History
Started in 2004 at the request of the Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent of Schools, Roberta and Clay Klein started a fund at the Desert Community Foundation and asked the pastor of their church for his assistance in recruiting volunteers. Father Howard Lincoln of Sacred Heart Church readily agreed. The District had been using English speaking volunteers to the extent, they could get them to go into the schools in the district that had no English speaking people in the community. Roberta asked the Superintendent if he would provide buses if they could recruit volunteers who were fluent in English through churches and other organizations.
Read With Me was born and now brings volunteers from seven churches to five different schools. The schools are all in areas of high poverty with a majority of the parents untrained in academic English. They love their children but cannot help them with English.
In 2013, Read With Me received a Golden Bell Award for English Acquisition from the California School Board Association. We believe the program is totally replicable in other areas that face similar challenges in providing tutoring and mentoring for disadvantaged children in a classroom setting.
What we do
In the classroom, the teacher assigns individual volunteers to selected students to listen to them read, assisting them with pronunciation and comprehension. The mentor/tutors are typically retired part-time Coachella Valley residents, some with special skills who help specific students go beyond the basic.
Read With Me
A Golden Bell award for English Acquisition by the California School Board Association.
Volunteer Programs
To Make a Donation
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We are accepting new and returning volunteers. We ask that you live here in the Coachella Valley either part-time or full-time to be a volunteer.
Volunteers can be on campus when fully vaccinated. We will have in-school and after-school programs, some with zoom, others in person. We hope to be on campus in the fall and will offer busing from some locations. All of this is subject to change.
Watch this video about our program from our local news source.
CLICK THE LINK BELOW
https://kesq.com/news/2020/10/28/read-with-me-seeks-more-volunteers-to-help-local-students-learn-how-to-read/
Contact us at readwithmesd@gmail.com 760-567-1830
HOPE LUTHERAN CHURCH
45-900 Portola Avenue, Palm Desert, CA 92260
http://hopelutheran.church
SAUL MARTINEZ ELEMENTARY, MECCA
65705 Johnson St., Mecca, CA 92254
Coordinator: Horst Engel
Email: readwithmehorst@gmail.com
Bus picks up at the church at 43775 Deep Canyon Rd., Palm Desert, CA 92260.
Pick up is in the parking lot in front of the church entrance.
Tuesdays,Wednesdays & Thursdays.
Please arrive by 8:10am
Bus departs at 8:20am and departs the school at 11:15am. Returns to Sacred Heart by 11:45am.
NOTE: All volunteers please be out of the classroom and back to the bus on time for the return departure