Teaching kids to read, one by one

One of the things I am proud of is the Augustine Project. I'm proud that I started it and I'm proud that I was chair of the hiring committee that hired Debbie McCarthy. Without her, the AP wouldn't be in three states and several cities; it wouldn't have trained hundreds of tutors or helped hundreds of kids. And I'm proud of the tutors who give up two weeks of their time to take our grueling training so they cam give at least sixty hours of time to a low-income child with reading problems.

With the help of the Diocese of NC's Bishop Michael Curry, the AP applied for and received a $100,000 Jessie Ball DuPont grant to be split over five years between the three diocesan AP projects, in Chapel Hill/Durham, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem. This video features Bishop Curry and Debbie talking about the grant and the project's inception and growth.

Early grant givers were hesitant to give us money because the AP only helped one child at a time. But one child at a time adds up. Tutor Dan Toth has worked with over 25 children alone. The Talmud says "To change one life is to change the world," and these tutors have changed a lot of worlds. This grant, given during a time of funding uncertainty for many nonprofits, means more tutors can be trained and more children can be helped.

Our replication policy can be found on the project website. If you are interested in knowing more about starting an Augustine Project in your town, Church of the Holy Family, Chapel Hill, NC, is hosting a replication workshop on Friday, March 26, 2010, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Lunch will be provided and directors from other programs will be present. Come hear more about it. It may be your turn to change a few worlds!

Give a child the gift of reading for Christmas

Do you have someone on your gift list who already has everything they need? How about a gift in their name to help a low-income, non reading child learn to read? The Augustine Project is based in Chapel Hill, NC, but has replications in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Hickory, Greenville, SC, and Controe, TX. Volunteers give up two weeks of time to receive 70 hours of top quality training in teaching children to read. They then work with a low-income child for a minimum of 60 lessons. Schools in these areas eagerly seek AP tutors out and invite them to tutor during the school day at school. While our tutors are not Wilson trained, they are conversant with Wilson materials and use those with their students.

The Augustine Project in Chapel Hill, sponsored by The Church of the Holy Family, has just celebrated its 15th anniversary. Check out the website and see what good work is being done. This program and its replications depends on grants and donations to keep the good work going. So check it out. And perhaps you can use this wonderful project as an opportunity to cross several names off your holiday list.