence gathered, the distinct findings support the goals of the program and demonstrate that PRIME TIME is completing its stated goals."
Dr. Barr's final evaluation report will include specified reports and surveys from all 20 sites as well as the 90-day follow-up surveys. The findings from this report will be available to PRIME TIME affiliates upon request after March 31, 2009. View key findings from the preliminary evaluation.
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| PRIME TIME Presentations Scheduled at Statewide and National Conferences this March |
 Louisiana Library Association Conference in Baton Rouge Louisiana
The Louisiana Library Association (LLA) is set to host its annual conference March 12-14, 2009. PRIME TIME's session "Reach! Expand! & Inspire! with PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME®" will take place on Friday, March 13, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. Session attendees will learn how this award-winning family literacy program can help their library reach new patrons, expand services and circulation, and inspire families to read and use the library. PRIME TIME Co-Director, Miranda Restovic will be joined by Dr. Jill Brody and Bernadine Salinas (an experienced scholar/storyteller team) to provide details on program components as well as model bilingual storytelling and discussion. For additional details, contact Miranda Restovic.
 National Conference on Family Literacy in Orlando, Florida
The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) has accepted PRIME TIME's proposal to host a session at its 18th National Conference on Family Literacy in Orlando, Florida; March 1 - 3, 2009. The session "PRIME TIME: A Model Outreach Program" will explain how the PRIME TIME model has achieved great success in terms of outreach and impact among hard-to-reach populations in communities across the country. PRIME TIME Assistant Director, Shantrell Adams, will facilitate the session, along with PRIME TIME Associate Director Olivia Pass, and Florida Humanities Council Consultant and PRIME TIME scholar, Carol Mahler on March 1, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. For additional information on the conference and/or the PRIME TIME session, please contact Shantrell Adams. |
| PRIME TIME Targets Literacy at John Dibert School |
 PRIME TIME returns to John Dibert School in New Orleans for a third year of programming this spring; however, this year's program is part of the extensive literacy programming funded by Target Corporation through the New Orleans Kids Partnership (NOKP). The New Orleans Kids Partnership is a collaborative of 30+ community organizations, foundations, and businesses that work with the New Orleans community organizations and families to help children and youth reach their optimal potential. At John Dibert School, NOKP has brought together 5 organizations that will coordinate a wide variety of literacy activities for the school, its families, and the surrounding community. The organizations that will be coordinating programming and services include the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and PRIME TIME, Start the Adventure in Reading (STAIR), City Year of New Orleans, Urban League of Greater New Orleans, and the Louisiana Children's Museum.
PRIME TIME will be coordinated by the staff of the STAIR program in conjunction with the school and LEH staff. The program will recruit target families from the school, the city-wide STAIR sites, as well as from the nearby community. Dr. Nancy Dixon, Professor of English at the University of New Orleans; and Donald Lewis, actor and popular New Orleans storyteller, will serve as the discussion leaders. Both leaders bring years of PRIME TIME experience to the project. |
| Coming Up Taller Winners Partner with NORD at the Re-opening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for Performing Arts |
 As a 2000 recipient of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities' Coming Up Taller Award, PRIME TIME participated in the celebratory re-opening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans on January 11, 2009. In coordination with the New Orleans Department of Recreation (NORD), the New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA), and several other New Orleans-based Coming Up Taller Award winners, PRIME TIME offered an informational display for parents and educators in attendance at the free, family-oriented event, which featured a 90-minute performance of theater, music, and dance featuring talented youth from the Greater New Orleans area. Click here for details on the event. Or click here for more information on the Coming Up Taller Award. |
Erika Hamilton Wins Award for PRIME TIME Work in Nebraska
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 On October 18, 2008, Nebraska Humanities Council (NHC) Senior Program Officer Erika Hamilton received the Read Aloud Champion Award at the Nebraska Book Festival awards luncheon in recognition of her efforts to expand PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME® in Nebraska. The annual award is given by Read Aloud Nebraska to a group or individual who has "made a significant contribution toward our mission of promoting healthy, successful children and families through reading aloud."
In presenting the award, Pat Leach, Director of the Lincoln City Libraries, described the work that Hamilton had done to develop a statewide network to support PRIME TIME. Leach said it was every librarian's dream to see parents and children reading books and discussing them together as families, and she thanked Hamilton for helping to make that a reality in libraries and schools across the state.
The PRIME TIME staff congratulates Erika on her well-deserved honor. The staff also wishes to thank Erika and the NHC for their commitment to PRIME TIME and the improvement of literacy among at-risk families in Nebraska. Since 2002, 46 successful PRIME TIME programs (39 of them bilingual) have been implemented throughout Nebraska. Learn more about PRIME TIME in Nebraska by clicking here.
*Portions of this entry were reprinted with permission from the Nebraska Humanities Council Newsletter (Dec. 2008). | |
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