WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS have cemented partnerships with 10 public media stations designed to extend the reach and impact of Ready To Learn-funded PBS KIDS early learning resources to local communities.
Centered in understanding local assets and needs, each station will collaborate with community partners to develop and build a “Learning Neighborhood” that fosters a community-wide culture of learning at home, in the neighborhood, and within local systems and spaces.
Arkansas PBS, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Ball State PBS (Muncie, IN), Nine PBS (St. Louis), WXXI (Rochester, NY), PBS39 (Lehigh Valley, PA), Rhode Island PBS, East Tennessee PBS (Knoxville), KERA (Dallas) and KSPS (Spokane) will each receive $260,000 over the next four years through the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
This cohort joins 12 stations who began their “Learning Neighborhood” models in October 2020: Alaska Public Media; Austin PBS; Alabama Public Television; Detroit Public TV; Vegas PBS; Kentucky Educational Television; PBS SoCal; PBS Wisconsin; WNET (New York); Maryland Public Television; WQED (Pittsburgh); and WFSU (Tallahassee, FL).
Additional communities will be added in the coming years.
The 2020-2025 Ready To Learn Initiative is focused on connecting children’s media and learning environments to build key skills for success in school and life, including functional literacy, critical thinking, and collaboration, as well as showing them career options in age-appropriate ways.
This effort is part of a five-year grant awarded to CPB and PBS through the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready To Learn Initiative to develop new multi-platform media and engagement tools that introduce children to career and workforce options and help them build everyday literacy skills.
