2026 Literacy Grant Recipients

Phi Kappa Phi is proud to present the 2026 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant recipients. Grants of up to $2,500 are available to Phi Kappa Phi chapters and individual members to fund ongoing literacy projects or to create new initiatives.

Andrea Arias Swenson

Career Literacy PLC

The PaGE Career Literacy Professional Learning Community is a pilot program for up to 30 Cal State LA College of Professional and Global Education students identified as "New Learners." Over six to eight weeks, participants will engage in a guided book study of Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, along with reflective exercises and group discussions that introduce design thinking as a framework for aligning personal values, education, and career goals. The program aims to help students intentionally design meaningful careers and fulfilling lives. Expected outcomes include increased career clarity, self-efficacy, persistence, social belonging, reflective and adaptive skills, and recognition of past experiences as strengths. Participants will complete pre- and post-program surveys to assess growth across these outcomes.

Stephen Bay

Library-Based Naloxone Literacy Training

The Library-Based Naloxone Literacy Training is a community health initiative designed to equip residents of Utah Valley with the knowledge and skills needed to recognize and respond to opioid overdoses. As part of the project, the Brigham Young University chapter of Phi Kappa Phi will train student volunteers as certified overdose response educators through the Overdose Lifeline Train-the-Trainer program. These student trainers will then lead free, hands-on workshops at public libraries throughout Utah Valley and Salt Lake County, which already serve as community naloxone distribution sites. Each workshop will teach participants how to recognize the signs of an opioid overdose, understand how naloxone works, and administer it correctly. By offering these workshops in accessible, familiar community spaces, the project aims to reach approximately 300 residents during the academic year.

Trish Biddix

Promoting Lifelong Learning Beginning with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

In partnership with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the Athens-Limestone County Family Resource Center provides free, age-appropriate books each month to enrolled children from birth to age five, regardless of family income. By covering local mailing costs, the Family Resource Center helps ensure children—many from families at or below 150% of the federal poverty level—have access to books that support early brain development, language acquisition, literacy, and school readiness. The Phi Kappa Phi Literacy grant will fund one month of mailing costs, helping sustain this effort to foster a lifelong love of reading and improve early literacy outcomes for vulnerable children.

Laurie Garo

I am the Storyteller: The Power of Storytelling for Children’s Literacy and Self-Efficacy

I Am the Storyteller: The Power of Storytelling for Children’s Literacy and Self-Efficacy is a community-based literary arts project at ourBRIDGE for KIDS, an afterschool program serving refugee and immigrant children in Charlotte, North Carolina. The project uses storytelling to strengthen English literacy, bilingual proficiency, cultural identity, and self-confidence among 40 students in grades 6–8. Participants will develop original stories through writing workshops, storyboarding, and illustration with the support of a professional artist. Their completed stories will be published in a children's book, culminating in a community book signing where families, local libraries, schools, and community organizations will receive donated, autographed copies.

Elahe Mahmoudi

Metacognitive Reading Workshops for Adult ESL Learners: Read, Monitor, Succeed (Central Texas + Online)

Metacognitive Reading Workshops for Adult Learners is a literacy initiative that helps adult English language learners strengthen their reading comprehension skills through four interactive workshops focused on understanding, monitoring, and applying effective reading strategies. In partnership with Community Action, Inc. of Central Texas and its Online ESL Class for Professionals, the project will provide reading toolkits, guided practice using real-world texts, and accessible AI-supported comprehension tools to help participants become more confident and independent readers. The initiative aims to improve literacy skills among adult learners while creating sustainable resources that will continue to benefit the community long after the workshop series concludes.

Metrid Okumu

Digital Magazine & Media Lab

The Digital Magazine & Media Lab is a literacy initiative rooted in community and belonging. Launched by alumni of Bernard's Vision School in Ahero, Kenya, the project equips students with the tools and skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world. Through the school's journalism club, participants will produce a digital magazine while developing writing, editing, and media literacy skills that extend far beyond the classroom. Led by the school's alumni association, the initiative reflects its members' commitment to investing in the next generation of learners at the institution that shaped them. By blending storytelling with technology, the Digital Magazine & Media Lab aims to cultivate confident, creative, and digitally literate young voices in the Ahero community.

Liberatus Rwebugisa

Project RISE: Rising Incomes for Socioeconomic Empowerment

Project RISE: Rising Incomes for Socioeconomic Empowerment is a transformative community initiative creating pathways from extreme poverty to sustainability and prosperity in the small village of Bukoki in rural northwestern Tanzania. Through financial literacy education and small revolving capital support, Project RISE equips women, men, and youth with practical skills in budgeting, saving, leadership, and income generation to build sustainable livelihoods and expand opportunities for future generations. Rooted in the belief that literacy, education, and economic empowerment can unlock human potential, the project fosters a self-sustaining culture of dignity, resilience, shared responsibility, and hope. By strengthening local capacity and advancing community-led development, the initiative is laying the foundation for long-term socioeconomic transformation and lasting prosperity in underserved rural communities.

Eden Toner

Oxford Picture Dictionary Workbooks

The Tacoma Area Literacy Council (TALC) is an all-volunteer organization that provides free literacy and English language acquisition instruction through one-on-one tutoring and small group classes. Currently, its primary focus is supporting English language learners within the large immigrant population across Pierce County. Picture dictionaries have proven especially effective when tutors and learners do not share a common language, and the accompanying workbooks reinforce lessons introduced during tutoring sessions and classes. This project will provide each learner with a personal workbook to support both classroom instruction and independent study at home.