Reading Mentors Program
The Canby Center
The Canby Center
With the help of community volunteers, elementary aged kids in the Canby school district are able to experience the gift of learning in a fun, positive and safe way. Once a week, the kids are able to talk to, listen and engage with an adult while also enjoying a book or two, whether they are reading or being read to.
Bi-Monthly NewslettersAs a way to keep parents, students, volunteers and community members informed, newsletters, which feature events, milestones and individual spotlight sections, are created.
|
Why reading mentors?The Reading Mentors Program focuses on the interests of the kids by asking them, What do you want to learn about today? By allowing the children to make those decisions, it teaches them that Books are for everyone.
Program Coordinator, Kathleen states, "There are two main goals of the Reading Mentors Program:
1. To help students Meet Individual Growth Goals. -- At the beginning year, the schools evaluate students and determine individual (academic) growth goals. Reading Mentors strives to support students in meeting or exceeding their individual growth goal. 2. To Inspire Learning Before students can be ready to learn, they need to be willing to learn. Student engagement is absolutely vital to their academic success. This goal may be bit challenging to quantify, but it’s clearly visible in the faces of the children involved. They light up when ‘their’ mentors come to meet with them! Sometimes the students walk (or skip) a bit too fast for mentors to keep up with them as they head to their reading spot! The heart of this program is so simple - to inspire learning in young readers. It is such a joy to watch and listen as these connections develop. I love to walk around during reading time in a room full of readers so engaged in the book that they don’t notice anything else . . . children and mentors discovering the joy of reading. Thank you everyone for all that you do to support children’s literacy in our community!" |
My Story!In November of 2017, I was in my last year of my undergraduate program and found myself needing to fulfill an internship requirement. Without knowing what direction or career path I wanted to take post graduation, I found myself at a loss as to what I wanted to intern for or who with. It was through word of mouth that learned about The Canby Center! After getting in contact with the Reading Mentor Program Coordinator, Kathleen, I began to get excited about having an opportunity to work alongside her and her program. Since Kathleen manages 60 community volunteers, which impacts roughly 120 young readers throughout the multiple elementary schools in Canby, my goal was to act as a stepping stone in the communications aspect of the program in addition to working on any other tasks assigned to me. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about maintaining the internship on top of my other job and being a full time student, however, Kathleen kept a conscious mind about my school and work obligations and never assigned me more tasks than I could handle. Kathleen was an absolute delight! The last several months I have spent working for her was fun, informative and career inspiring—I can now confidently say I hope to pursue a job in the field of public relations. The impact this program has made on the young community members of Canby does not go unnoticed and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to be apart of this program and experience.
WANT TO VOLUNTEER? CONTACT KATHLEEN For more information regarding the Reading Mentors Program and all other services provided by The Canby Center, visit The Canby Center webpage |
681 SW 2nd Ave, Canby, OR 97013
|