The RIF program makes a difference in children's lives through enriching activities that spark children's interest in reading. Approximately 419 Burke County youth received three new books provided by us at no cost to them. The distribution was held at Blakeney and SGA Elementary, Waynesboro Primary School as well as Head Start, Even Start, A Child's World, Marie's Creative Kids and Waynesboro Child Development Center. RIF programs make a difference in children's lives everyday through enriching activities that spark children's interest in reading. RIF is the nation's largest nonprofit children's literacy organization.The program goals of RIF are to provide new, free books; to provide literacy resources to children and their families; to motivate children to read; and to generate community support for literacy.

In the AmericaReads Tutorial, students in grades Kindergarten through 3rd are paired with individual reading tutors to help improve student reading levels. Tutors are recruited from the community and volunteer in-school, after-school, weekends and summers. The AmeriCorps program provides the schools with six (6) tutors that assist with reading daily. The program serves 218 students and recruited 46 volunteers. These programs are held at Blakeney Elementary, Waynesboro Primary and SGA Elementary. The Foster Grandparents Reading Tutorial works hand in hand with the AmericaReads program to ensure that the children receive one-on-one tutoring each day. Research shows that if kids are reading on grade level or above by the time they leave third grade, they have a better chance of completing high school. We are focused on helping these children reach their goal of completing their education.

In the AmericaReads Tutorial, tutors are recruited from the community and they come to tutor students at Waynesboro Primary School, Blakeney Elementary and SGA for 30 minutes per week. Principals, teachers, and parents rave about how much tutoring helps those low-level readers. We've even had teachers state that they thought the student might not make their grade because of their performance on the CRCT. Both Blakeney and SGA are now off of the needs improvement list because test scores have improved. According to Mr. Wilbert Roberts, our tutors have helped to make that possible. Over the past 4 years 95-100% of the students tutored increased their reading level by one or more grade level.