Reading Partners DC shares inspiring volunteerism stories during National Volunteer Week

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Karen Gardner, Executive Director, Reading Partners Washington, DC
karen.gardner@staging.readingpartners.org, (202) 701-9110

DURING NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK, A VOLUNTEER-LED LITERACY ORGANIZATION IS CELEBRATING THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON, DC FUELING ITS PROVEN IMPACT IN UNDER-RESOURCED COMMUNITIES

(Washington, DC) April 11, 2016 — Reading Partners is a national nonprofit that collaborates with community volunteers and local public schools in Washington, DC to equip students with the foundational skills they need to be able to read at grade level by fourth grade. The proven early literacy organization has been providing volunteer-led, individualized reading support to students in under-resourced public elementary schools since 1999.

April is National Volunteer Month (and April 10-16 is National Volunteer Week), so Reading Partners is celebrating the tremendous dedication and impact of its thousands of volunteer tutors by sharing a sampling of the uplifting stories playing out every day in Reading Partners reading centers in Washington, DC and across its 14 regions.

Here are a few examples of the countless inspiring stories of high-impact volunteerism taking place in Reading Partners reading centers in Washington, DC:

1. Charlie started working with Reading Partners as a school requirement, but his relationship with Keenan keeps him coming back twice a week.

2. Through a partnership with DCPS’ Empowering Males of Color initiative, Mayor Bowser makes time to volunteer regularly with her student, Tyler.

3. Tivana understands what it’s like to not be an A student in elementary school and even high school. Now that she’s attending the University of Maryland, she volunteers with Reading Partners and enjoys building strong relationships with her students.

Today, only one in five fourth graders from low-income families is reading at grade level. Reading is the foundation for all future learning. Without developing the reading skills needed to read on grade level, kids won’t have an equitable chance to succeed in school or in life. With the dedication of more than 14,000 volunteer tutors in Washington, DC and across the US, Reading Partners’ volunteers are helping more than 10,000 students make the all-important shift from learning to read to reading to learn.

“Whenever I tutor children, I’m always reminded of how important it is for students to feel really comfortable with reading; it’s the building block for everything that comes after,” said Reading Partners Washington, DC tutor, Kimberly Griffin-Haynes. “Whether a kid gets into college isn’t only decided senior year of high school, it’s also decided in fifth grade. So the opportunity to talk to kids about where I went to college, and about college campuses, and making sure that they feel really confident in their skills is important to me.”

To learn more, please visit staging.readingpartners.org/Washington-DC.

About Reading Partners

Reading Partners empowers students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. The national nonprofit organization will provide proven, individualized literacy tutoring to more than 10,000 elementary school students in under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia in 2016.  Visit staging.readingpartners.org, or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, to learn more.