Agenda - 04-04-2000-5c - Laserfiche WebLink

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~' ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: Apri14, 2000 Action Agenda Item No. ~_G SUBJECT: Read-A-Week Proclamation DEPARTMENT: County Manager PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/1~ No ATTACHMENT(S): Letter from Lucy Lewis Read-A-Week proclamation Read-A-Week packet Read-A-Week press release INFORMATION CONTACT: Lucy Lewis - 933-2151 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968501 Durham 68&7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To request the BOCC to proclaim the week of April 10-17 as Read-A-Week in Orange County, and to provide a brief update on the Orange County READS initiative. BACKGROUND: Orange County READS, a new countywide literacy initiative, is sponsoring the first Orange County READ-A-WEEK from April 10-17. Schools, community organizations and civic groups, faith communities, and businesses aze being encouraged to join in proclaiming April 10-17 as READ-A-WEEK in Orange County. Participating groups are asked to use a portion of their regular school or business day or meeting time for reading activities and to report their results by submitting a Report Card. Orange County READS was initiated last fall when members of the Orange County Boazd of Commissioners, Orange County School Board, and Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board agreed that they wanted to work more closely with other community agencies to develop a comprehensive, holistic literacy strategy for Orange County. Its goals include promoting a positive climate regazding literacy and lifelong learning, increasing community awazeness, support, and participation for existing literacy programs/services in both school systems and community organizations, and piloting projects that promote literacy development across generations. The committee hopes to make READ-A-WEEK an annual event as part of its efforts to eliminate adult illiteracy in Orange County and assist all parents in helping their children to be ready for and succeeding in school. Last fall the BOCC provided $2,000 in seed money for the Orange County READS initiative. Both school systems also provided $2,000 each. These funds have been used to develop and distribute 25,000 informational brochures to all public schoolchildren, 30 banners for school and library buildings, and dozens of bumper stickers. The OCR initiative has obtained the support of several local newspapers for running a series of public service announcements featuring local community leaders reading, and expects to see those begin this spring. Plans are underway to use those ads in Chapel Hill's 541oca1 buses as well.