Lawrence Nonprofit Gets Grant Award For Community Reading Project

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - A local nonprofit recently received a $20,000 grant award for their local community reading project

People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos (P&S/GyC) was approved for a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support its “Literature: Reading in Community, Writing Our Stories” Project.

“We are honored to receive this generous grant, selected from among 1,130 projects across the country, allowing us to provide opportunities for individuals to experience literature in a new way and develop their own voices through creative writing,” Andrea Honore, P&S/GyC Board Co-Chair said in a statement.

People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos’ “Literature: Reading in Community, Writing Our Stories” Project was selected during this highly-competitive second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2023 funding.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, including People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos’, demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, said in a statement. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture, and design.”

The “Writing Our Stories” project will provide funding for a series of reading and writing workshops to be held in English and Spanish.

The workshops will be held at:

• Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix, New Jersey
• Libertae, Inc.: Freedom in Recovery, Bensalem, Pennsylvania
• Interim House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• The Children’s Home Society of NJ, Trenton, New Jersey

Through 10 two-hour long sessions, groups of 15-20 people will experience literature in a new way and develop their own voices through creative writing. People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos’ aims to remove obstacles to reading, especially for adults and young adults who have not experienced the power of literature.