6 minute read
Letter from the Executive Director
by 826LA
FROM “The Unknown And Ruffles”
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BY GIO S. IN THE GOOD SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE ,
A PUBLICATION BY 826LA AFTER-SCHOOL TUTORING STUDENTS
LETTER FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT
When was the last time you were held captive by a story? As a reader, volunteer, and 826LA board member, I believe the common thread in all great stories is compelling characters. At 826LA, students are the main characters, and we are the supporting cast. They are riveting to me because they’re wildly creative, brave, and funny—and they are literally the future of the world we all inhabit.
That’s why I’m excited to share our 20212022 annual report with you, because—in addition to important statistics and heartfelt thank-yous—it is chock-full of student writing and stories about the community of volunteers, educators, and partners who make up 826LA. Perhaps I’m biased, but I think it’s quite a page turner!
Keep reading!
Susan Ko President of the Board
LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
At 826LA, we encourage students in our Storytelling and Bookmaking field trips to fill their stories with conflict and cliffhangers. After the events of the past few years, many of us would like to see a bit less drama in real life. But at the same time, we crave adventure and long for heroes—or in 826LA’s case, to help students become heroes in their own lives.
During an era of seemingly relentless, compounding crises, 826LA staff and volunteers came together to create fun, quirky, safe, and rigorous learning communities for our students. With urgency, we collaborated to be the essential educational resource for the most vulnerable and deserving students of Los Angeles.
The 2021-2022 school year was indeed a pageturner, with a fair share of twists and turns. I joined the organization in October, just three days before we opened our doors to in-person programs after more than a year and a half of virtual programming. I was and am thrilled to work with a resilient, dedicated staff to help 826LA create a new era of supporting more students, more deeply.
But more important than our page-turner of a year are the page turners themselves. When students enter our centers or Writers’ Rooms, or log on for a virtual workshop, they’re entering a place of imagination. And so they turn the pages: generating writing, improving their skills, doing their homework, and ultimately writing the future we will all inhabit.
In the 2022-2023 school year, we will build on our decades of work to create a stronger circle of support around each student. We could not do any of it without you: the volunteers, donors, educators, partners, families, and staff who believe in our students.
Here’s to the creative power of the page, and beyond.
In gratitude,
Jaime Balboa Executive Director
FROM “Cat” BY OMAR S. IN THE GOOD SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE ,
A PUBLICATION BY 826LA AFTER-SCHOOL TUTORING STUDENTS
Safety and Self-Expression are Top Priorities for In-Person Tutoring
The Los Angeles Times article “Falling grades, stalled learning. L.A. students ‘need help now’” revealed sobering statistics about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures, particularly for Latinx and Black students, and English language learners:
“Across all ethnicities, grades declined as students who had previously earned As, Bs and Cs began getting report cards marked with Ds and Fs…the percentage of As, Bs, and Cs earned by Latino students in the spring of 2021 fell by more than 10 percentage points compared with the prepandemic fall of 2019 — from about 79% to 68%. English learners saw a drop of 12 percentage points, from 70% to 58%… For Black students, the drop was about 6 percentage points. About 76% of grades earned in the fall of 2019 were As, Bs and Cs, compared with 70% in the spring of 2021.”
In the fall of 2021, in order to better address learning gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, 826LA returned to in-person Tutoring at our writing centers in Mar Vista and Echo Park with new safety protocols in place.
Pedro Estrada and Mike Dunbar, our Programs & Operations Managers, coordinated with staff to implement multi-faceted solutions and ensure Tutoring students and volunteers remained safe. Volunteers and other adult visitors were required to show proof of vaccination, and everyone adhered to COVID safety guidelines. They equipped the centers with space dividers, improved air filters, sanitizing supplies, and masks.
In December, we celebrated our first inperson AST book release party in more than a year.
At a small gathering of committed students and volunteers, students read stories about their favorite memories. Tales of trips to Mexico and Legoland suggested their longing for a time when travel was easier.
One student was too shy to read his essay, but Josie, his tutor, got on stage with him and read it aloud. Working together, it worked. After more than a year of Zoom tutoring, our After-School Tutoring (AST) program for younger students, and our Tuesday and Thursday Night Tutoring (TNT) program for older students welcomed participants back in person beginning in the fall. It was a joyous reunion, with lots of hand sanitizer—and more writing than in our virtual era, as students resumed the Write On! portion of each session, in which they responded to creative prompts.
AST students celebrated the release of two books this year: Mis Memorias/My Memories—a compilation of recollections about the highs and lows in their lives so far—and The Good Side of the Universe, a collection of stories about mythical creatures.
TNT students published the eclectic A Painting from Dreamland. They wrote essays that accompanied representative photos from their lives: sequoia trees stretching skyward on a family trip; friends standing shoulder-toshoulder in matching masks; smiling teens in graduation robes and leis.
TNT student Marco F. reflected on eighth grade graduation and feelings of uncertainty about the future: “Something I always knew about and that I greatly feared was the future, which is in a way ironic because you are never really ever going to be in the future, but rather you’re always in the present.”
TUTORING
SESSIONS HELD STUDENTS SUPPORTED VOLUNTEER HOURS PROVIDED
313 94 1,517
FROM “Start of a Long Journey”
BY JOSE R. IN PAINTINGS FROM DREAMLAND
BY TNT TUTORING STUDENTS
This photo is the start of a long journey and the end of a race….After the first day [with Students Run LA], I left with a different view. The program didn’t care how fast you were, all you had to do was overcome and stay on track. From then on, I wanted to get rid of my mindset that I could never do something out of reach….
I was taking two tutoring programs at the same time, which were 826LA and El Centro Del Pueblo. They helped me prepare to plan ahead…. I realized as long as I write out how much time I plan to do each thing, I can get so much done. It brought a huge confidence boost that got me out of my shell of being quiet, to someone who is probably one of the most sociable in class…. It made me feel like I had a purpose and a goal to achieve.
