What We Do

ReadingPals offers volunteers an opportunity to build meaningful relationships with young children while helping them to improve their social-emotional development and early literacy skills.

In Escambia County, ReadingPals spend 45-minutes per week working one-on-one with a pre-kindergarten student in an Escambia County Public Schools Title I program. Books, themed literacy kits, and other developmentally-appropriate learning activities are provided to ensure sessions are engaging and impactful. The volunteer and student pair get to choose which activities they work on each session to encourage positive decision-making skills and to foster independence and creative thinking. A skills checklist is provided to highlight learning outcomes and to assess student progress.

Every student in participating ReadingPals classrooms receives a brand new, quality book every month of the school year to help build their home library.

In the 2022-23 school year, 246 Pre-K students received a collective 5,290 mentoring sessions!

What We Hope to Achieve

• MENTORING: To build genuine, impactful relationships between students and our volunteer mentors.

• EARLY LITERACY: To improve students’ understanding of the fundamental building blocks of early literacy.

• SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: To help students build a strong social-emotional foundation through self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

Why It’s Important

According to the Florida Department of Education, 51% of children in Florida and 55% of children in Escambia County were not ready for kindergarten in 2022. And the 2022 reading exam showed that 75% of Florida students could not read at a minimally proficient level by the end of third grade. National studies show that students who do not read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma than proficient readers.

Early intervention and individualized attention gives students the best likelihood of success long-term, and studies show that children with mentors are more confident and have fewer behavioral problems.

Made Possible By

ReadingPals is managed by The Children’s Movement of Florida and administered through 16 United Ways/supporting agencies -- with the help of numerous community partners across the state.  ReadingPals is made possible through the generosity of the Barnett family – with the support of The Children’s Movement of Florida, United Ways, Women United, local school districts, Early Learning Coalitions, Children’s Services Councils, local libraries, and many others.

This program is also supported in part by a grant from United Way of West Florida.