Buffalo Rising Online

Nov 22nd 2008, 3:23pm By Elena Cala Buscarino

This past July, the East Delavan Branch of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library was given a grant of more than $133,000 from the Josephine Goodyear Foundation to help improve literacy rates in the area as part of the Read to Succeed Buffalo Literacy Coalition campaign.

Organized by Good Schools for All, a program of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, the goal of the grant and its resultant programs is to achieve a 100 percent literacy rate in the City of Buffalo. This adds a much-needed service to this East Side area that encompasses the 14215 zip code.

This particular area has a high incidence of families and individuals who are in need of assistance with food costs and medical care, as well as a concentration of predatory lenders and other business that take advantage of the poor and illiterate. For example, there are check-cashing businesses that take up to one third of their clients' checks.

Still, the community retains many attributes that make it a good bet for a turn for the better. With an intact business district, major health centers, and strong block clubs and faith-based organizations, 14215 has the infrastructure it needs to thrive.

With targeted groups ranging in age from pre-k to adult, Read to Succeed is tackling every aspect of literacy beginning with reading readiness for beginning students to computer proficiency in adults. According to Good Schools for All's Community Outreach and Marketing Coordinator Jaime Swygert, studies have been done that show a strong correlation between a child's vocabulary skills and their reading comprehension.

Swygert said, "By age four, the average child in a welfare family accumulates 13 million words, 26 million in a working-class family and 45 million in a professional family." As a result, a study done by the Buffalo Public Schools in the fall of 2006 found that a full half of children entering Kindergarten are not ready for school due to their limited vocabularies.

"When you start out behind," Swygert said, "the expectation that you'll ever catch up isn't there, and some children just keep falling further behind."

In the holistic vision of serving families in order to bolster the type of literacy and vocabulary skills adults need to pass on to their children, the Delavan Library has several programs that relate to families. RTS is now in the midst of a seven-week program called Ready, Set, Read, designed to teach parents to build literacy skills at home.

"Student success is reflective of their parents' skill set," Swygert says. "We believe it's very important to read books together as a family." And they make it easy, offering dinner and bus tokens and babysitting services for the Tuesday night programs that run from 6:30 to 8PM.

Broken into eight groups, the programs cater to infants to school aged children, pre-k to 4th grade, middle grades and high school, parents and families, out of school youth, colleges and universities (to avoid remedial work in college), and adults. Within the adult programs, there is workforce literacy, health literacy, financial literacy and computer literacy.

"We've brought computers into the library and we have a 50-member coalition, partners Read to Succeed has brought together to connect data such as finances, literature through book clubs, computer skills," Swygert says. "We've managed to bring in grant dollars to make East Delavan a Success Center." And in an effort to further demystify financial quandaries, Swygert says, "We help with personal finances, income tax preparation and advice, and we're working on building financial literature with local banks."

In a world of illiteracy, the simplest of daily chores become monumental. "People need to be able to read food and medicine labels. And one of our participants has been filmed for a national news presentation because he finally learned to read and can help his children with their homework now," Swygert explains.

Read to Succeed takes their show on the road too, visiting community centers, churches, and temples. "Everyone can have an impact," Swygert says. "Teachers, pastors, Sunday school teachers—anyone with an open space can give one day a week to host, mentor or train to be a tutor."

The Buffalo Public Schools have done and continue to do their part too. Most programs run after school, but the schools are helpful in getting the word out through fliers. More importantly, they track students enrolled in RTS programs through 3rd grade including those enrolled in Bethel Head Start programs and homecare.

"Dr. Williams [Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools] has been wonderful in working with us," Swygert says.

Started as an initiative in 2004 through Good Schools for All, the strategic plan for the RTS program recognized literature as the most important priority for building successful educational programs with long lasting quality-of-life rewards.

Executive Director of Good Schools for All Helene Kramer was instrumental in putting the strategic plan together for the East Delavan Library, the model of which is receiving national recognition.

"We have computers, explorer stations for the smaller children, a reading rug/activity area, a WNED TV toy station, adult and child-sized rocking chairs and private stations in the basement for financial counseling," Swygert said. "This is a vibrant community hub."

For more information about funding, programs and volunteer opportunities, see: www.readtosucceedbuffalo.org

Pictured in front of the library: Jaime Swygert