Literacy Grant Spotlight: Interprofessional Toy Fair and Expo

The deadline for applying for a 2020 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant is right around the corner! Grants of up to $2,500 are available to Society chapters and members to fund ongoing literacy projects or to create new initiatives. The Society's commitment to the cause of literacy grows out of and is consistent with its mission which includes a goal " to engage the community of scholars in service to others."

In 2019, 13 projects were chosen with focuses ranging from helping teachers in their first three years of service to providing literacy support to villages in Tanzania. For the Office of Interprofessional Education at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the funding helped support the school’s annual Interprofessional Toy Fair and Expo.

One in six children in the U.S. has one or more developmental disabilities or delays. The expo gives those children from birth to age three, and their families, hands-on demonstrations of how playing and reading can be incorporated into the learning environment to increase growth and development. The families also receive educational materials, books, and a therapeutic toy appropriate to their delay or disability.

“At Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, we believe that helping people in our communities is a primary goal of health professions education. By partnering with service organizations like Phi Kappa Phi, we are able to make tangible differences in the lives of children with delays and/or disabilities that live and grow in our community,” shared Dr. Renee Bogschutz, director of Interprofessional Education at TTUHSC.

The 2019 Toy Fair and Expo educated more than 150 families on use of books and toys to increase development and combat delays.

Could your project be the next one chosen for a Literacy Grant? Visit www.phikappaphi.org/literacy to learn more about all of the 2019 Literacy Grant recipients or to start your own grant application. Deadline for applications is April 1, 2020.

Photo provided by Renee Bogschutz – Nursing, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology students from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center demonstrate the use of a toy to a family who has a child with Down’s Syndrome.