February, 2019 Newsletter
Greetings from The Alexandria Tutoring Consortium (ATC)!  
We’re almost halfway through our tutoring year. Thank you for supporting our work, whether as a tutor, an educator, a donor, or a community friend. Here are some updates.
Our pilot program at Ramsay Elementary, where we have introduced the Kindergarten Book Buddies curriculum, is exceeding our expectations. All 23 children in this program, the majority of which is funded by a three-year grant from the Alexandria Fund for Human Services, are now reading on grade level. Thanks to our 20 tutors and our coordinator Molly Hall (a former first grade teacher at Ramsay), these students are making terrific progress. We are grateful that 17 of our Ramsay tutors are first-time ATC tutors. Our thanks to each tutor for helping a student become a better reader.
We have tutor support sessions scheduled for tutors in our Kindergarten Reading Readiness program and in our First Grade Book Buddies program. If you are a tutor and have questions about lesson plans, how to use the curriculum or just tutoring in general, please come. Our education professionals are here to help you and answer your questions. The Reading Readiness Tutor Support Session will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, February 7 at John Adams. Our First Grade Book Buddies Tutor Support Session will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, February 7 in Heritage Hall at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, the lower level of 323 S. Fairfax Street. We will also schedule a Tutor Support Session for our Kindergarten Book Buddies in March. We will announce that date once logistics have been confirmed.
Thank You for Responding to our Annual Appeal.  We have raised nearly $19,000! We saw some creative ways to donate through this appeal. One of our former tutors asked her family members to donate to ATC in lieu of buying her Christmas gifts. Other donations were made in honor of a tutor or a child who was tutored. Yet other donations we received were in memory of a cherished friend or family members. These donations are heartwarming to the ATC Board and staff and we are grateful for those donors who choose to support our literacy work in these ways. Of course we continue to accept donations, particularly since we have two additional Alexandria elementary schools that have requested ATC be part of their programming next year. If you’re interested in donating, please click here.
Tutors and students at all our schools are working hard.  We are grateful for the dedication our tutors are providing students in programs at Charles Barrett, Cora Kelly, James Polk, John Adams, Lyles-Crouch, Matthew Maury, Samuel Tucker and Patrick Henry elementary schools (and Ramsay, previously mentioned). We are now tutoring 153 students.

We are always in need of tutors, whether to serve as a substitute tutor or to "share a student" -- one tutor comes one day a week, one comes another, and the two tutors can coordinate vacation or other coverage when needed.
Questions? Contact Program Director Lisa Jacobs at ljacobs@opmh.org

323 S. Fairfax Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-549-6670 x119
Fax: 703-549-9425
Email:  atc@opmh.org

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Lisa Jacobs, Program Director