A community-wide literacy initiative
At ReadFresno We ...
- Read to children and listen to them read during after school
programs using an army of volunteers
- Train parents with practical workshops to help encourage reading
at home
- Give books to children and families
- Focus on low performing schools and second language learners
Be the One
To make the difference, donate
One book One dollar
One hour
We work with children 0-8
- Recruiting and training Volunteer Readers to read with
under-performing students in primary grades during the After-School
program
- Providing Parent Literacy Clinics for parents of under-performing
students
- Making home visits to preschool and underserved populations,
such as Hmong, Lao, Khmer and Hispanic
- Teaching parents of underserved preschool-age students to
prepare their children for school readiness
Our goal: to have every child reading by the end of
the third grade
Listen to the
Executive Director, Dot Powell
What Volunteers are saying
"I find it inspiring that, as soon as
we arrive at
school, the students we are reading with run to us to ask if they can
"read today", even if it is not their day to read. And it is good that
they open up to us to discuss problems they are having at school,
or nice incidents they have experienced. They are THRILLED to be able
to take the books home." Sally A.
"I love going to read with my kids at Columbia – it is
the best and most meaningful part of my work week!" Suzanne F.
"...working with a student for the past school year.
When I first started reading with him, he had low self-esteem and lacked
confidence in his reading abilities. He would get easily agitated when
he could not read several words in a row and would ask to try another
book. However, I did not allow this negative attitude to persist and
instead continuously repeated how proud I was of his dedication and
improvement. I purchased flashcards to have him warm up with before
reading and it was only until recently that he was able to speed through
the entire stack without my assistance. He proudly laid out the cards on
the cafeteria tables and told every person who walked by (his friends,
school staff, and family) that he read them all by himself. It was the
first time I had heard him call himself smart; he was ecstatic and
beaming with a sense of accomplishment." Jessica P.