Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe Awarded $40,000 to Help Close Literacy Achievement Gap

Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe is thrilled and honored to announce that we are the recipients of a $40K capacity-building grant from the WNC Bridge Foundation. Awarded in late 2019, this grant was one of 44 (totaling a whopping $3,341,836) given out as part of WNC Bridge Foundation’s Impact Grant Program.

One of the focuses of the 2019 Impact Grant Program centered on youth development and supporting the community partners in WNC who have identified and taken action to address key challenges facing our local youth. As a 9-year-old nonprofit with a record for fighting the literacy achievement gap in our local schools, Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe recognizes the critical need for more one-to-one reading tutoring with our K-3 students.

For children, the defining line of literacy achievement falls at the end of 3rd grade. Why? Well, research shows children who aren't reading on grade level by the end of 3rd grade are 4x more likely to drop out of school. And as many educators will tell you, through third grade, you learn to read, after third grade, you read to learn.

With these additional resources from the WNC Bridge Foundation, Read to Succeed will be able to grow its mission of serving more students in our Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools, and work towards closing the literacy achievement gap. We will harness the power of increased outreach and communications to recruit more volunteers to be reading tutors as well as identify more donors and community partners to support our training efforts.

It's easy to take reading for granted, but there is a multitude of reasons why we shouldn't. Reading is a critical path to both academic success as well as life success. Everything from education to health to employment to financial well-being and civic participation relies in part on one's ability to read.

*Stark statistics reveal the true impact of illiteracy:

• Kids who aren't reading on grade level by the end of 3rd grade or 4x more likely to drop out of school
• 85% of juvenile offenders and 60% of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate
• 3 out of 4 people on welfare have difficulty reading
• The costs of health illiteracy, or the inability to access, understand, and use health-related information to prevent illness, to treat and manage health conditions, and to reduce the risk of injury is estimated at $106 to $236 billion annually.
  
  

The horizon of literacy achievement is bright though. Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe has shown that one-to-one reading tutoring with young elementary students can make a significant impact on their ability to read at grade level. Plus, learning to read helps foster a love of reading that students will carry with them throughout their lives.

Passionate, dedicated volunteers paired with high-quality training, comprehensive learning resources, and ongoing support makes the work we do possible. In the 2018 - 2019 school year alone, the 220+ students we tutored gained, on average, over 4.5 reading levels!

As more and more students achieve grade-level reading, new doors open to them to a future that was up until now, out of reach. Thanks to the WNC Bridge Foundation for reinforcing our commitment to closing the literacy achievement gap.

Interested in getting involved with Read to Succeed's mission to inspire and teach kids to read? Click here to learn more.

*References:

• https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/09/08/00/health-literacy-confronting-a-national-public-health-problem
• https://www.literacyprojectfoundation.org/
• http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/11/18/75-of-inmates-are-illiterate-19-are-completely-illiterate-ruben-rosario/
• https://observer.com/2017/07/prison-illiteracy-criminal-justice-reform/