Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library
News Release
Issued: Monday, January 24, 2022
Rochester, NY – Thanks to a $16,000 grant from the Florence M. Muller Foundation, the Rochester Public Library (RPL) will provide early literacy tools to families, training to childcare providers, and 500 Talking is Teaching kits to childcare centers (including tote bags, books, blocks with letters and numbers, and information on regional resources). RPL will also hire a student intern for 30 weeks to help build the Trusted Messenger Network.
As a private charitable foundation, The Florence M. Muller Foundation is dedicated to promoting the welfare of our community and our natural environment through grant-making that supports child well-being, education, health care, and environmental conservation.
To enhance the area’s early literacy offerings, RPL is joining forces with The Child Care Council, Nazareth College, Get Ready to GROW, and WXXI to launch Talking is Teaching: Talk, Sing, Read Greater Rochester. Talking is Teaching leverages Trusted Messengers to encourage families to Talk, Read, and Sing throughout their day, to help give their children a foundation for success.
Tonia Burton – Central Library’s award-winning Children’s Services Consultant – is spearheading RPL’s Talking is Teaching initiative, one of several literacy projects she oversees. “Tonia has focused attention on family literacy as the vehicle to move children and their families out of poverty,” says Rochester Public Library and Monroe County Library System Director Patricia Uttaro.
If you'd like to support the Talking is Teaching initiative, contact FFRPL Executive Director, Donna Borgus: donna.borgus@libraryweb.org, 585-428-832.
###