Bean Foundation to support adult literacy programs in Manchester

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New Hampshire Humanities (NHH) announces that the Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation (Bean Foundation) has awarded a sponsorship of $8,050 to support 11 Connections book discussions in Manchester. 

Connections is a book discussion program designed to promote English language skills, cultivate conversations about ideas, reinforce family literacy, and support a culture of reading to more than 500 adult learners across the state of New Hampshire each year. Connections participants can receive up to four free books and keep the books they read. 

Using a range of children’s and adult literature, Connections provides accessible, literature-based book discussions for refugees, immigrants, individuals with disabilities, general adult basic education students, and incarcerated parents. More importantly, it allows participants to see their own stories in literature, to learn about perspectives different from their own, and provides the opportunity to travel to worlds real or imagined through literature.  

The Bean Foundation was established in 1967 as a private, independent foundation and, consistent with the wishes of the founders, grants are made in the fields of arts and humanities, education, environment, health, human services, and public benefit. In endowing a foundation, Norwin and Elizabeth Bean demonstrated a special concern and affection for the two communities in which they were born and lived, and left a permanent trust, the income from which was to be used to benefit the communities of Manchester and Amherst, New Hampshire.

"We are deeply grateful to the Bean Foundation for its generous and ongoing support of family literacy through the Connections program at New Hampshire Humanities," said Mary Nolin, Connections Program Manager. "Thanks to this vital support, both new Americans and native English speakers—along with their families—will gain empowerment through literature, opening doors to new opportunities in their communities, workplaces, and beyond." 

To learn more about Connections, visit https://www.nhhumanities.org/connections-adult-literacy.