Family & Community Adult Education Family Literacy
Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium

Our vision is successful families. Our mission is successful partnershps.

Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium (MFLC)

What is the Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium?

The Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium (MFLC) is a statewide initiative with the mission of forging effective partnerships among state agencies, community organizations, and other interested parties to expand and strengthen family literacy and support.

MFLC members believe that the comprehensive integration of our respective services can add up to so much more than the sum of their separate parts - and that family literacy is a catalyst for collaboration and integration.

Why does the MFLC promote family literacy and support?

The MFLC joins a vanguard of groups advocating for family literacy because it promotes student, family, and community success.

Family literacy helps parents improve their literacy skills and the literacy skills of their children. In fact, national and international research documents an intergenerational transfer of parents' literacy to their children.

Literate parents help their children develop the literacy-related knowledge and skills that insure success in learning to read. Some children develop these critical skills in high quality early care and education facilities but many children lack access to such facilities. Large numbers of children depend on their parents to help them develop the early literacy-related knowledge and skills they need.

Literate parents are better prepared to support their children's learning during the school years, as well. Schools count on parents for support such as reading to children and helping them with homework. But low literacy parents and adult speakers of other languages may themselves need support in order to contribute to their children's learning. Literate parents know more about schools and are able to help their children negotiate the many demands of schools.

Parents are often said to be their children's first and most influential teachers. Family literacy seeks to make sure all parents are successful in this role for the benefit of families, schools, and communities.

What does the Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium do?

The MFLC promotes awareness of the value and benefit of family literacy; provides family literacy products and training; and creates opportunities for collaboration in local communities and at the state level.

Its day to day activities are guided by a workplan with seven major goals:

Goal 1: Sustaining and strengthening the MFLC
Goal 2: Disseminating information
Goal 3: Increasing public awareness
Goal 4: Training state, regional, and local stakeholders
Goal 5: Enabling MFLC state agencies to better reap the benefits of coordinated family literacy and support
Goal 6: Building local collaborations
Goal 7: Developing Indicators of Program Quality (IPQ) for family literacy programs

Who is represented on the MFLC?

The MFLC is comprised of state agencies, community organizations, parents, and providers who work with families and children. The following agencies and programs are represented on the MFLC.

State Agencies:

Children's Trust Fund
Commonwealth Corporation
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
Massachusetts Department of Business Development
Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Massachusetts Department of Social Services
Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance
Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development
Massachusetts Department of Youth Services

Other Members:

Children's Museum
Even Start Comprehensive Family Literacy Program
Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
System for Adult Education Support (SABES)
Title I Compensatory Education

MFLC Meeting Schedule for Year 2008

January 14
March 10
May 12
June 9
September 8
November 17

Please address any questions or comments to MFLC@doe.mass.edu