"Big Ideas in Small Books"

by Helen Clare Taylor   

Beaird Family Foundation Supports

PRIME TIME in North Louisiana

Congratulations to all spring 2012 PRIME TIME grant recipients! Approximately 40 requests for PRIME TIME funding were received for the spring 2012 term in Louisiana. Due to a limited amount of available funding, only 23 of those requests could be approved. Grants and support solicited from corporate and private sources will fund 100% of programs awarded throughout the state. Additional information on these programs will be available soon at www.primetimefamily.org.

Spring 2012 Award Recipients:

With support from the Florida Humanities Council and the Shell Oil Corporation, a new French-language PRIME TIME program will be piloted in south Florida beginning in spring 2012. The program will be organized jointly by the French Heritage Language Program and the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance and will be held in Miami's Little Haiti area. The series will feature a combination of French-language titles as well as noted books and stories from the Haitian community. As thousands of Haitian children have sought refuge in Miami after the 2010 earthquake, the demand for quality programming in the French language and French heritage has increased sharply. PRIME TIME will complement the already rich and diverse programming efforts of the French Heritage Language Program with the goal of helping targeted Haitian families maintain a strong connection to both their language and culture of origin through the use of stories and facilitated family dialogue.

In the fall of 2010 the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities embarked on a new endeavor to offer PRIME TIME Family Reading Time in a year-round model through full-time, direct administration. November 2011 marks the first year of the project, and the fifth successful PRIME TIME program at the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center in New Orleans. The latest program had the largest attendance yet serving a total of 41 families, and was held in partnership with the Central City Renaissance Alliance and Mahalia Jackson Elementary School. To date PRIME TIME has reached a total of 130 families through the year-round model. Statistics from the fall 2011 session are representative of the successes had throughout the year:

• 80% reported PRIME TIME attendance enhanced the way they share books at home
• 27% reported an increase in reading at home
• 20% reported an improvement in the quality of their book discussions at home
• 33% increase in library use reported by participant families

The partnership at the Mahalia Jackson Center has been very fruitful in that LEH has been able to create many organizational alliances, which is in keeping with the mission of the center. The LEH has also been able to forward work on other initiatives through work at the center such as developing and piloting a new PRIME TIME Preschool model, which will be unveiled in January 2012. We look forward to continued service to our Central City families, and to bringing other programs to fruition through our partnerships at the MJC.

The annual conference of the Federation of State Humanities Councils was held from November 3rd - 6th in St. Petersburg, Florida. In addition to celebrating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the first state humanities councils, the theme for this year's gathering of council representatives emphasized "Re-Imagining the American Dream." According to conference organizers, our nation is amidst "...the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, wars of attrition in Afghanistan and Iraq, the wake of the environmental disaster of the BP oil spill, and the increasingly uncivil and polarizing rhetoric of our national politics challenging the very governance of our republic." Accordingly, this year's conference addressed the significant question: "What does 'The American Dream' mean to the citizens of our na­tion?"

The LEH agrees that this is a timely question. PRIME TIME recently completed its highly successful, NEH-funded project Common Ground which allowed participants to explore humanities themes and issues that are closely associated with the American identity and the various interpretations of what it means to be an American. On Saturday, November 5th from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., LEH staff members facilitated a session titled "Exploring American Dreams and Realities with PRIME TIME" along with experienced PRIME TIME practitioners from around the country. The session was planned as part of the "Hands on Humanities" portion of the conference which allowed attendees to have an "up close and personal" experience with successful humanities programs. An enthusiastic group of humanities council representatives were in attendance. The session began with a PRIME TIME Sampler, a participatory presentation of how PRIME TIME engages economically and educationally disadvantaged families in a high quality humanities educational experience. An experienced storyteller and scholar team brought a selected story to life, engaged the participants, and facilitated a discussion rooted in themes and ideas that matter to adults and children alike. The session concluded with a presentation of Stemming the Tide of Intergenerational Illiteracy: A Ten-Year Impact Study of PRIME TIME by LEH staff members.

Speakers included: Harry Coverston, Ph.D., University of Central Florida; Antoinette Griffin, Orange County Library System; Patricia Putman, Florida Humanities Council; Kathleen Pool, Kentucky Humanities Council and Miranda Restovic, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities as moderator.

The LEH and PRIME TIME staff were delighted to take part in the annual conference once again. Please visit the conference website for additional information.