Help Read 2 Me

Read 2 Me

Tacoma, Washington

Cause Description:
Read 2 Me™ is the longest-running, most successful literacy tutoring program in the United States. Founded in 1988, Read 2 Me™ has grown from serving 35 students at one school to serving nearly 1000 at 16 elementary schools. Known most recently as Werlin Reading Teams, Read 2 Me™ is the result of absorbing the Pierce County chapter of the national Reading Foundation and its early literacy focus and merging that mission with Werlin's established tutoring tradition. Through the years, Read 2 Me™ has served more than 9,000 children, consistently providing them with the fundamental key to education: a mastery of reading. Read 2 Me enriches lives by inspiring people to volunteer and share in the joy of reading. We advocate for and create opportunities, beginning at birth, which nurture lifelong learners in the communities we serve. At many schools, Read 2 Me™ is the only source of reading help in early grades. Child and tutor meet weekly for 45 minute sessions, one-on-one, during the school day. Read 2 Me™ children experience the focused attention of a committed, caring adult who guides them toward increasing their reading ability, self-esteem and long-term academic success. Tutors receive ongoing support from Read 2 Me™ coordinators who assist and monitor activities during every tutoring session. Last year, Read 2 Me™ launched its most ambitious expansion to date: in just one year, Read 2 Me™ grew from serving ten schools to successfully managing programs in 16 schools, almost doubling the number of children served. Currently Read 2 Me™ is coordinating the efforts of nearly 700 volunteers and is recruiting to serve the identified need of 1068 students. Read 2 Me™ looks forward to maintaining its new illiteracy prevention (early literacy advocacy) program and the existing kindergarten to grade three illiteracy intervention program. By teaching a child to read, as the Read 2 Me™ volunteers do, and by reaching out into the community and sharing the skills necessary to encourage early literacy behaviors in young children, as the advocacy program will do, Read 2 Me™ combats illiteracy in our community and affects change.

Type: Special Interest/Fraternal...
Listed on iGive since: February 2009
iGive members supporting: 2

Website: www.read2me.org

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