History of Lapsits For Early Literacy™
Lapsits for Early Literacy™ is a 501 c 3 charitable organization. It was founded in July 2003 under the umbrella of the Greenville Community Foundation with a grant from the Mansbach Family. The Advisory Board of 14 Charter Members consisted of community leaders motivated to address the disparity in the academic achievement gap impacted by lack of parental involvement with preschool language readiness.
In July 2006, the organization was granted its independent 501 c3 status. All funding addresses the county's at-risk children newborn through three years old in early intervention in literacy. The organization is playing an increasingly important role in addressing the issue of emergent literacy in the county.
Lapsits relies on donations from community organizations, foundations, civic groups, and individuals to carry out its work. There are three part-time contractual employees, an administrative assistant, a volunteer manager, and an Hispanic literacy outreach specialist. Dr. Sara Mansbach serves as Program Director; she has worked 20 years in Parenting and Family Literacy at the local and national level. More than 60 volunteers serve as Lapsits Readers throughout the county in numerous reading sites.
In the three years since its founding, through workshops, events, tipsheets, and modeling, with ""hands-on"" interactive educational materials and free books, Lapsits' programs have reached more than 1800 parents and caregivers and at-risk children newborn through three year olds .
Our forward vision is that all Greenville County 5K children will enter school ready to read and that their parents and caregivers will know to be engaged in their language learning from birth.