Growing Readers Together Spring Fundraiser

Growing Readers Together

Help Us Raise $10,000 by June 15th, 2020

Donate today to help Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe enhance our program to adapt to social distancing as well as recruit and train more volunteer reading tutors to support local elementary students in achieving grade-level reading proficiency.

How do we grow readers?

At Read to Succeed Asheville/Buncombe, we know that growing readers means cultivating a love of reading, learning the right tools and techniques to strengthen literacy skills, and providing the one-to-one instruction and mentoring that support a student's success.

Together we can narrow the literacy achievement gap by committing our resources to growing readers.

Growing the R2S Program in Response to COVID-19

Few groups in our community are as profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis as the students with whom we work in our local Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools. An unprecedented disruption to their regular education, a sudden shift to distance learning, and a critical loss of months of classroom instruction and one-to-one tutoring mean we have work to do.

As a local, independent non-profit that works in-school with students one-to-one, we are developing innovative ways to adapt the work we do to the world of social distancing. In addition to distributing more educational resources and literacy content on our website and social channels, we have also pivoted our volunteer program.

Volunteer reading tutors are now recording videos of themselves reading stories and covering sight words and vocabulary so we can share them with teachers to distribute to their students as part of their distance learning lessons. We are also creating online training resources and materials for volunteer reading tutors and piloting a program to test virtual tutoring through video conferencing. Ultimately, we are enhancing and expanding our program to offer dual tutoring avenues moving forward - face-to-face in school and remotely from home.

We cannot do this work without your support. Please consider donating today and spreading the word to friends and family members who share your passion for education and literacy. Your generous gift will help us respond to our new reality and serve more students in the 2020 - 2021 school year.
"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature."

- Maya Angelou

Who Do We Serve?

Our organization's volunteers currently serve over 220 K-3rd grade students across 11 different schools in the Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools systems. The students with whom we work are not yet reading at grade-level and typically have limited access to educational resources.

What Do R2S Reading Tutors Do?

 Our reading tutors spend a minimum of one hour a week working with students to develop literacy skills that support them in achieving grade-level reading proficiency. In addition to reading books, tutors and students also cover vocabulary and spelling, learn sight words, practice handwriting, and more.

Our Impact

R2S has gone from serving six students in its first year (2010) to serving 225 students this school year. Our growth and community impact is a direct result of the tireless dedication and support of our volunteers, community partners, schools, students, staff, and board members. Learn more about our community impact in our 2019 - 2019 annual report, click here.