In August 2005, the Florida Department of Education granted 1.5 million dollars to the Florida State Alliance of YMCAs to create an exciting new volunteer-driven literacy/mentoring program, YMCA READS! The READS! program targets students in kindergarten through third grade from low performing schools or schools with high rates of students reading below grade level. Sixteen Ys throughout the state are participating in this first year of the grant. The Volunteer Florida Foundation oversees financial administration and evaluation of the grant (www.volunteerfloridafoundation.org).

Mentors meet two to three times a week with students who have been identified by their school as needing help in reading. Full-time YMCA READS! site coordinators provide volunteer mentors with lessons from the Systematic Instruction in Phoneme Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words (SIPPS) program developed by the Developmental Studies Center as well After School Kidz Lit, which exposes the students to a variety of literature that highlights the “big ideas” that are important to their lives.

YMCA READS! purposefully targets students in kindergarten through third grade in order to help the students develop solid reading skills before having to take the FCAT ( Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test) in the third grade. The energy, laughter, and success are contagious as volunteers at the various READS! sites provide much needed one-on-one or two-on-one attention to the struggling readers. Positive comments from reading coaches, principals, and vice principals about the READS! program include

• "READS! is easy to teach."
• "The children who are in the program are the ones who need it most."
• "It is at the right level for what each student needs."
• "It is an excellent program that reaches the students."
• "Is greatest strengths are the SIPPS curriculum and the quality and dedication of the volunteer mentors.

Additionally, most sites make enrichment activities in the After-School YMCA Program available to the students who attend the YMCA READS! sessions. These activities intend to engage the “whole child”, focusing not only on the child’s academic development, but also on the child’s social, emotional, physical, and character development. The combination of services makes READS! so much more than just a remediation program for low performing students. YMCA READS! connects children to people who care.

For more information about the YMCA READS! program, follow the links to the left.