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The Shelby County Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP) in Alabama stresses positive parenting and effective educational strategies, working to empower parents as their children’s most important educational partner. In addition to literacy education, this comprehensive program provides health and safety information for families, financial education and basic math, and English as a Second Language instruction for adult learners with a job readiness/computer skills component to help parents upgrade skills or obtain employment.The Shelby County TFLP is designed for immigrant families with a focus on a multicultural and intergenerational approach to family literacy. The program is open to any immigrant family with children enrolled in one of three participating elementary schools.“We know that high-quality family literacy programs improve the literacy, language and life skills of both the parents and the children served,” explains Shannon Wilker, ESL Resource Teacher and TFLP co-coordinator for Shelby County Schools. “We celebrate successes and share challenges, which not only aids in building an informal support network that is so important for our parents, but also helps assure continued participation. The TFLP classes are structured so that building community among the participants is an integral part of the program.”To build a network of learners, Shelby County supports teamwork among its staff. Each school site has a program team consisting of the school principal, a classroom teacher liaison, ESL teachers, a reading coach, and an adult education teacher. As a team, the program uses Thinkfinity Literacy Network (TLN) in a variety of ways to improve their services.“As program coordinators, we have incorporated TLN into our professional development in our monthly staff meetings with the adult educators. Several of them were already familiar with Thinkfinity, and they were excited about this new, free opportunity!”Wilker and the Shelby County teams have held sessions for staff on using TLN resources and many staff have explored the resources independently. Staff who complete TLN courses on their own share copies of resources and notes they find especially helpful. Teachers also share with each other resources that include an activity, book, or video clip on a specific theme. Recently, the program consulted TLN courses on volunteerism as they developed their own local volunteer program and training. “We have plans for the volunteers to use the TLN to learn more about our program and our expectations.”The parent-child learning team is equally important, and the program encourages the use of technology in the classroom and at home to enhance learning.“We are particularly excited about the new Thinkfinity section for parents. This was a great addition that will help our program meet the goal of connecting the school to meaningful home activities. Because computers and technology are an integral component to our programs, we look forward to more opportunities to incorporate this awesome resource!”