Beaufort County United Way is reaching out to middle-school students who struggle with reading and are at risk of falling farther behind.

The organization is starting a volunteer tutoring program for students in fourth through eighth grades in which the student will be paired with a tutor for a designated time during the school day, said Sally Love, executive director at Beaufort County United Way.

She said United Way is planning to approach middle schools in the county about the program once school is back in session and will partner with Bright Futures, which is also starting a mentoring program in the schools.

“One of the missions of the United Way is to work on education,” Love said. “As a result of the conversation with (Superintendent) Dr. Phipps, he said that one of the gaps is middle-school reading.”

Love said that in general, students learn to read in first through third grades, and then they read to learn starting in fourth grade. If a child does not learn to read at the same level as his or her peers, then there is a good chance that child will be left behind, she said.

“It’s really important that we catch them now,” she said. “I think there is so much subject matter in the middle school. … If they cannot read for information, sometimes in ninth or 10th grade, they make the decision to drop out of school.”

Volunteers will likely be asked to tutor for about an hour a week and will go through training with Beaufort County Schools, Love said.

“I think there’s a lot of people out there who think this is important,” she said. “We want the children to, the students to be productive citizens.”

Love said that a lot of the details have not been worked out yet, as each individual school will determine the time slots for tutoring and the students who qualify.

Robin McKeithan, county coordinator for Bright Futures, said the organization thought partnering with United Way would be a way to bring more volunteers into the middle-school environment so that the students will be ready for high school.

“Bright Futures does a lot of things at the core,” she said. “We need kids reading at grade level.”

McKeithan said the main goal is to bring a variety of organizations together to make a difference for the children.

“It’s really important and reading is critical all of your life,” Love said. “I’m sure that there are other gaps, but we’ve got to start somewhere.”

 

To apply to be a volunteer reading tutor, applications can be accessed at www.unitedwaybc.net by scrolling down on the home page and selecting the link to download the application.