Meriden's Children First believes that family literacy is vital to the success of all children. With this belief, CFI created literacy projects or opportunities and partnered with community collaborative members to do workshops for the children and families. The CFI facilitator coordinated and encouraged the family literacy opportunities.

In 1998-99, CFI reflected on its work and made some changes to incorporate lessons learned from the CFI accomplishments. The original second goal of the CFI plan was reworded to read "Build the Capacity of Parents" rather than "Increase Parental Involvement." To reach this goal, several activities were developed, including creating skill-building activities to build family literacy.

The "Golden Books" were collected from various groups such as religious organizations, elementary schools, scouting groups, senior centers, etc. Believing that family literacy was vital to children's success, the community was very supportive. Notices requesting book contributions were sent out to the community and placed on RAVE, a public access cable channel.

For the "Books for Babies" initiative, the library and the new Mid-state Medical Center gave out packets of books and other material to new families at the hospital to encourage early family reading. More than 300 newborns are expected annually in Meriden over the next few years, with about 25% from Latino families.

The Family Literacy program could probably be sustained through Literacy Volunteer funds. CFI may be able to do partial funding to support this effort until it is incorporated into Literacy Volunteers programs.

"Golden Books" continue to come into the Parent Information Bureau even without notices for requests. This project is easy to sustain because of community support. No funds were required, just staff time.

For "Books for Babies," the partnership with Mid-state Medical Center makes this program relatively easy to maintain. It would be interesting to assess the impact on these children. Materials, such as the directory and Children First pamphlet, need to be replenished periodically. Funding may be required to increase the number of directories.

Recruitment of participants for the Literacy Volunteer program was a challenge. The next challenge was coordinating schedules for participants and volunteers before a class date could be set. No other issues occurred in the other areas.

Service providers became more aware of family or neighborhood situations as services and programs were brought out into the community. The Literacy Volunteers were introduced to different neighborhoods in the community and became more aware of the needs in Meriden. Families learned about Literacy Volunteers and learned more family literacy skills, including computer skills. Parents and caregivers were more aware of the importance of reading.

The "Golden Books" program made more reading material available for children and families at no cost. More partnerships developed with "Books for Babies" to enhance early family literacy. First-time parents were introduced to the importance of reading even at an early age. They were also introduced to a variety of resources important to early childhood development in the packet.