Everybody Wins! VT

EW! VT is a non-profit children's literacy and mentoring organization. EW! VT Executive Director, Beth Wallace will talk about their three Burlington programs. By creating mentoring relationships that foster a love of reading and language, EW! VT increases children's prospects for success and engages a diverse range of volunteers in their community schools. Through their reading mentoring program, they pair adult volunteers with students at local elementary schools. Reading pairs meet for an hour each week to share books and conversation and to develop life-changing relationships. EW! VT is a one-program organization; all activities support the mentor/child relationships they create. In addition to providing a mini-library with books and literacy activities at each site, they manage daily program operations, sponsor literacy events to bring together mentors and families to learn about literacy, distribute gift books to students, and encourage reading pairs to be summer pen pals.  Since opening their first two sites in October 2000, they have grown to become Vermont's largest mentoring program, engaging thousands of volunteers as reading mentors. EW! VT mentors have volunteered more than 130,000 hours helping their mentees discover the joys of reading, develop critical literacy skills, and increase self-esteem