Mentoring Month provides perfect opportunity to take action to support early literacy in the Los Angeles area

For Immediate Release

Contact: Chloe Oliveras, Community Engagement Manager, Reading Partners Los Angeles Area
(954) 798-3915,  chloe.oliveras@readingpartners.org

January is National Mentoring Month and local literacy organization seeks to match students with volunteer reading partners

(Los Angeles, CA) Jan. 17, 2017 — January is National Mentoring Month, and Reading Partners is encouraging more community members to join its efforts to provide students in under-resourced schools with the tutoring and mentorship they need to become proficient readers by the fourth grade. A proven national nonprofit that mobilizes community volunteers to work one-on-one with struggling readers, Reading Partners aims to serve 680 students in the Los Angeles Area in the 2016-17 school year. Currently, there are over 250 students at 13 local elementary schools waiting to be matched with tutors. Mentoring month is the perfect time to get involved.

Across California, only 16 percent of fourth graders from low-income families are reading at grade level. Reading is the foundation for all future learning and Reading Partners tutors provide the individualized literacy support and mentorship to help students make the all-important shift from learning to read to reading to learn.

“All students have the right to obtain a high quality education. Reading proficiency is the critical first step on the path to future educational success,” says Laura Zachar, Executive Director of Reading Partners Los Angeles.  “Reading Partners has a tremendous track record and a proven, evidence-based curriculum that will make a meaningful and measurable difference for our students in Los Angeles.”

Reading Partners volunteers utilize an easy-to-follow, individualized lesson plan each week, specific to their students’ needs in order to meet them at their level and help build both literacy skills and confidence. Reading Partners in the Los Angeles Area has an immediate need for volunteer tutors who can commit at least an hour a week to work with students in the following schools:

Los Angeles Unified

• Carthay Center Elementary – 6351 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048

• Saturn Street Elementary – 5360 Saturn St, Los Angeles, CA 90019

• Wilshire Crest Elementary – 5241 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Lawndale Elementary Unified

• William Green Elementary 4520 168th St, Lawndale, CA 90260

• F.D. Roosevelt Elementary  3533 Marine Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260

Pasadena Unified

• Washington Elementary  – 1520 N Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103

• Jackson Elementary – 593 W Woodbury Rd, Altadena, CA 91001

• Cleveland Elementary – 524 Palisade St, Pasadena, CA 91103

• Longfellow Elementary – 1065 E Washington Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91104

• Jefferson Elementary – 1500 E Villa St, Pasadena, CA 91106

• Don Benito Elementary – 3700 Denair St, Pasadena, CA 91107

• Madison Elementary – 515 E Ashtabula St, Pasadena, CA 91104

Santa Monica Malibu Unified Elementary

• John Muir Elementary –  2526 6th St, Santa Monica, CA 90405

To learn more, please email volunteerla@readingpartners.org or call (213) 399-8599.

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 11,000 elementary school students in under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia in the 2016-17 school year. Visit readingpartners.org, or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, to learn more.