Contacts:

Andy Eggers Mira Sleilati Lindsay Bachman

National Center for Family Literacy Toyota Motor North America, Inc Rochester City School District
(502) 649-6588 (212) 715-7435 (585) 262-8536

M-E-D-I-A A-D-V-I-S-O-R-Y

WHAT: Toyota, the Rochester City School District and the National Center for Family Literacy
(NCFL) to announce details of a unique program aimed at boosting the literacy skills
of Hispanic and other immigrant children and their parents. Called the Toyota Family
Literacy Program, one of its key components is that parents and their children attend
the same school, spending time in the classroom together.

The program has a dual mission: to ensure that both parent and child succeed in the
classroom, as well as improve the overall quality of the parent-child relationship.
Toyota will invest $600,000 in the local family literacy initiative. The program is up
and running at Abraham Lincoln Elementary, Dag Hammarskjold Elementary and
Longfellow Elementary.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 24, 2010

10 a.m.

WHERE: Abraham Lincoln Elementary

27 Zimbrich Street, Rochester

INTERVIEW/PHOTO
OPPORTUNITIES: Current program participants will be available for interviews, including both
parent and child, in the classroom setting.

BACKGROUND: The Toyota Family Literacy Program is the first of its kind to focus on the needs of
Hispanic and other immigrant families with low English and literacy skills on a national
level. TFLP is aimed at U.S. cities with high, or fast-growing, Hispanic populations.
(The three schools where the program is taking place average 30 percent Hispanic
enrollment.) Rochester is one of five cities to receive funding for the expansion of the
program by way of a $3 million Toyota grant. The other communities are Louisville,
Ky.; Patterson, Calif.; Pueblo, Colo.; and Lincoln, Neb. A total of 126 school
districts submitted applications for the grant.

SPECIAL GUESTS: - Sharon Darling, president and founder, National Center for Family Literacy
- Jean-Claude Brizard, superintendent, Rochester City School District
- Robert Duffy, mayor, City of Rochester
- Josefina Lopez, Family Literacy Program participant

# # #