Local Early Education Center Receives Grant Funds
Little Sprouts Visits the State House in acknowledgement of receiving the Universal Preschool Grant

Merrimack Valley, MA.  April 21, 2008 - Little Sprouts is thrilled to announce that they have been awarded the Universal Pre-school Grant (UPK) for two consecutive years in a row.   The 2006-2008 Universal Pre-school Grants were awarded to the Little Sprouts in Haverhill and Lowell.  Also, Little Sprouts found out that their Haverhill and Andover centers are the 2008-2009 participants of the UPK Grant.  Representatives of the Universal Pre-school Grant reached out to Little Sprouts to invite them to speak to their state legislatures at the State House on April 15, 2008.  Little Sprouts –Lowell Director, Katherine Mackland-Rivera and Little Sprouts Associate Director-Haverhill, Katie Adie attended the State House to represent Little Sprouts.  They were both given the chance to speak with Representatives of the State Legislatures about the Early Education Movement and how important the Universal Pre-school Grant is to the children.  Ms. Mackland-Rivera and Ms. Adie were both able to give first-hand experiences as to how the UPK Grant has educationally helped expand their programs.  “I was honored to have met so many people that have dedicated their lives to changing early education and I look forward to being a part of the new movement.” noted Katherine Mackland -Rivera.

See article and pictures of State House visit on Early Education for All Site...

About Universal Pre-school Grant: The UPK Grant is to promote school readiness and positive outcomes for children participating in the UPK pilot classrooms, define measurable quality program characteristics that lead to school readiness, support and enhance the quality of services for all children in qualifying classrooms and especially for children at risk of school failure and/or poor developmental outcomes. In addition, the funds are meant to maximize parent choice by ensuring participation from all program types within a mixed public and private service delivery system, support program’s use of child assessment systems and tools to effectively measure children’s progress across all developmental domains and improve program quality as well as identify the scope of data collection and technology needs at the program and system level. UPK funds can be used for increasing teacher salaries, purchase software, hardware or training to fully implement the electronic component of the assessment tool currently in use, and provide staff professional development opportunities.

About Little Sprouts Inc.:  Little Sprouts has been a leader in providing award winning early education since 1982.  A group of humanitarians that believe in the power of literacy to change the world; social, emotional, intellectual and physical literacy for children, youth, teachers and families.  Little Sprouts believes in the commonality in humanity. We embrace that unity is best achieved by celebrating diversity. Little Sprouts has 7 schools in Massachusetts supporting families that reflect 32 cultures speaking 23 languages from all walks of social, economic, religious & ethnic backgrounds.