Fifty-four FGP volunteers will serve under the grant year 2017-2018

Thirty-one volunteers will be placed at twelve sites for a minimum of fifteen hours per week during the school year & assigned to four at risk students each, who has been identified by their teacher. These volunteers will conduct daily teacher approved activities that focus on helping kindergarten through grade twelve students reach their individualized, teacher-identified reading goals. Seventeen volunteers will be placed in eight preschool locations & will volunteer a minimum of fifteen hours per week over twelve months. These volunteers will each be assigned four at risk students. Their goal will be to improve pre-literacy skills working towards school readiness. Six volunteers will be assigned to non-impact sites for a minimum of fifteen hours per week over twelve months with at risk students focusing on their individual literacy skills. These non-impact sites will be two after school programs, three special need programs and one mental health site. The primary focus of this project is education for preschool through to grade twelve. At the end of the three year grant the foster grandparent program under the national performance measures education school readiness for preschoolers & improved academic performance in literacy for kindergarten to grade twelve, volunteers will have a) exposed the students to literacy activities b) encouraged the youth to remain in school to graduate & c) helped students achieve improvement in school readiness, reading and math skills, behavior and attitude. These goals will give the students a literacy foundation to graduate to the next grade level each year. Coastline elderly services, INC. Of new bedford, MA is the sponsoring agency applying for a grant renewal (year 1 of 3) of the senior corps grant for the foster grandparent program. The cncs federal investment of $291,223 for fifty-four volunteer service years will be supplemented by $52,888 non-federal funding. Volunteers will be assigned to twenty-six stations in the dartmouth, fairhaven, new bedford, wareham, and plymouth towns.