A Book Can Change a Story

Library Buddies recruiting is currently on haitus since 2017. Library Buddies program has volunteers serve students during a critical time in their educational lives. Volunteers generally serve for 1.5 to 2 hours per week with the same students throughout the school year.

As the Annie E. Casey Foundation has noted, “The process of dropping out begins long before a child gets to high school.” In fact, the chances of a child graduating from high school can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by knowing the child’s reading skill at the end of third grade. A child who is not at least a moderately skilled reader at that point is unlikely to graduate.

If a child comes from a low-income family, the chances for on-time graduation further decline. The Foundation concluded, “The fact is that the low-income fourth graders who cannot meet [the] proficient level in reading today are all too likely to become our nation’s lowest-income, least-skilled, least-productive, and most costly citizens tomorrow. Simply put, without a dramatic reversal of the status quo, we are cementing educational failure and poverty into the next generation.”

WePAC places volunteers with Kindergarten to third grade students to provide one-on-one support during the literacy block of instruction. With class sizes increasing, volunteers can play a key role in working with individual students during this key learning time.

If you are interested in volunteering for WePAC, please Get Involved!