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[FLORIDA] Samples of America Reads Challenge National Service Initiatives
EVERYBODY WINS! DC
America Reads Contact: Joanie Chase
1001 Pennsylvania Ave., NW 6th Fl. South
Washington, DC 20004
E-mail: ebodywins@erols.com
Telephone: (202) 524-3957 Fax: (202) 624-3959
Participation: Everybody Wins! DC is a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting children's literacy and love of learning through shared reading experiences with caring adults. Our Power Lunch Program matches volunteers with local elementary school students. Each week, the volunteers and their student reading partners meet during the lunch hour to share lunch, conversation, and a good book. These one-on-one reading and mentoring experiences enhance children's self esteem and expand their possibilities for success in school and in life.
Tutoring: Everybody Wins! DC serves students in grades one through six in eleven Title I schools in the Washington Metropolitan area. Approximately one-third of our 1200 volunteers come from the US Senate and House of Representatives and include Members of Congress as well as Congressional staff. The rest of our volunteers come from a variety of government agencies and private companies.
In each school we hire a parent coordinator to manage the program in that school on a daily basis. Often this is a first job for these parents, and we offer them the support they need to develop skills and build their resumes.
Everybody Wins! also offers parent workshops for the families involved in the program. We bring the students, parents, and volunteers together at the school for an evening focused on encouraging parents to begin or continue reading at home with their children. These workshops have been well-attended and well-received.
Resources: We provide our volunteers with Reading Partner Handbooks which offer guidelines and advice on working and reading with elementary school students. Additionally, all of our school coordinators are expected to be familiar with the books available to the reading pairs so they can assist in the selection of appropriate reading material.
At our parent workshops, we provide parents with handbooks similar to those given to the volunteers. We also provide information on local literacy programs and invite representatives from local public libraries to attend the workshops.
Research: We perform evaluations of the program at the end of each school year by distributing surveys to volunteers and students.
Relations: Everybody Wins! DC promotes its efforts through a fairly high profile media campaign. We invite reporters to visit the program and see our volunteers and students "in action." Our events have been covered by several local and national news channels, as well as a number of newspapers and magazines.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
America Reads Contact: Dr. Sharon Morgenthaler
B-01 st. Mary's Hall, Volunteer & Public Service Center
Washington, DC 20057
E-mail: morgents@gunet.georgetown.edu
Telephone: 202-687-8834 Fax: 202-687-8980
Participation: We are part of a 5-campus coalition serving all parts of the Washington DC area. We serve primarily first graders in public schools but also after school programs and Catholic inner-city schools. At Georgetown we have over 200 work-study tutors serving 23 sites.
Tutoring: We work closely with the public schools using the early success models. In catholic and community programs we develop materials using phonics, and reading strategically in the content area subjects.
Resources: We will have resource materials in the future which include reading games that we have collected and methods for incorporating reflection in to the tutor training. Also we are preparing resources on management of large tutoring corps. We do have staff to coordinate work study student efforts.
Research: We are just beginning to prepare methods for tracking progress of tutors and students and program evaluation. I think next fall we will have much more to say on this.
Relations: We have expended much effort on our literacy coalition, combining expertise from public schools, Corporation for National Service, communities in schools, and universities.
Comments: Areas which our coalition will be able to support other programs in are the use of reflection or structured feedback as a tutor training tool, management of large city-wide tutoring efforts, incorporating literacy into homework in after-school programs, the use of team leaders, etc.
HUMANITIES COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON, DC
Executive Director:Joy Ford Austin
925 U Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
E-mail: jaustin@wdchumanities.org
Internet Address: www.wdchumanities.org
Telephone: 202-387-8391 Fax: 202-387-8149
Participation: Books for Kids is a family literacy program at three of Washington, DC's largest public housing communities. The program includes weekly "read aloud circles," RIF book distributions, special off site activies and programming, book giveaways and establishing a circulating children's library at each site. We are currently establishing a tutoring component to the program. The program is a partnership between the Humanities council of Washington, DC, resident councils at each site, local funders and community volunteers.
Tutoring: Each week, community volunteer readers participate in the program by reading a story aloud to the children. Enrichment activities and a book discussion follows. We are currently establishing a "reading pal" program for children in grades k-3. In this program, volunteers will be partnered with one child and will read with their "pal" for 90 minutes each week. This added component of Books for Kids will provide indivualized help for our children, while supplementing the reading instruction they are give in school.
Resources: The program is operated by a Humanites council staff member, N'kenge Feagin, and with the assistance of seven public housing mothers. The on-site community libraries provides a safe location for readers and children to meet.
Research: Children are routinely asked their opinion of Books for Kids. An independent consulting firm is in the process of evaluating the program. When the reading "pal" program is fully operational, after each session, the tutor will complete a review sheet.
Relations: The program is part of a city-wide coalition, DC Learns, to promote literacy.
NACHC INC.
America Reads Contact: Kathy McNamara
1330 New Hampshire Ave Suite 122
Washington, DC
E-mail: KM1AC@AOL.COM
Telephone: (202)659-8008 Fax: (202)659-8519
UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVE OF WASHINGTON, D.C.
America Reads Contact: Vincent Pan
707 8th Street SE Suite 100
Washington, DC
E-mail: unidc@tmn.com
Telephone: (202) 544-4468 Fax: (202) 544-4437
Participation: The two-fold mission of University Neighborhood Initiative of Washington, D.C. (UNI-DC) is to provide low-income children and families with the academic skills they need to succeed, and to help university students mature into responsible community leaders. A new type of organization, UNI-DC combines the efforts of students from area universities, residents from local public housing developments, and staff from neighborhood elementary schools.
Tutoring: Our tutoring initiative consists of a series of mentoring, daily after-school tutoring, and full-day summer academic programming that engages elementary school children from public housing developments. Part-time AmeriCorps members serve as after-school tutors, summer program instructors, and education mentors. They also lead other program volunteers, including undergraduate FWS tutors and parents of children in our program.
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