News Release

03/14/2007
RI Family Literacy Initiative Wins Verizon $5,000 Tech Savvy Award

The Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative (RIFLI), a public library collaborative program based at Providence Public Library, has been selected as one of five winners across the country in the inaugural Verizon Tech Savvy Awards. The RIFLI public library collaboration includes the Cranston, East Providence, Pawtucket and Providence public library systems. For its efforts, RIFLI has been named the Eastern Regional Verizon Tech Savvy Award winner and will receive a $5,000 reward to continue and expand its program.

Representatives of the program accepted the award at the 16th annual National Conference on Family Literacy, hosted by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) in Orlando, Fla. Programs in California, Iowa and Texas were also honored with regional awards. The first Verizon Tech Savvy National Award was presented to Enemy Swim Day School in Waubay, S.D., which will receive a $25,000 reward.

“RIFLI is thrilled to receive this honor and to be singled out as a leader in the field,” said Karisa Tashjian, RIFLI’s Literacy Program Coordinator. The public library collaboration includes the Cranston, East Providence, Pawtucket and Providence public library systems.

The Verizon Tech Savvy Awards are a joint creation of NCFL, former First Lady of Iowa Christie Vilsack and the Verizon Foundation. It is the first national award designed to provide an incentive for grassroots, community-based nonprofit organizations and schools to create programs that demystify technology for parents, enabling them to better guide their children in the use of new media.

“To truly improve literacy and education for the 21st century, we need a comprehensive approach that reaches beyond the classrooms and into community programs and homes,” said Verizon Foundation President Patrick Gaston. “These programs are prime examples of how technology can be used to spread educational opportunities to ensure a brighter future for our communities.”

Here are some highlights of the RIFLI program:

• Participants learn real world skills such as creating brochures or spreadsheets to support the start of a home daycare business; or inserting digital photos into PowerPoint presentations that puts language to experiences outside the classroom.
• Parents participate in “parent-teacher” conferences to help them gain the language skills needed to become advocates for their children.
• And, parents and children are given free computer time where they can work together on the computer, visit educational websites while improving computer skills and working closely with their children. This interaction sometimes leads to a situation where the child is helping to teach the parent about technology.

The RI Family Literacy Initiative is supported by Federal LSTA funding through the RI Office of Library & Information Services and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the City of Pawtucket Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from US HUD and the R.I. Department of Education. See www.rifli.org for more information about RIFLI.

Details of the programs honored at the Verizon Tech Savvy Awards have been added to the Verizon Literacy Network to serve as an educational resource, highlighting best practices and approaches for technology literacy across the lifespan. Those resources can be accessed online at www.thinkfinity.org.

Thinkfinity is the Verizon Foundation’s signature digital learning platform, combining authoritative, standards-based K-12 educational content and robust professional development with research and evidence-based resources and practices for literacy across the lifespan.