Grant to Aid At-Risk Students, Families

Programs to help students achieve in school and at-risk families learn positive parenting skills were given a boost with the announcement Tuesday of $270,000 in grants from the California Community Foundation.

The North Hollywood-based Project GRAD Los Angeles, which works to increase the number of college-bound students, will use its $150,000 grant to hire three outreach workers. The workers will coordinate a new reading awards program for kindergarten students at Pacoima Elementary School, Maclay Primary Center and Broadous Elementary School, three Pacoima schools that have large enrollments of minority students, said Ashley De Lucca, communications director for Project GRAD.

“These schools were chosen because that’s where the need is,” De Lucca said.

A separate $120,000 grant will be awarded to Antelope Valley Hospital’s Healthy Homes program, which assists at-risk families in Lancaster, Palmdale and Lake Los Angeles.

Since the program started in 1998, 219 families have been served, said program director Lea Butterfield. In-home workers teach parenting skills and connect families with community services that will help them lead positive lives, she said.

“We’re helping them create healthy, nurturing homes for their kids, thereby preventing negative outcomes like child maltreatment,” Butterfield said.