Mayor Taveras, Providence Children and Youth Cabinet Launch 'Providence Reads' Initiative

Businesses and community members enlisted to help increase grade-level reading, promote school readiness, improve school attendance and support summer learning.

Mayor Angel Taveras joined today with Providence's Children and Youth Cabinet (CYC) and Providence Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Lusi to launch Providence Reads - an initiative in partnership with more than a dozen businesses and organizations to increase grade-level reading, promote school readiness, improve school attendance and support summer learning in Providence. GTECH and Walgreens have agreed to serve as the lead sponsors of the Providence Reads initiative.

"Teaching young children to read is one of the most important things we can do to put them on a path to excel in the classroom and succeed in their lives. Through the Providence Reads initiative, our entire community can become active participants in our effort to ensure that every child in Providence reads proficiently by the end of third grade," said Mayor Taveras. "I thank GTECH, Walgreens and our other business and community partners for committing resources and volunteers to make the Providence Reads initiative a success, and for their support of our city."

Providence has set an ambitious goal to increase grade-level proficiency for students entering fourth grade to 70 percent by 2015. Only 46 percent of Providence fourth graders were reading on grade level at the beginning of 2011. Research shows that low-income children who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade are up to 13 times more likely to drop out of school.

The Providence Reads initiative aims to meet this goal by focusing on four objectives: educating parents and the community about the importance of grade-level reading, school readiness, school attendance, and summer learning; recruiting volunteers to work with students in classrooms; increasing students' access to books; and implementing an award-winning, nationally-recognized plan to improve grade level reading.

"We all know that reading on grade level by Grade 3 is foundational to the future success of our students," said Dr. Susan Lusi, Superintendent of Providence Schools. "As a district, we are grateful to Mayor Taveras for his leadership in this area, and to our community and business partners for rallying the resources we'll need to support this critical goal."

Providence Reads is modeled on similar volunteer programs in Boston, Sacramento and other cities, and was recently funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies to create a new volunteer program Leyendo, which will bring literacy tutoring, mentoring, and summer learning to English language learners at Carl Lauro and Mary Fogarty elementary schools.

Mayor Taveras' office, in collaboration with the CYC, is building partnerships with the business community to bring corporate champions into schools to read to children, sponsor classrooms and adopt schools to increase literacy skills. The city will hold events throughout the year to raise awareness and visibility about the importance of grade-level reading.

The community is encouraged to participate in Providence Reads in a number of ways: parents are asked to read to their children 30 minutes every day; community members can volunteer in classrooms through the organization Inspiring Minds, and can donate books through Books Are Wings or Reach Out and Read; businesses can adopt a classroom; and donations to the Children and Youth Cabinet are welcome to help build the movement.

To support the effort, GTECH has committed $10,000 to sponsor a classroom, and Walgreens will make a monetary contribution to the program and provide 20 weekly volunteers to read in classrooms. The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce has also committed two volunteers to the Power Lunch reading program. Citizens Bank is adopting a kindergarten classroom, and AAA Southern New England is committing 12 weekly volunteers to elementary classrooms.

"Collaborative public-private partnerships are crucial to helping students succeed," said Robert K. Vincent, GTECH Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs. "By adopting a classroom, GTECH hopes to make a real difference for children in the Providence School District by providing books and having our employees volunteer to read in a classroom each week. We are happy to support Mayor Taveras and the Providence Reads campaign with a collective goal of having all Providence students reading at grade level by the end of the third grade."

"Walgreens is very proud to partner with Mayor Taveras in this great initiative, Providence Reads. This program will help the children of Providence reach grade-level reading by the end of third grade, dramatically increasing their chance for success in the future," said Walgreens Rhode Island District Manager Ralph Seavey.

Earlier this month, Providence was selected as a finalist for Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge for Mayor Taveras' proposal to boost education outcomes for low-income children by increasing the number of words they hear by their fourth birthday. In October, Providence was announced as a Together for Tomorrow Challenge winner, a White House initiative that highlights community-led partnership to support struggling schools.

In September, the America's Promise Alliance named Providence to its annual list of 100 Best Communities for Young People. Earlier this year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation selected Providence as the first site for Evidence2Success, a new approach to investing in programs that promote healthy child development.

And in July, Providence was one of 14 communities - from a pool of more than 124 - to be selected as an All-America City by the National Civic League for its plan to ensure that all third graders are reading on grade level.