Children’s Reading Partners Announces Fall Training Sessions

Each year, more than one in three American children starts kindergarten without the language skills needed to learn to read. And in Hartford, by the third grade, nearly 50 percent of students are still unable to read at grade level. According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation¹, students who can't read proficiently by the end of third grade are less likely to graduate from high school on time – a critical factor in breaking the cycle of poverty.

You can help by becoming a Reading Mentor with Children’s Reading Partners. Simply attend one of the public training sessions below, then select a 30-minute-per-week time slot to read to a student in kindergarten through fifth grade. Volunteer times are available during the school day or after school.

Prospective volunteers may attend either one of the following training sessions:

• Tuesday, September 13, at 7:00 p.m., at Congregation Kol Haverim, 1079 Hebron Avenue, Glastonbury
• Thursday, September 15, at 7:00 p.m., at the Community Services Building, 333 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford

Additional training sessions will be offered at a later date.

Founded in 1998, Children’s Reading Partners (formerly the Hartford Jewish Coalition for Literacy) is a network of volunteers who work to build and improve the reading skills of educationally at-risk public school students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The program serves students in Hartford, Bloomfield, East Hartford, New Britain, Manchester and West Hartford.

In 18 years, Children’s Reading Partners has served more than 5,500 students and conducted over 87,000 reading sessions. It also has provided 6,000 new books to students and their classrooms.

To learn more or to sign up for a training session, please contact Children's Reading Partners at read@jewishhartford.org or (860) 236-7323. 

 ¹ "Early Warning Confirmed: A Research Update on Third-Grade Reading," The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2013.