YAKIMA, Wash. -- Educational services for Yakima children, and their parents, has received a big financial boost.

Ready by Five, the early learning initiative that offers services and programs to help prepare Yakima's youngest and poorest children for kindergarten, annou-nced Wednesday it has received a $379,217 federal grant.

The grant, to serve parents and children from birth to age 7, comes from the U.S. Department of Education under the Migrant Education Even Start (MEES) Program.

The grant, which begins in October and lasts a year, is renewable for three more years, which potentially adds up to more than $1.5 million.

"There's a huge air of excitement here," said Helen Marieskind, Ready by Five executive director. "We're very, very pleased."

The education department awarded only three other similar grants in the country, Marieskind said.

Betsy McCann, the employee who wrote the grant, said Ready by Five personnel knew when they submitted the grant application last spring that it would be a highly competitive process.

"It's always a long shot when so few are given, but we also thought we had a good case," McCann explained.

That good case specifically revolves around educating the family, both parents and children. Literacy activities and classes, given simultaneously for children and parents in two different rooms, will emphasize English proficiency.

Previously, most of Ready by Five's emphasis had been on literacy for little children. Now other services will also be offered, such as Adult Basic Education courses, English as a Second Language classes and interactive family literacy programs.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to build on what we've already begun," said Marieskind, who has headed Ready by Five since 2008.

"We believe that parents must also have educational opportunities in order to support their children's education," she added.

Ready by Five services are focused in East Yakima, an area of high poverty, where more than half the adults have not graduated from high school, according to Marieskind.

Rhonda Hauff, a member of the Ready by Five board of directors, said the new grant will be advantageous to many families served by Yakima Neighborhood Health Services, the downtown clinic where she is chief operating officer.

"The grant will provide new opportunities for our parents to get into some basic education classes and to promote early learning with their children, and the more excited our parents are about learning, the more excited our children will be about learning."

Grant monies will allow Ready by Five to offer programs every day and many evenings, Marieskind said. A minimum of 40-60 families will be served under the new grant, but she expects many more will participate.

"We haven't met any parents yet who aren't eager to learn English," she said.

Because it's a migrant grant, to be eligible for services, a family must have changed school districts at least once in the last three years for purposes of finding work.

Marieskind credits Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Doc Hastings with writing "wonderful letters of support" that helped garner the MEES grant.

In addition to the grant -- which means new curricula will be formulated and a bilingual teacher hired -- Ready by Five is also moving its offices from Lincoln Avenue to a location near Miller Park, at 414 N. Third St., on Sept. 1.

Then, on Oct. 1, the new grant goes into effect. Although the monies target East Yakima families, Marieskind predicted a ripple effect throughout the area.

"This will benefit the community as a whole by educating more parents who will be better able to help educate their children, as well as contribute to the workforce."

* Jane Gargas can be reached at 509-577-7690 or jgargas@yakimaherald.com.