Moving Mountains: West Virginia Offers State Grants to Run We Can!™

February 4, 2009

You can’t move a mountain. But if you’re We Can!, you can sure move the Mountain State… figuratively, at least.

Having heard of We Can!’s presence nationwide, officials at the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Healthy Schools did some investigating. They decided our program provided the best fit to help its young Mountaineers climb the hill to better health.

The Office of Healthy Schools provides leadership, training, and support to improve collaboration and ensure the health and educational achievement of children in the state’s fifty-five county school districts. “Successful school health programs require partnerships between schools and parents,” said Melanie Purkey, executive director of the West Virginia Department of Education Office of Healthy Schools. “We believe that We Can! is the ideal program to help us engage parents as partners in meeting the critical health goals of this mission.”

That’s why West Virginia is offering up to $20,000 to be distributed in grants of up to a thousand dollars each for leaders and schools that wish to conduct the We Can! Energize Our Families: Curriculum for Parents and Caregivers. Grants will be awarded through a review process, and the West Virginia Department of Education will provide participant workbooks to grant recipients at no cost. As part of their participation in this grant program, schools will also be encouraged to sign up as We Can! community sites.

The deadline for conducting programming is June 1, 2009, in order to coincide with the end of the school year. To download a grant application, visit http://wvde.state.wv.us/osshp/main/WeCan1.htm.

All grant recipients will be required to submit participant rosters with e-mail addresses after each event, so that the Department of Education can conduct evaluation surveys following the programs.