Read with Me!
is an
Innovative Approaches to Literacy Grant (IAL 2018)
provided through
The Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC)
and
The U.S. Department of Education.

The work of PAEC’s Read with Me!  (RWM) is to improve literacy skills for high-need children in grades PreK-8 in some of the most economically distressed rural communities in the Florida Panhandle.  Read with Me! is a grant obtained by PAEC that will serve five of its highest poverty districts:

Franklin, Gadsden, Holmes, Taylor and Jackson.

PAEC and RWM are promoting literacy through the collaboration of the following agencies:

Early Learning coalition of Northwest Florida

Florida Department of Health (FDOH)

National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (Mag Lab)

North Florida Medical Centers (NFMC)

PanCare of Florida, Inc. (PanCare)

RWM’s Primary Goals:

• To increase the knowledge of parents about literacy, language acquisition and how to support and increase their children’s early literacy knowledge and reading and writing skills development.
• To increase family literacy activities, particularly READING ALOUD, which has a positive impact on brain development, through distribution of free books to children and families.
• To improve knowledge and increase student achievement through providing literacy professional development for teachers, library staff and healthcare professionals.

Project Director:  Dr. Maria Pouncey
Project Manager: Kay Brewton
Project Resource Specialist:  Mishelle Hidle

PAEC is an educational service partner serving 45,000 students in a consortia of fourteen small and rural districts in the Florida Panhandle: Franklin, Gadsden, Holmes, Taylor, Calhoun, Jackson, FAMU DRS, Gulf, Liberty, Wakulla, Washington, Walton, Madison, Jefferson