We were honored to partner with The Learning Lab for Year 4 in Project 100. The Learning Lab serves over 492 adults and children and provides literacy education, including reading, writing, math, GED prep programs, and English language. With the $10,000, the Learning Lab was able to do a much-needed update of their early childhood classrooms and their outdoor playground.

In November 1988 the CRPD (Community Research & Project Development) Committee presented League members with 5 project proposals: literacy, school age childcare, oral history of women as community leaders, a parent and provider resource center, and a victim-witness program. After the literacy proposal received overwhelming support, members spent months continuing community research, and in September of 1989 the project was finalized. Cathy Silak served as the first Chair of the JL Literacy Committee. By 1990, Literacy had grown requiring 22 placed members, the skills needed were finance/budgeting, grant writing, public speaking, desire to teach adult literacy, desire to train JL members to teach and an interest in promoting literacy in the community. By the end of the 1994 League year, the Literacy Project had acquired a life of its own and required day-to-day supervision of its own. The Literacy Lab was born, with its own board of directors, legal tax status, systems of financial controls, and a detailed-far-reaching strategic plan, all with JLB member Gemma Van Hole at the helm. It was truly a case where the League recognized a need in the community and created a solution. Fast forward 30 years, and you’ll find the League once again supporting literacy in the community through a $10,000 grant to the Learning Lab, as our Year 4 Project 100 partner.