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Can generosity ever be a bad thing? What makes a place home? What should you do if you think a law is unfair? Is it all right to deceive someone when you think doing so may benefit them?

These are just a few of the questions children and their families will seek to answer this fall during free Prime Time family engagement and reading programs hosted across Louisiana by local community groups.

Organizations interested in hosting these programs can apply from March 15 through April 15. Eligible organizations include schools, libraries, museums, churches, government entities, and other community-based agencies located anywhere in Louisiana that possess a valid EIN#.

An initiative of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH), Prime Time programs start with a shared meal, and then a storyteller reads families an award-winning children’s book. Following the reading, families are engaged in discussion around the themes found in the book using open-ended questions.

“Organizations get to choose the book series that is relevant to their communities,” said Miranda Restovic, president and executive director of the LEH and Prime Time, Inc. “These may include sustainability, inquiry, caring, democracy, or food. Each of these series contains children’s books deliberately chosen to stimulate discussion around the theme.”

Prime Time programs are free for the organizations that host them and for the families who attend. They can choose to host either Prime Time Family Reading, for ages 6-10, or Prime Time Preschool Reading, for ages 3-5. Organizations whose applications are approved will host the 90-minute sessions once a week for six weeks. Each partner site will receive a $1,000 site support stipend, stipends for team members, and a set of the children’s books used during the program. Participating families also keep all books for their personal home libraries.

More than 60 Prime Time family engagement and reading programs are currently taking place across Louisiana.

“The partner organizations across the state that host our family engagement and reading programs are really our boots on the ground, encouraging literacy, promoting family bonding, and nurturing a love of books and learning in their own communities,” said Sarah Withers, LEH vice president of education programs. “We couldn’t bring Prime Time to so many families without them.”

For more information about Prime Time reading programs, email [email protected].