The Kentucky Humanities Council, in cooperation with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, will bring an award-winning family literacy program to Smiths Grove April 5th.

Prime Time Family Reading Time will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays from April 5 to May 10, at the Warren County Public Library — Smiths Grove Branch, 127 South Main Street, Smiths Grove. The program is free and includes meals, transportation and educational childcare for younger siblings. You can pre-register by contacting the library.

Prime Time Family Reading Time helps families bond around the act of reading and talking about books. In each of six weekly sessions, a discussion leader and storyteller lead programs that demonstrate effective reading techniques. The books introduced to children ages 6 to 10 and their parents explore timeless issues of humanity – fairness, greed, courage, coping and determination – while helping them understand the dynamics of making life choices. A “library commercial” in each session will help families become active public library users, and a family door prize will be given away each week.

The storyteller is Deborah Cox, and Roxanne Spencer is the Prime Time scholar.

Kentucky Humanities Council Executive Director Virginia Carter says Prime Time will extend the council’s statewide literacy efforts. “Since 1989 we’ve produced and distributed New Books for New Readers, which are aimed at adult literacy students,” Carter said. “Prime Time targets young at-risk readers before it’s too late to turn them around. Homes without books are lives without hope.”

Prime Time Family Reading Time has won awards from the Public Library Association and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities created the program in 1995. Its studies showed that children who went through Prime Time increased their reading time by 80 percent and doubled their trips to the library. The program also benefited their parents, who improved their parenting skills and, in 29 percent of the cases studied, their employment status.

The Kentucky Humanities Council is a non-profit Kentucky corporation affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is not a state agency, but is a proud partner with the state’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. For information about the Kentucky Humanities Council’s programs and services, visit www.kyhumanities.org. For information about the Warren County Public Library, visit www.warrenpl.org.

Family Literacy Facts

According to the National Center for Family Literacy:

• Adults stay enrolled in family literacy programs longer than in most adult-only programs, and their attendance is higher.
• Children participating in family literacy programs made gains at least three times greater than would have been expected based on their pre-enrollment rate of development.
• Adults significantly improve their self-confidence, their confidence in parenting abilities, and their employment status (by 29 percent).
• Children showed an 80 percent increase in reading books. They also made twice as many trips to the library.
• Prime Time’s statistics support these national findings:
• 99.7 percent retention rate.
• Changing the way parents talk with their children. Seventy-four percent of parents reported that Prime Time enhanced discussion with reading, fostering more reading or a better quality of reading time, or led to better interactions with their children.

The need in Kentucky:

• 26 percent of Kentucky’s adults do not have a high school education.
• 15 percent of the population with young children represent at-risk families.
• 15 percent of the population with young children have a household income of less than $15,000.
• 10 percent of these families have no car; 5 percent have no telephone.
• Most of these families have no books.

Source: 2000 Census