If you are like me, you love seeing the pictures of kids in the blue house learning and growing, being loved by community members and hearing about God’s love. I know this is important. I know it is what we are called to be doing.
I learned a new statistic recently that also highlighted the literacy and tutoring programs as not just important, but imperative. I learned that only 3% of the students graduating from our local high school are proficient in reading. The same statistic is true of math. Only 3% are proficient in math. After those statistics, I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that 0% of students graduate college ready.
3%. How are we supposed to break generational poverty and change the trajectory of families if our youth graduate without proficiency in basic skills?This is a statistic we are aiming to change through our literacy program for students from age 4 to high school and beyond, run in partnership with Hard Court Hitters.
The program is run by community tutors - including 7 teachers - led by Dr.Clare, a retired educator who has taught in the city of Detroit for over 30 years. The Literacy Enrichment Program meets in our Children's Technology and Education Center, or as our beloved community has dubbed it, the "little blue house".
Our tutors spend countless hours teaching young children via our Enrichment Literacy Program, which exists to enhance the abilities of learners within our community in literacy, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency for better performance in school, home and life. This program is designed to motivate and support all of the young people in our neighborhoods by supplementing educational needs, as well as dietary needs. The literacy program provides snacks and a balanced after-school meal, because feeding our children's bodies is crucial in the process of feeding their minds. During the 2023-2024 school year, 44 learners grew in subjects such as mathematics, reading, and writing. This has allowed our students to cultivate their own confidence and creativity, strengthening the desire to learn more about the world around us. This school year, we already have 55 students signed up! This is equal to 10% of the students at the local high school!
The tutors that run our literacy program create many wonderful opportunities for our students to not only grow in academic abilities, but to assimilate new concepts and ideas about how each person can contribute to making our community a better place. This $70,000 program is VITAL to our community. Your charitable support assures CRD can continue fulfilling this mission of breaking generational poverty by providing imperative, advantageous educational services, advancing our students academically and ultimately bettering our community as a whole in the northeast corner of Detroit.
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