Local nonprofit Reading Power wins $25,000 State Farm grant
State Farm Neighborhood Assist has announced the selection of local nonprofit Reading Power as a recipient of a $25,000 grant.
Recognized for its work advancing early literacy in under-resourced communities, Reading Power has now developed, piloted and implemented a new virtual tutoring model to combat COVID-19 school closures.
To date, Reading Power has provided more than 900 hours of tutor training and, in October, successfully launched one-to-one virtual tutoring in North Chicago for students in kindergarten through second grade.
Reading Power's commitment to do more for children in underserved districts is exemplified in its ability to quickly adapt to this classroom pause by enabling its students to log on and learn to read with Reading Power tutors without incurring additional educational deficits caused by lost classroom hours.
State Farm Neighborhood Assist funding allows Reading Power to enhance and expand its virtual tutoring program through the purchase of books, school supplies, and other literacy and learning resources for its students, and helps improve access to technology for its students.
Carnegie Mellon's Tepper Graduate School of Business has also recognized Reading Power's efforts to do more to improve children's literacy. A team of Tepper MBA students recently selected Reading Power's virtual tutoring program as a case study in its A.T. Kearney Student Lab Program.
Carnegie Mellon students share the nonprofit's vision and commitment to improve childhood academic and life outcomes, and are working to enhance, scale and deliver Reading Power's proven, one-to-one virtual literacy tutoring program. Virtual tutoring will allow program expansion to more communities, and foster the development of strategic partnerships with community groups who serve the same populations of students.
Reading Power has augmented its purchase of high quality, age-appropriate books for children in need. Experts estimate that 61 percent of America's low-income children are growing up in homes without books. Providing well-written, high interest books to children can help break the link between poverty and poor academic outcomes.
Reading Power's professional educators take special care to select books that offer high quality, age-appropriate literature. The organization is committed to improving the positive impact of its reading materials by choosing books that best reflect and relate to the students, families and communities in the areas where its work is done.
"Reading literature that reflects diversity allows all children to see possibilities," Director of Programs Lisa Bulzoni, MEd, said. "All children deserve to see characters in books that look like them doing normal and extraordinary things."
A new program, "Book Buddies," has been launched to support these book purchases. For more information and to donate, visit www.readingpowerinc.org/donate.