READ TO SUCCEED ASHEVILLE

Read to Succeed Asheville (R2S) is an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to narrowing the achievement gap in Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools. We provide in-school tutoring and mentoring to students Kindergarten through 4th grade who are at-risk for failure-to-read, most of whom live in public housing. R2S has only one goal: to enable low-income students, ages 5 through 9, to gain grade level in reading by the fourth grade. To accomplish this goal, our volunteers (1) attend 40-hours of multi-sensory phonics training (Orten-Gillingham), (2) participate in 6-hours of practicum, (3) pass a final exam plus practicum observation, and, (5) agree to work with a student until s(he) is at reading level or in the fourth grade. Our 115 tutors and reading buddies work in all five Asheville elementary schools and currently two Buncombe County elementary schools. Currently, all our current schools have waiting lists for our tutoring services, and we have requests from two additional schools to expand our program to serve their children . We have no problem recruiting volunteers, but we must raise sufficient funds to provide our volunteers with the highest quality training possible. With only one part-time employee, we must pay Orten-Gillingham certified trainers to conduct our training sessions. Training is by far our largest budget item and this request for $5,000 would help support this crucial component of our project.