The Need: In the Glades, only 34% of third graders read at grade level and 82% score below satisfactory on assessments.
Evidence-based curricula: University of Florida Literacy Institute, Magnetic Reading, and The Morning Book.
Goals: Boost literacy, confidence, and engagement, and ultimately improve academic outcomes.
“All right, he needs to be here,” she recalled one such instance. “You’re working. I am going to get him. Okay.”
Through her work in the Glades, Boldin has earned the trust of the community, enabling her to launch the year-round program at Pahokee Elementary School with the help of the school’s Principal Karen Abrams.
The program targets students who are reading below grade level, have been held back, are experiencing homelessness, or need mentoring. Last June and July, between 35 and 40 children took part in the summer program, which focuses on phonics and reading comprehension.
In the program’s second year, a $100,000 Community Foundation grant helped pay a portion of the year’s lease, salaries, transportation for field trips, supplies, books, and subscriptions for the program.
“We need them here for the intervention and the reading and math and whatever, academically,” Boldin said. “But we also have to provide those other social outlets in order to keep them engaged and to keep them coming.”
Last summer, that included an ice-skating trip. “A very, very, very new experience,” she said.
Without this summer program, many of the children would be left on their own, at home in front of a screen or getting into trouble. After the first year of the program, the pre- and post-testing showed academic improvements, Boldin said.
She and Shandra Stringer, a capacity-building coach who worked with the nonprofit, credit the Community Foundation for their success.
“Their risk and their return on their investment is trackable,” Stringer said. “It’s quantifiable, it’s everything. So, to the donors, we can never say thank you enough.”
