Barbara Bush Foundation seeking Alaskan hosts for pilot literacy program

 The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy is seeking hosts in Alaska for a pilot program aimed at improving child and family literacy.

Book Explorers is modeled after the foundation’s long-running Teen Trendsetters program, which trains teenagers to mentor 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd grade students who are reading half-a-year or more behind their grade level.

The pilot program will be six weeks long starting in June and ending no later than August 13. In addition to providing access to books online, the program also provides training for mentors as well as parent guides for each book.

“It’s a way to keep kids reading during the summer and engage families, and it’s a way to have an impact on their literacy outside of the regular classroom learning during the regular school year,” Pam Cote, Senior Director of Curriculum and Training at the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy said.

The foundation is seeking host sites that will be able to recruit at least 10 mentors and 10 students. Mentors may be in middle school or high school or be adults. The program calls for mentors and students to meet once a week for about an hour.

“We know that there’s a lot of best practices about mentoring. Students get that rapid response when they’re working with someone. They’re working on learning tasks outside of the regular classroom. It just a completely different experience,” Cote said. 

In addition to benefiting students, the program is structured to strengthen learning for the whole family.

“When we look at these programs we want to take that multi-generational approach because we know of the impact,” Cote said.

In addition to any sites in Alaska, the pilot program is also being run this summer at a YMCA  in Maine, multiple libraries, and summer school programs in both Texas and Florida.

Click here to download a flier for the pilot program.

For more information, contact Pam Cote at Pam@barbarabush.org.