Afterschool reading and math grants awarded

[From Philanthropy News Digest] The New York Life Foundation has announced a two-year, $1.6 million grant to the Oakland-based Developmental Studies Center to expand its afterschool reading and math enrichment programs nationally.

Building on New York Life Foundation grants of $700,000 in 2007 and $2.4 million in 2008, the latest funding will enable at least eight hundred new sites around the country to participate in the Afterschool KidzLit and Afterschool KidzMath programs, bringing the total number of participating sites to three thousand. KidzLit is a K-8 reading enrichment and social development program built around nearly two hundred popular children's books featuring diverse cultures and settings, while KidzMath is a K-6 math enrichment and social development program that utilizes a mix of fifty collaborative games and twenty math-related storybooks.

Program sites receive free professional development for two or three of their staff members at thirty workshops across the country as well as a 10 percent discount on materials. High-need program sites (those with at least 50 percent disadvantaged children) receive a 25 percent discount on materials.