Parentis Foundation

By pairing kindergarten through third-grade children with highly trained volunteer tutors, we will improve the literacy skills of children at risk of not reading fluently by fourth grade, while providing meaningful opportunities for older adults who serve as literacy tutor/mentors in after-school youth organizations throughout Orange County.

As a result of the Intergenerational Literacy Intervention Program participation, Parentis anticipates the following indicators of success, as measured by annual pre- and post-program assessments:
1) Students: 60% of youth who were below grade level reading at the beginning of the year improved their reading accuracy performance by a half grade and 25% improved one full grade level or more. Furthermore, a youth's social-emotional indicator will show a 75% growth in each of the developmental levels.
2) Tutors: A minimum of 95% of our senior tutors will report they were satisfied with the academic progress they made with students; that their participation in the program helped them stay physically and mentally active; and that the program increased their sense of purpose in life.
3) Program partners: Among our program partners, 100% will report our tutors have a moderate or strong influence on student reading and literacy performance, as well as the students’ social and emotional indicators, such as motivation, concentration, participation, or self-confidence.

Our impact on children
Literacy intervention focuses on fluency proficiency, accuracy and improving reading comprehension. Children and volunteers build a close, trusting relationship that helps improve the children's reading skills, and also builds essential social and emotional skills.
In yearly surveys, teachers report their students' show significant gains in reading skills increased confidence, better attendance, and fewer disciplinary problems.

Our impact on volunteers
Volunteer tutors age 50+ benefit from training and ongoing support that strengthens their natural mentoring abilities builds their confidence and fosters a sense of purpose that helps ensure their success as tutors – and the success of the children as readers.
Older adults who volunteer in the Experience Corps OC program for a significant number of hours each week reap important physical health, brain health, and community engagement outcomes as a result of their participation.

Our impact on the community
We are providing the essential support to ensure that children can read by the end of third grade and become productive members of society.
Nationally, over 2000 Experience Corps volunteers in 26 cities work in schools and after-school organizations in under-served districts that need support in helping students achieve mandated reading requirements.
WE ARE COMBATING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY!

AARP Foundation Experience Corps OC volunteers – people age 50 and older – help children in first through fifth grade learn to read and enhance social connection with older adults. We provide peer support, mentoring, coaching and ongoing training to help you be successful. Our tutors receive a minimum of 25 hours of pre, and continuing training to support reading tutoring skills, social-emotional learning techniques, and behavior management. We have also implemented a Lifelong Learner Series offering workshops and social engagements opportunities that continue to enrich the lives of our older adult volunteers.

The Experience Corps OC Intergenerational Literacy Intervention Program is an evidenced-based intervention program that measures student’s growth in words read per minute (a.k.a. oral reading fluency - ORF) and improved accuracy as an indicator of overall reading ability and academic success.

To assure the intended outcome for each student is achieved, we assess fluency and accuracy of students working with ECOC tutors at the beginning of year (BOY), mid-year (MOY), and end of year (EOY). Each student is assessed by our Literacy Specialist. Using the Reading A-Z pre- mid, and post-oral reading fluency assessment (ORF), we measure student’s words per minute (WPM) and accuracy. Fluency is measured by the number of words read correctly (WRC) in a grade-level passage in one minute. Accuracy is the percent of words read correctly out of the total number of words read. BOY Data provide the beginning level of fluency for each student; allow for grouping together similarly performing students; are used to create improvement targets for each student. MOY Data provide feedback on how much (or little) students are improving and inform small adjustments within the model for individual students. EOY Data provides the improvement outcomes. Additionally, Social/Emotional benchmarks are measured throughout the year to include ratings systems to track student's motivation, concentration, participation, and self-confidence. Growth in these four categories is also an indicator for a child's academic growth.

Nationally, AARP Foundation Experience Corps has been shown to improve the literacy rates of children, enrich the lives of older adult volunteers and strengthen schools in communities. In a single school year, students in K-3 rd grade who worked one-to-one with Experience Corps tutors achieved more than 60 percent greater gains in critical literacy skills than their peers who were not served by the program. Nearly 2,000 volunteers work in schools in under-served districts that need support in helping students achieve mandated reading requirements. Experience Corps operates in 22 program sites in select cities across the country.

Since the launch in October 2017, Experience Corps Orange County has recruited and trained more than 100 volunteers annually ranging in ages 50 and older. These dedicated volunteer tutors have provided over 20,000 hours of one to one literacy support to over 800 struggling readers at participating Orange County Boys & Girls Clubs, charter schools, and Title 1 supported elementary schools.

Experience Corps Orange County is school year literacy support program. Tutors become impactful mentors to their students during their reading sessions throughout the school year.