2,000 Served

Since its inception in 2006, WSU’s Family Literacy Program has reached 2,000 Weber County families.

The focus is to mentor and educate the parents of Head Start children. The majority of participants, 87%, come from lower-income backgrounds, and 60% identify as Latino or other ethnic minority.

“Many children in the Ogden area do not possess the literacy skills critical to later academic success,” said Paul Schvaneveldt, Family Literacy Program director. “Thus, cycles of lower levels of educational attainment and subsequent poverty may be perpetuated across generations unless children are given opportunities to develop literacy skills at an early age, leading to a trajectory of academic accomplishment.”

Read how the Family Literacy Program inspired one mom here.