All Five supports 'Growing Brains' aided by second grant from LPMP

A $12,990 grant to help support a speech-language specialist for All Five's early childhood learners in Belle Haven was approved July 20, 2023, Literacy Partners — Menlo Park (LPMP) has announced. This grant follows one from LPMP a year earlier of $25,000 to help the organization's program serve early childhood learners — growing brains — in the community.

Photo courtesy All Five

Carol Thomsen, All Five's founder and executive director, told LPMP in September that the speech and language specialist, Ashlee Welday, has been supporting all six of All Five's classrooms, focusing on the following goals:

√ identifying children whose speech and/or language development seems to be lagging;

√ supporting and collaborating with teachers to share ideas about supporting all children, especially those with challanges;

√ providing individual support as needed for children.

"Literacy Partrners Menlo Park’s generous grant, with specific focus.

on literacy staff development ... has been vital to All Five’s ability to provide meaningful literacy-specific professional growth in our six classrooms serving 58 students with 20 teachers," the organization noted in a progress report to LPMP in June 2023.

For more information about All Five.

For more information on Literacy Partners — Menlo Park or to learn how you can help, reach out to us at info@literacypartnersmenlopark.org,