Jennifer Garner fights for children's literacy program

Jennifer Garner testified in front of Kentucky lawmakers on Tuesday (09Feb16), urging them to preserve the budget for an early childhood education program in the state.

The 13 Going on 30 star spoke during a Senate Education Committee hearing on behalf of the Save The Children organization, for which she serves as a trustee and artist ambassador.

Joined by Save the Children Action Network president Mark Shriver, she urged the lawmakers to continue the funding of an annual $941,400 state budget appropriation for literacy initiatives.

"I'm here because I believe so much in Save the Children's early childhood programs, and I am hoping that you will continue to support them," Garner said.

The actress, who grew up in neighboring West Virginia, also shared a story of a young mother she met a few years ago who was living in a trailer home in Berea, Kentucky with her four children. Garner told the committee the kids "sprung to life" when a Save the Children home co-ordinator arrived with books, revealing the grateful mom "told over and over again how the program had changed the course of these kids lives."

It appears Garner and Shriver's efforts paid off - Senate President Robert Stivers told local newspaper the Courier-Journal that there is a "high likelihood that it (literacy program) would survive" through the legislature's budget process.

Garner, who has three children from her marriage to estranged husband Ben Affleck, has been an ambassador for Save the Children for six years, and became a member of the Board of Trustees in 2014.