'It Takes a Village' Project awarded Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant

A literacy program created by Associate Professor Jean Rattigan-Rohr received $2,500 to help purchase new books for young children tutored by Elon University education majors.

An Elon University tutoring and literacy program designed to help young children struggling to read has been awarded a 2014 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant in support of its efforts.

The $2,500 will help with the purchase of age-appropriate books next year when children tutored by Elon education majors visit a local Barnes & Noble as part of the “It Takes a Village” Project.

Led by Associate Professor Jean Rattigan-Rohr in the School of Education, the “It Takes a Village” Project uses a collaborative approach to help children in the community who are struggling to read. Children and Elon students who are majoring in education each semester are paired together for weekly tutoring sessions at May Memorial Library in downtown Burlington.

While in an environment rich with available resources, the preservice teachers assess the individual reading challenges of the children and show their parents different techniques they can use at home to help improve reading skills.

The program began at Elon University in 2008 and has since been modeled on college campuses elsewhere in North Carolina and Oregon. It has drawn interest and support from several philanthropic foundations, including the Switzerland-based Oak Foundation, which in 2010 made a gift of more than $200,000 to support the project.

The “Village” has also expanded in recent years with the addition of science and music components that broaden children’s ability to think critically and creatively about their worlds.

For more information: www.elon.edu/villageproject