CAPE Projects (2005-2011)

The Community Alliances to Promote Education grant program was funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. One grant for $1.5 million funded Communities in Schools of Clark County, which coordinates programs that enable children to get help with their homework, receive counseling for problems at home, learn to read and even fight health problems. Communities in Schools continues to operate in Clark County. The second grant for $1.5 million went to the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. and was used for a reading initiative designed to help the most vulnerable young children in Floyd County. The major goal of that program was to help every third grader who participates in the program read on or above grade level. A portion of the second grant is held as an endowment by the Community Foundation and fuels ongoing efforts to find more grants to extend the CAPE programs in both counties. While the initial CAPE grant funding has ended, some of the programs started under the Floyd County CAPE grant have continued. Special family nights with reading as a theme are held at elementary schools periodically, and workshops for parents at Title 1 schools continue.