Read With Me Volunteers, a Coachella Valley-based program that helps students learn English, recently received a $10,000 grant to start their tutoring program at Cathedral City’s Agua Caliente Elementary School.
“When the opportunity came up to apply for a grant through CIELO, we knew it would be a perfect fit,” President and Founder Roberta Klein said in a press release. “Ninety-five percent of the students at Agua Caliente Elementary School in Cathedral City are Latino. Only 26% score at or above reading at grade level. With the $10,000 grant from CIELO, we will be able to provide 25-30 volunteers to tutor children from low-income families who are having difficulty with reading and comprehending English.”
To turn the tide and improve reading skills, Read With Me Volunteers sought out and received the grant from the Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Opportunity (CIELO) Fund at the Inland Empire Community Foundation, the press release said.
This is an expansion of its already active program with approximately 700 active retired volunteer tutors at 15 schools in the Coachella Valley, according to the release. This small army of volunteers tutors over 4,200 children and engages with more than 10,000 children a year to help them with learning English, even providing them with books. The nonprofit's network of volunteers includes senior citizens, classroom teachers and community organizations like churches, clubs and senior citizen centers, the release said.
According to the nonprofit's website, Read With Me Volunteer Programs was started in 2004 by Roberta and Clay Klein at the request of Coachella Valley Unified School District superintendent of schools. The nonprofit's mission grew into assisting children who live in poverty and come from homes where no English is spoken as they work to learn to read and speak English.
According to a press release from Read With Me, research has shown that if a child isn’t reading at grade level by the third grade, they are much more likely to drop out of high school in the future. Its focus on elementary schools, like Agua Caliente, is aimed at preventing such occurrences.
Recognized for its efforts, Read With Me Volunteers received the Golden Bell Award for English Acquisition from the California School Board Association in 2013, the website said.