The mission of the Augustine Project is to improve the reading, writing and spelling abilities of low-income children and teens who struggle with literacy skills. The Project trains and supports volunteer tutors who provide free, long term, 1-on-1 instruction based on the Orton-Gillingham approach and Wilson Reading System® materials.
The Need for Our Services:
- In North Carolina, an astounding 30 percent of high school students drop out before graduating; this severely limits their chances to live fulfilling, productive lives.
- According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, slightly more than 50 percent of its 136,832 students are economically deprived.
- By the time CMS students reach fourth and fifth grades, about 30 percent test below grade level in reading, a number that is likely higher among low-income children.
- Research shows that children who fall behind in learning to read in primary grades do not make up that lost ground without explicit instruction.
Literacy skills are the survival skills of our society.
Our Training Defines Us
It is what separates us from other volunteer tutorial programs and why classroom teachers welcome our help.
Here is what an Augustine tutor wrote to the volunteer coordinator at her church in January, 2010
“…I want to make others aware of a different kind of tutoring experience…All the tutoring and mentoring that our church is providing is wonderful, but there may be some folks that feel what they are doing isn’t enough, that their students need more than they know how to give. That was how I felt last year…I…finally took the plunge and took their (Augustine Project) 2-week training course…
This year I feel like I am really making a difference in my student’s life, even though progress is measured in baby steps, like now consistently spelling “was” instead of “wus.”