The Problem
While volunteering at my local library I learned that children not reading at grade level by the end of first grade have an 88 percent chance of not reading at grade level by the end of fourth grade. If this cycle continues these children are four times more likely to drop out of school. It was this sobering statistic that moved me to create, "Read a Story, Change a Life," a program designed to help promote literacy, inspire imagination, and build lifelong readers through storytelling and writing workshops. I am partnering with Higher Ground Youth and Family Services, a local nonprofit outreach program servicing at-risk youth and Lincoln Elementary School in Anaheim, California to incorporate my program into their existing intervention and after school programs. Higher Ground supports over 300 low incomes families, including 900 at-risk children. My program will focus on the 120 children in grades first through fourth.
