A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Simple Things You Can Do

1. Ask your financial aid adviser if your university has officially signed on to the America Reads Challenge. President Clinton has taken a major step in fulfilling the America Reads Challenge and promoting his national service agenda by calling upon colleges to voluntarily invest significant portions of their Federal Work Study dollars toward tutoring children in reading.
2. Volunteer to read with or to a child at a local school. Visit your university's community service center or contact the volunteer coordinator to be matched with a child. If your campus does not have these resources, call the local elementary school and ask whether you can be matched with a child who needs a learning partner. Find out what opportunities are available through your local YMCA/YWCA, Girl Scout, Learn and Serve America, and AmeriCorps programs.
3. Get the local associations and organizations on your campus involved in literacy/mentoring community service projects. Contact organization presidents to discuss ways in which the organization may be able to contribute to existing literacy projects or to initiate a project. Encourage members of groups you belong to, to volunteer as reading tutors.
4. Use student newspapers, radio and television stations, campus electronic bulletin boards, and other on-line information sources to promote student involvement in the America Reads Challenge. Provide notices about school or local literacy projects to the person in charge of advertising; include in the notice a request for volunteers and a contact name and phone number for those who are interested.
5. Work with local precollege youth organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs or the YMCA/YWCA. Talk with the heads of local precollege youth organizations to discover how students at your university can act as learning partners or mentors to their members. Post flyers on campus to inform students about the program and encourage them to
   participate.

Source: Simple Things You Can Do; To Help All Children to Read Well and Independently by the End of Third Grade, 1997 America Reads Challenge

Full publication at: www.ed.gov/pubs/SimpleThings/