CLEL Mini-Grants Blog
By Thea Martinez
In 2022, Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL) created four $500 mini grants to be awarded
annually to eligible CLEL members. The grant funds were awarded to libraries to help with CLEL’s
mission of being “passionately committed to strengthening children’s literacy through library services
and community advocacy”.
Since then, CLEL has awarded $3500 in grant funds to 11 libraries throughout the United States who
exemplify CLEL’s mission and serve marginalized communities. Grants have been awarded to following:
2023
Peterson Library (of Peterson Space Force Base) / Hannah Weaver
Poudre River Public Library District / Angela Kettle
Providence Public Library / Anne Kilkenny
Pueblo City County Library District / Kristi Roque
2024
Beaver Dam Community Library / Samantha Jones
Parsippany Library / Kellyanne Healey
Springfield-Greene County Library/ Sarah Bean Thompson
Washington Public Library / Alison Greiner
2025
Bellingham Public Library / Ali Kubeny
Fort Lewis Mesa Library / Cynthia Donth-Carton
Trinity County Friends of the Library / Nicci Belter
The grants have been used in a variety of ways. In 2023, Providence Public Library used the funds to
create a weekend workshop that provided children with opportunities to discover, explore and
experiment through child-directed play centered around a different picture book each weekend.
Children were able to take home supplies to continue the experimental exploration in their own homes.
The program continued with these funds for seven months.
Also, in 2023, Peterson Library, which serves primarily military families, was able to support a “Read
Across America” program at three area military bases. The programs focused on cultural diversity and
representation and included a Storytime, games, and early literacy giveaway bags that included a picture
book featuring a diverse main character, manipulatives and crafts.
In 2024, Springfield-Green County Library was still working on coming back from the pandemic and used
the mini-grant to help expand their early literacy area to encourage dramatic play. The dramatic play
area they created used furniture that could be switched out to create an ever-changing variety of play
among young children. They used these funds to rotate out a grocery store, food truck, ice cream stand,
Pet Vet, Gardening Center and had plans to continue this outside the grant to even more stations. This
helped to get more children into the library where they could learn through play.
Washington Public Library used the grant funds they were awarded to expand their Bilingual Storytime.
Already having a large population of Spanish speaking patrons in their community, and noticing that it
was growing, they wanted to fill this service gap to them by making Bilingual Storytime an exciting place
to take their children. With the funds they were able to purchase more bilingual books to read for
Storytime and as take-home gifts for families, as well as puppets to bring the Storytime’s alive and
musical instruments for the children to use during these programs.
In 2025, the recipients also used their funds in a several different ways to support their communities.
Trinity County Friends of the Library created backpacks themed around exploring flowers, forest
animals, birds/ gems and rocks, and trees. Each backpack included a board book, a picture book, and a
nonfiction book, as well as games and other manipulatives. Trinity County Library reported that the
children are big fans of the backpacks and will often ask to take them over and over again. As they live in
a more rural area, this is helping the families with connecting books with the nature surrounding them.
Also, in 2025, Bellingham Public Library used the funds from the mini-grant to expand their partnership
with their local community health center to include provide a Storytime and bilingual books for families
to take home to expand – and oftentimes start – their own at home libraries.
The 2026 CLEL Mini-Grant applications open on October 20th , 2025 and will close on November 21st , 2025.
Grant recipients will be contacted in December 2025 to accept the grant and all funds must be
spent by September 26th , 2026. Grant recipients are required to present about how they used their
funds at the annual CLEL Conference in Fall of 2026.
There are an endless variety of ways that library staff can support early literacy with the CLEL Mini-
Grants and we look forward to hearing proposals for 2026.
Apply for the 2026 Mini-Grant here: https://www.clel.org/connect/mini-grants/
