May 3, 2018
Top 5 Reasons Reading Partners Volunteers Make the San Francisco Bay Area a Better Place
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michelle Torgerson
Senior Executive Director, Reading Partners San Francisco Bay Area
510.830.3021 | michelle.torgerson@
Oakland, CA — April 19, 2018
Reading Partners is a national nonprofit that collaborates with community volunteers and local public schools in Colorado and in 13 other regions across the country to equip students with the foundational skills they need to be able to read at grade level by fourth grade. In an effort to strengthen the literacy skills of as many students as possible, Reading Partners San Francisco Bay Area recruits local volunteers to commit just an hour a week to work individually with young students who struggle with reading.
“The work that I am now doing, as a volunteer, is an extension of the work I did in my career as a police officer,” said Leroy Lindo, volunteer tutor and retired Police Commissioner. “Reading Partners has allowed me to stay connected with children who will become the adults of the future. Working as a volunteer tutor has allowed me the opportunity to see that having good reading skills now, will pay huge dividends in the future.”
For over four decades, National Volunteer Week has given nonprofits an opportunity to recognize the invaluable support of volunteers that help fuel their work. In celebration of National Volunteer Week in 2018 (April 15-21), Reading Partners San Francisco Bay Area created a list highlighting the top five ways our beloved volunteers, like Commissioner Lindo, make the community stronger and better.
Top 5 Reasons Reading Partners Volunteers Make the Bay Area a Better Place
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Volunteers drive student impact – Volunteers are working one-on-one with 1,500 students this year in the Bay Area to help deliver meaningful results for kids (last year, 85% of Reading Partners’ Kindergarten through second-grade students in the SF Bay Area mastered key foundational reading skills needed to read at grade level).
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By promoting educational equity, volunteers strengthen the broader community – Everyone benefits in the long run when student literacy achievement is bolstered. Students who don’t read proficiently by fourth grade are four times more likely to drop out of school. It’s estimated that every student who walks out of the classroom without a diploma costs our society $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes, and productivity.
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Volunteers serve as a resource multiplier – Because Reading Partners engages so many community volunteers in their work, the program is more affordable for schools to implement than other literacy interventions. For every dollar invested in Reading Partners, the program delivers more than $2 in resources to students.
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Volunteers support strong public schools – Thanks to the involvement of 1,650 community tutors in the Bay Area, 99% of teachers report Reading Partners is valuable to their school and 86% of principals report improved school-wide reading progress.
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Volunteers help bring joy to learning – Students feed off of the energy and excitement of Reading Partners’ volunteer tutors. In the Bay Area, 92% of volunteers are satisfied with their tutoring experience and that enthusiasm helps students develop a lifelong love of reading that is key to success in school and beyond.
A Novel Night Spring Benefit on Wednesday, May 9
On May 9, Bay Area Reading Partners volunteer tutors and supporters will gather for an evening of books, cocktails, food, and friends at the annual spring benefit: A Novel Night. The evening will feature a keynote conversation with Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl. Kate and Miriam are the Bay Area educators and activists behind the New York Times best-selling books, Rad Women Worldwide and Rad American Women A-Z, and the forthcoming Rad Girls Can.
To learn more about the A Novel Night, visit our event page or reach out to michelle.collier@
Reading Partners volunteers work one-on-one with students. (Photo credit: Reading Partners)
About Reading Partners
Reading Partners empowers students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has provided proven, individualized literacy tutoring to nearly 45,000 elementary school students in under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visitreadingpartners.org to learn more about our program impact, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
