Reading Pals Builds Self-Esteem

Desmond Tutu once said, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.”

For Michelle Curran, co-founder and director of Reading Pals Chico, this quote sums up exactly what it is that their organization has set out to do: stop kids from falling into that “river”—be it incarceration, dependency, drug abuse, dropping out of school, cyclical trauma and abuse, etc. Statistically, twothirds of students not reading proficiently by the end of fourth grade end up in jail or on welfare. Experts in the spheres of helping to try and solve growing issues like homelessness, incarceration rates, drug dependency, etc all agree that early childhood literacy is the key to helping stop these problems before they even start.

“We see Reading Pals as an investment strategy—we invest in our young people now and not only will it change this individual child’s life, but it may just help the quality of life for our community as well,” explains Michelle. “The solution is so simple—just one hour per week of one-onone reading time with a positive adult is all it takes, but the impact is huge.”

Over 2,400 kids have come through the program since its inception in 2010. Together with over 1,300 community volunteers, these kids have had over 52,000 hours of one-on-one reading time. Perhaps even more important than the reading time is the relationship built between the volunteer and student. Take Eriberto for example. Eriberto was a fifthgrade student reading at a second-grade level. After “receiving ruthless mockery from classmates,” he begged his teacher for extra help. Serendipitously, he was paired with René Vercruyssen, one of Reading Pals’ very first volunteers. He later said, “I went from reading being my worst enemy to being able to read within my grade level in the span of three months.” He experienced this life-changing shift because he had encouragement from René and gained the confidence to do what he so badly wanted to do. Seven years later, the prompt for Eriberto’s senior scholarship essay was to write about someone that changed his life, and it ends like this, “....I am no longer known as the boy that could not read, but known as the man who persevered over his own illiteracy. This was all possible because of the man known as René.”

Reading Pals has seen such impressive results that every year new schools and communities are adding the program. Now, all twelve CUSD elementary schools in Chico and CORE Butte Charter, along with the communities of Paradise, Red Bluff, Corning, Orland, and Palo Alto have all added Reading Pals at some of their school sites with plans of expanding. On average, students enrolled in the program for just four months gain one year of literacy skills, but they also gain self-confidence and start to believe they do have what it takes to succeed. According to Michelle, that’s where the real magic in the program lies— the person-to-person connection.

Just one hour a week, or $34 per month, can change a student's life forever. Reading Pals can only serve as many students as they have volunteers and funding support to do it. To find out more about sponsoring a student, or volunteering yourself, visit their website at readingpalschico.org or find them on social media by searching Reading Pals Chico.