Sharon Ball Mini Grant Info

A member survey indicated there was a need for an individual teacher or tutor to be able to purchase items which would be appropriate for the particular student they were tutoring. Tutors very often donate a lot of money in addition to time. Each student has very special needs, interests, and ways of learning. Money sometimes is lost in bureaucracy of agencies or groups.

The Coalition had collected money from our fund-raising events over the years and voted that this would be an appropriate way to support our volunteers and students. Since the initial request for applications, the Coalition has received special grants from local foundations to support the Mini Grant concept.

Each year the providers share the Mini Grant Application with their core of volunteers. Any person who worked with the student was able to apply and receive this grant. In the past the only limitation was that the student needed to be an adult, at least 16 and older since our charter said that we work with adults. The Coalition's board is reconsidering the possibility of opening some of the grants to tutors working with children.

Five grants of $200 each are distributed to those chosen by a committee of the Coalition board members, as the top rated applications for the year. The check is presented to the tutor at the annual volunteer recognition celebration. This year's application deadlines was September 21, 2006.

A sample of the items purchased by the tutors range from a printer to specialized dictionaries for particular languages to manipulatives for the students to better understand decoding and encoding of sounds to form words, phrases, and sentences.

Free adult basic education, GED preparation, and English as a second language classes can be found throughout Northwest Indiana. Your local education or literacy provider may offer college, business or trade school scholarships to students who have recently obtained a GED.

For more information, visit our Literacy Programs Near You web page. Contact the appropriate organization in your area for information on scholarships.

We'd love to hear from you! You may call us at 800.348.7798 or use the Contact Form to send us an email.

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