UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — WPSU is receiving a $150,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to fund the 2020-25 Ready To Learn initiative that will expand the reach of PBS KIDS early learning resources to communities in the Moshannon Valley.
The goal of the Ready To Learn initiative is to connect children’s media and learning environments to help build key skills for success in school and life, including functional literacy, critical thinking and collaboration, as well as showing them career options in age-appropriate ways.
“We are truly grateful for this opportunity to focus our efforts around the Moshannon Valley and to support the great work that is happening in this area to create a vibrant education environment for children and their families,” said Sarah Hamilton, education program manager for WPSU.
Over the next two years, contingent on congressional funding, WPSU will collaborate with the Moshannon Valley YMCA, CenClear and Central Intermediate Unit 10 to create a Learning Neighborhood that fosters a community-wide culture of learning at home, in the neighborhood, and within local systems and spaces.
“The YMCA is excited to partner with WPSU, CenClear and Central Immediate Unit 10 in bringing this program to the Moshannon Valley,” said Mel Curtis, director of anti-hunger for the YMCA of Centre County. “This affords all families the opportunity to take part and engage. Programs like this build strong families and strengthen our communities.”
Ready To Learn is a cooperative agreement funded and managed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. It supports the development of innovative educational television and digital media targeted at preschool and early elementary school children and their families. Its general goal is to promote early learning and school readiness, with a particular interest in reaching low-income children. In addition to creating television and other media products, the program supports activities intended to promote national distribution of the programming, effective educational uses of the programming, community-based outreach, and research on educational effectiveness.
CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in 1967, as the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB also is the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services.
WPSU is a public media station and a service of Penn State Outreach. WPSU-TV serves 24 counties in central Pennsylvania and reaches 515,000 households, and WPSU-FM is accessible to more than 450,000 listeners in 13 counties. The public media station also includes WPSU Digital Studios, which offers original web series that explore science, arts and culture.