Burgeoning Decoding Dyslexia Movement Gets a Boost from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and Learning Ally
Princeton, NJ (PRWEB) January 16, 2014 -- Through a grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (EHTF), a national private foundation, and resources from Learning Ally, a national nonprofit organization, Decoding Dyslexia will convene leaders from more than 40 of its state chapters to participate in a unique training conference on social media and online community building. Learning Ally will administer the $45,000 grant from EHTF and host the conference at its headquarters in Princeton, N.J.
The national social media training conference will enable Decoding Dyslexia’s state chapter leaders to develop the critical social media skills needed to share the movement’s messages locally and nationally.
“Decoding Dyslexia has been able to grow so rapidly thanks in part to the power of social media and online engagement,” says Liz Barnes, a founding member of the group’s chapter in New Jersey. “We are thrilled and honored to receive this grant from the Tremaine Foundation. In tandem with support from organizations like Learning Ally, it will help us establish best practices in social media and parent community building across all of our state chapters – taking our movement to the next level to help millions of children with dyslexia succeed.”
The conference will also provide members of the Decoding Dyslexia movement with a rare opportunity to meet face-to-face and learn from each other’s experiences.
“From the very beginning, we’ve had a unique opportunity to watch Decoding Dyslexia grow from a handful of local parents into an inspiring and highly effective national movement,” says Andrew Friedman, Learning Ally’s president and CEO. “Through their model of parent-to-parent communication, passion and commitment, they are influencing public policy and dialogue within the education community – and most of all helping thousands of families find the right support for their children with dyslexia. We are happy and proud to be partnering with Decoding Dyslexia in hosting this event.”
“The Tremaine Foundation is excited to support Decoding Dyslexia’s efforts to use social media as an effective tool to continue to build a strong community of advocates. They are a testament to what passionate, intelligent, and driven parents can accomplish. We have been so impressed with their ability to bring dyslexia into the spotlight in a positive way,” says Suzanne Lang of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.
Established in October 2011 by eight parents gathering in a New Jersey library conference room, Decoding Dyslexia has exploded into a nation-wide grass roots network of parent-led groups in more than 40 states. Decoding Dyslexia’s mission is to expand public awareness about dyslexia; empower families to support their children; and inform the community on best practices to identify, remediate and empower students with dyslexia in public schools. For more information about Decoding Dyslexia, visit http://www.decodingdyslexia.net
About Learning Ally
Founded in 1948, Learning Ally is a national nonprofit serving K-12, college and graduate students, veterans, and lifelong learners – all of whom cannot read standard print due to blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. Through its programs and audiobooks, Learning Ally enables families and schools to manage the needs of students with learning disabilities. The organization offers integrated learning management systems and professional development for teachers, as well as support for parents through personal consultations, webinars and other tools. In addition, Learning Ally’s collection of more than 80,000 human-narrated textbooks and literature titles can be downloaded on mainstream smartphones and tablets, and is the largest of its kind in the world. For more information, visit http://www.LearningAlly.org.
About the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (EHTF) funds innovative projects that advance solutions to basic and enduring problems in the fields of arts, environment and learning disabilities. For over two decades, EHTF has focused resources in the field of learning disabilities (LD) to inform and inspire action to create enduring change in the US education system to benefit all learners. In 2013, the Foundation launched a new strategy for the LD focus to educate and empower parents of children with LD through social media. The goal is to inspire a movement that drives parents to action and creates positive and sustainable outcomes for their children, and for all those with dyslexia and other types of LD.
Doug Sprei, Learning Ally, +1 (609) 243-5865, [email protected]
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