The Community Youth Leadership Program (CYLP) of the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce announced the Iowa Children's Museum as the recipient of the CYLP class of 2008 service project grant. Each year, CYLP graduates complete a service project to aide the community in a certain area.
For the first time in the history of the CYLP program, the group received a grant to award to an organization of their choice. The Community Foundation of Johnson County provided CYLP with $2,000 in an effort to promote youth philanthropy.
The CYLP students selected the Iowa Children’s Museum’s “Read for The Fun of It!” for the $2,000 grant because of its alignment with their mission to "support community literacy through a youth-interactive approach.”
The “Read for The Fun of It!” project is based on one of the museum’s most popular exhibits, CityStories. The CityStories exhibit is geared at providing museum-goers with children’s books, literacy activities and storytelling programs. As part of the grant, the Iowa Children’s Museum (ICM) would expand the exhibit, specifically in attempts to aide the bi-lingual and English language learning community.
To do this the ICM plans to add new children’s books to the exhibit, including bi-lingual picture books, Spanish translations of print materials and books that promote cultural tolerance and understanding. In addition, the museum plans to develop new hands-on activities to be used by children and families, such as ICM Cultural Book Bags, which would provide takeaway materials to develop better reading habits and to promote cultural awareness.
The Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of more than 1,000 members, actively fosters a better business environment through community and economic development, member services and public policy advocacy.