Reading & Resilience
You are giving children a second chance!
Friends like you make it possible for us to provide a unique continuum of care to love and serve children and families at any stage of life.
The sad reality for many foster children is that the disruption in their lives leaves little room for keeping up with school. Many children who come to us are grade levels behind, and because of the struggle to keep up, they no longer enjoy learning.
You are helping us change that—because, together, we believe education is a powerful key to the future for kids, and because we believe that the enrichment, self-confidence, and empowerment that comes through growth in academics is a critical step towards healing.
Because, together, we believe education is a powerful key to the future for kids.
Read Right, our unique reading intervention program, is a critical piece of our continuum of care that is changing the lives of children every single day. Read Right’s goal is to rewire the neural network in our brains that we use for reading. Instead of focusing on phonics, the curriculum instead encourages kids to derive meaning from the text they are reading. Through simple instruction and encouragement, tutors help the students figure it out on their own, which fosters confidence and a new comfort in reading they’ve never experienced before!
VP for Educational Services Norman Dover said that the students in the program are making “remarkable progress.” There is no better example for this than 12-year-old Liam, who lives in a cottage on our family-like residential campus. Liam began the Read Right curriculum in the second grade. His reading was at a first-grade level—a full year behind. He was in and out of foster care and switched schools multiple times because of it. On top of that, he and his siblings weren’t taken to school consistently each day.
Despite the hardships he’s endured, Liam has always been enthusiastic about learning.
His tutor said, “Liam was one of my favorites—motivated to improve his reading, willing to learn, and very helpful with other students.”
He worked hard to catch up, and then to excel. He grew up in turmoil and then watched his siblings leave Thornwell and transition into new homes—a heartache you wouldn’t wish on anyone. But Liam hasn’t let any of it diminish his joyful, kind, and dedicated spirit!
Last August, Liam further proved his dedication by graduating the Read Right program with a seventh-grade reading level, as a rising fifth grader!
Thanks to you and your unwavering support, Liam has graduated Read Right with new confidence, a stronger love for learning, and leaps and bounds above his starting place two and a half years ago—AND as our youngest graduate yet!
You can give today to impact more children like Liam.
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