First Literacy Awards Over $40,000 in Grants to Seven Organizations

Replication Grant Recipients Casserly House and Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD).

BOSTON, MA – First Literacy is proud to announced their 2024-2025 grant recipients. Seven organizations were awarded grants to carry out innovative initiatives that will impact adult learners across Massachusetts. In total, $40,661 in grant funds were distributed to nonprofits with new and innovative Adult Basic Education projects.

Since 1988 First Literacy has focused on improving Adult Basic Education in the community. Grant funding initiatives have grown immensely over the years, supporting hundreds of organizations in the development and trial of innovative education programs.

“Every year, we receive applications from numerous organizations across the state,” said Terry Witherell, Executive Director. “Our goal is to fund creative ideas that will have a lasting impact in the field of Adult Basic Education and give ABE organizations the chance to share these ideas with others.”

Grants of up to $15,000 are open to all not-for-profit Adult Basic Education and English Language Learning organizations in Massachusetts. Grants can be used for projects such as developing and piloting a program idea, offering a short-term class that fills an unmet student need, or organization-wide initiatives.

“The seven projects we awarded funds to this year have an opportunity to impact over 1,500 adults in communities throughout Massachusetts,” said Bryan McCormick, First Literacy Program Director. “We are excited to support these ideas and see them come to life.”

This year First Literacy awarded its first-ever Replication Grant that will duplicate a successful and previously funded First Literacy grant project in a new community.

“Advancement, knowledge-sharing, and furthering impact are at the core of our work at First Literacy,” said Terry. “We are thrilled to award a replication grant and see two organizations partner together to share and implement a proven concept.”

Casserly House plans to partner with ABCD Boston-Roslindale to maximize the benefit of having ESOL lesson plans and annual community workshops on social determinants of health.  In sharing the teaching tools and best practices in ESOL teaching strategies that were developed by ABCD Boston-Roslindale with the initial First Literacy Grant in 2023-2024, Casserly House hopes to increase the scale exponentially, benefitting far more immigrants than would be possible for them to engage alone.

Other funded programs include a Students Are Leaders program that will provide leadership skills, development, and activities focused on the climate crisis; a mother/child reading program for incarcerated women that will provide age-appropriate books for children and assist the mothers in learning to read aloud with their children; a program that will help students pass their last HiSET exam by providing a weekly class, asynchronous practice exams, HiSET resources, motivation, and coaching; and an action research project, led by adult learning students, to collect information relative to recruitment, enrollment and persistence in a rural adult basic education program.

Charlestown Adult Education second year grant recipient.

Two organizations were also awarded second year funding to continue their programs. Charlestown Adult Education will use funds to further the impact of their Juvenile Justice Diversion Program which prevents youth and young adults from having a criminal record and increases educational and employment outcomes by creating pathways for success. The Casserly House will also continue their work with a consultant to assist all volunteer ESOL staff in the development of curriculum that will serve the newly arrived immigrant with little or no English-speaking skills.

“I am grateful that First Literacy was willing to take a chance on our idea and fund it because no one else would,” said Mswati Hanks, Project Leader of the Diversion Program at Charlestown Adult Education. “Without First Literacy and its generous funding it would be next to impossible to give the amazing young adults in our program a second chance at life and at education.”

In addition to offering grants, First Literacy provides free professional development to adult educators and awards scholarships to adult learners pursuing higher education. Since the organization’s founding in 1988, over $6 million has been allocated to support teachers and innovative literacy programs and over 600 scholarships have been awarded.