United Way Seeking Reading Volunteers for New School Year

Port Orange, FL - A child who starts behind, stays behind and may never graduate from high school – that’s the challenge facing the United Way and specifically the ReadingPal program, which pairs volunteers with children who are just learning to read or trying to increase their reading skills.

According to the United Way Volusia website, the program focuses on engaging, training and developing literacy volunteers, called ReadingPals, to increase the number of students who are reading at grade level by the end of their third-grade year.

Co-founder Carol Barnett underscored the importance of this initiative. "We so strongly believe that the future of our state rests in the hands and minds of our youngest,” said Barnett. “Our goal is to ensure that more children are reading at grade level by the end of third grade." 

Once trained, each volunteer will be required to work with up to 3 students two times a week for 30 minutes, or up to 6 students (two groups) for 60 minutes a week. Each of these 30-minute sessions will include the volunteer reading a book aloud, a literacy activity related to the book, and a volunteer-child conversation about the book.

The 2018-19 ReadingPals United Way Training Session will be held Thursday, August 16, 2018 at 10:00 am at the United Way office located at 3747 W. International Speedway Blvd. Daytona Beach, FL 32124

This training session will answer questions and is required for all ReadingPal Volunteers. 

If you have any questions, please contact Francine Martin at 386-275-1948 or email fmartin@uwvfc.org.