GOVERNOR BUSH FOCUSES ON STRENGTHENING FLORIDA'S FAMILIES AT CITYCARES ANNUAL CONFERENCE
~Grants for Governor's Family Literacy Program announced~

MIAMI- Governor Jeb Bush today encouraged community leaders from across the state to play a greater role in bettering the lives of families in Florida by forming community and business partnerships. Governor Bush outlined his vision for a family initiative before 250 attendees of the CityCares annual Leadership Conference in Miami Beach.

"Florida's families are the heart of our communities. Families are what make our neighborhoods vital and our own lives more fulfilling," said Governor Bush. "I believe if we focus government on better serving families, then we will truly change how government thinks about its role in our communities. In the end, we can help improve the lives of our families. "

During the conference, Governor Bush announced a partnership with the Volunteer Florida Foundation in support of his families initiative. The foundation is a nonprofit arm of Volunteer Florida, which oversees Americorp and volunteer programs in the state to support statewide efforts focused on strengthening families and reading.

The Governor's Mentoring Initiative and the Governor's Family Literacy Initiative will move to the foundation to ensure there is a sustaining structure to nourish and expand these programs in years to come. As an example, the Governor's Mentoring Initiative will begin a new effort to serve the children of prisoners, and will pilot the program at a Tomoka Prison faith-based dorm and at one of the woman's prisons.

Mark Merrill, chair of the Governor's Family Transition Team said, "There are many creative ways we can work as a state to improve the lives of Florida's families. In many instances, it is not more state dollars, but a combined effort of talented nonprofit groups, businesses, and communities working in cooperation with government to better strengthen our Florida families."

Under the direction of Governor Bush and the Volunteer Florida Foundation, state government will work more closely with faith-based groups and nonprofit groups in areas where their expertise can help the state better perform its role in a variety of ways:

* The state website, myflorida.com, will soon include a portal
that will be user-friendly to community and faith-based groups searching for appropriate ways they can work with state government. The portal will include access points by program area, such as "homeless" or "providing drug assistance" so that groups will no longer have to search agency by agency to understand what funding is available.

* The Governor's Family Transition Task Force, which made
several recommendations for the next four years on working with families, has agreed to serve in an on-going advisory capacity to the Governor. The task force will focus efforts on reducing the number of children waiting for adoption and on increasing family involvement in schools.

* Continuing the Governor's Family Literacy Initiative grant
process. As in the previous three years, grants of up to $50,000 are now available to nonprofit and community organizations to start or expand family literacy programs.

* This year, smaller grants of up to $5000 are also
available. These Community and Faith-Based Mini-Grants that may be used as planning grants or to start small literacy programs.

The application deadline for the grants is Friday, March 28. Copies of the application may be obtained by logging on to: www.flamentoring.orgor www.floridaliteracy.org.

CityCares is an innovative, international alliance of volunteer organizations that are building communities through service and civic engagement. The leadership conference will provide attendees with "lessons learned" and best practices from the front lines of community service. The primary sponsors of this year's conference and national partners of CityCares are The Coca-Cola Company, the UPS Foundation, and The Starwood Foundation, the philanthropic trust of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Other sponsors include: Accenture, AOL Time Warner, AT&T, USA Network, Bright Sky Learning, Levi Strauss, Office Depot, Burger King, the Miami Beach Convention Center, Vista HealthPlan, and the City of Miami Beach.

Volunteer Florida is a 25 member, Governor-appointed commission charged with being a facilitator in the development, promotion and implementation of volunteer and community service programs and practices.