The READ Center

The READ Center believes that everyone needs and deserves a literate life. The READ Center helps adults develop reading, writing, basic math, and digital skills so they can achieve their goals as employees, family members, and citizens. This is accomplished by providing classroom instruction and 1:1 tutoring.

Students come to The READ Center for a variety of reasons. Some want to improve their reading skills to get a driver's license, pass a job certification test, or attend GED or college courses, while others simply want to be able to enjoy reading a newspaper or help their children with their homework.

READ's goals include increasing the number of individuals served, continuing to demonstrate student personal goal achievement, and providing quality classroom instruction and tutoring that meet students' needs, as indicated by feedback from student surveys and the Student Council.

The READ Center provides free literacy services to adults in central Virginia who read at or below a 7th grade level equivalency to improve reading, writing, basic math, and digital skills. This is accomplished by providing classroom instruction, one-to-one tutoring, group tutoring, specialty classes, and workshops. We offer both in-person and online instruction. Beginning readers meet twice weekly in classes for 2 hours, providing a structured learning environment. Students reading at level 4th grade or higher are paired with a 1:1 tutor. Pairs meet once a week for 2 hours. Student goals are integral to individual instruction plans. Goals may be job-related (gaining employment or enhancing job skills) or personal (health, parenting, education, self-determination, self-worth).

We provide a variety of approaches to learning, including classroom instruction, one-to-one tutoring, group tutoring, specialty classes, and workshops, both in person and online. Technology is not just our future, but our present, and building digital literacy components into all our coursework is vital to supporting our students. Most of our students have limited or no digital literacy skills. Through the pandemic, we have learned that digital literacy and literacy are often mutually re-enforcing. Approximately 60% of our students do not own or have access to computers or tablets. This is a barrier to our ability to teach digital literacy and provide flexible learning options to our students.

READ’s transition to virtual learning throughout the pandemic opened our eyes to the importance of digital literacy classes for our students. Digital literacy means having the skills you need to live, learn, and work in a society where communication and access to information is increasingly through digital technologies like internet platforms, social media, and mobile devices. Incorporating digital literacy as an aspect of all our adult literacy programming provides more comprehensive support to our current students and allows more individualized training (a necessary component of adult learning).

Students reading at or above a 4th grade level equivalency are paired with a volunteer tutor. Tutor/Student pairs meet at least once a week for at least 2 hours. Pairs meet in public locations such as libraries, at a time and date convenient to both. Tutors create literacy lessons from resources such as the Challenger workbook series, provided by the READ Center. They also schedule time in their lessons to work on students’ individual goals such as obtaining their driver’s license, studying for the GED test, or applying for a job online.

To facilitate an environment that caters to a student-centered approach teachers and tutors use different learning strategies including but not limited to modeling, collaboration, and interactive and experimental learning to ensure we are meeting students where they are in their learning journey.

READ employs professional educational staff that are supported by trained volunteer tutors. Tutors attend Orientation as the first step in training. Its purpose is to help potential tutors understand the students and communities with whom they will be working. After Orientation, tutors observe in a READ classroom or one-to-one pair. Then tutors complete an online training module and attend a one-day training program on a Saturday.

At the training program, tutors learn about the four components of reading, how to develop a lesson plan and how to evaluate students needs and progress. Tutors work in classrooms and in one-to-one pairs. Professional development opportunities are provided throughout the year to enhance tutoring and personal skills.

Our tutors are patient, committed, caring, cheerleaders, have a sense of humor, and put students first. READ asks tutors to commit at least 2 hours a week for one year. Most READ tutors stay well beyond this commitment. READ has about a 72% tutor retention rate from year to year.

Support through grants, individual and corporate supporters, community organizations, and local government make it possible for READ to offer its programs free of charge to students.

In the 2021-2022 school year, we provided services to 110 individuals, of which 81% identified as Black, 11% as White, 4% as Asian and 2% as Hispanic. Research has shown significant gaps in literacy scores between White adults and Black adults, as well as all other minority groups. 53% of our students’ self-report as low-income and 47% do not have a high school diploma or GED. 62% of students read at a 0-5th grade level equivalency. 64% of our students are aged 25-59, 56% are women and 44% are men. We serve students in Richmond City (44%), Chesterfield County (19%), Henrico County (28%), and the surrounding metro area (10%).

Goals for FY23
1. Serve 125 students through Adult Literacy Classes. 
2. At least 80% of READ students with literacy goals attain at least one goal each semester. Students come to the READ Center with personal goals that require higher literacy levels. They are motivated to achieve those goals, and we use those goals to guide instruction. Students set personal goals at the start of each semester and then track progress by reassessing them at the end of each semester.   
3. Conduct three end-of-semester class evaluations with an average result of 95% of students “liking their class” and 95% evaluating it as “good for learning.”