Sobrato Family Foundation Awards $282,000 to Support Reading Partners Expansion

New grant will fund K-5 reading programs throughout Silicon Valley

Milpitas, CA — Reading Partners and the Sobrato Family Foundation today announced the launch of a new partnership to improve reading for children in low-income communities across Silicon Valley.

This flagship investment of $282,000 will support a three-year initiative to dramatically expand Reading Partners’ reach in Santa Clara, San Mateo, and southern Alameda counties. With the support of the Sobrato Family Foundation, Reading Partners will provide one-on-one literacy tutoring to more than 900 students at 18 elementary schools across the Valley in the 2012-13 school year.

At each participating elementary school, Reading Partners will engage a corps of 40 to 100 community volunteers to work one-on-one with students in kindergarten through fifth grade who have fallen behind in reading. Tutors are supervised and supported by trained Reading Partners staff at the school and use a structured curricular program specifically designed to be used by volunteers.

“Our organization was founded in Silicon Valley and we’re tremendously excited to have the support of the Sobrato Family Foundation as we start a new chapter here” said Michael Lombardo, CEO for Reading Partners. “The Sobrato Family Foundation’s generosity will make a huge difference for kids as we scale up our work throughout the Valley.”

The Sobrato Family Foundation has committed up to three years of funding for this project, for a possible total of $846,000. Future installments will be contingent upon Reading Partners raising matching dollars from other Valley funders.

About Reading Partners

Reading Partners is a national nonprofit working to close the reading achievement gap for elementary school students. In the 2012-13 school year, the organization will work with 35 school districts across California, Colorado, Maryland, New York, Texas, and the District of Columbia.

First introduced in California in 1999, Reading Partners provides twice-a-week one-on-one volunteer tutoring to students at Title I schools who have fallen behind in reading. According to pre- and post-program assessments, the organization has an 88% success rate in improving academic achievement for children who have fallen behind in reading skills. The organization is headquartered in Oakland, Calif. For more information, visit www.readingpartners.org or visit the organization’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

About The Sobrato Family Foundation

The Sobrato Family Foundation is dedicated to helping create and sustain a vibrant and healthy greater Silicon Valley community, and seeks to inspire current and future generations of Sobratos to steward family resources in service of others.

The Foundation is a place-based grantmaker, investing exclusively in nonprofits that serve low-income or underserved clients and beneficiaries that live and work in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Southern Alameda counties. For more information visit: www.sobrato.org

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Media Contact: Susanna Thornton / (510) 333-7322 / susanna.thornton@readingpartners.org