Students have had a rough two years and many young learners are in need of some additional help. The Read for Life program is looking for volunteers to help with their tutoring program at the Literacy Academy at Cleveland Elementary.
The program needs help with tutoring first and second graders on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:15-4:15 in the afternoon.
Organizer Mary Depner said that volunteers “work with students starting with where their reading ability is and try to catch them up to grade level so they become successful in school and will graduate. We hope they will continue their education or a training program so they will break the cycle of poverty in their lives.”
Depner said there is a big celebration when the student can say, “I can read”. It often makes behavior problems go away and the students then become leaders.
Depner shared that illiteracy is closely tied to future incarceration, juvenile delinquency, and poverty. Read for Life has been reaching out to increase literacy and break the cycle of poverty since 2010.
For more information, please call or text Mary Depner at 810-334-4567 or email marydepner@yahoo.com.
Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland
