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| Q: | How does Ready Readers work? | |  Our volunteers regularly go to charitably subsidized preschools in the St. Louis metro area and read aloud to children who are 2-5 years old. We regularly buy high quality new books, and our volunteers give these books to the children every other month during the school year. We also collect gently used books and distribute them to needy area preschools. During the 2007-2008 school year, we are giving the children a total of 36,000 award-winning new books. We also distributed many donated, new and gently used books to our preschools. When we receive donated books for older children, we donate them to other area literacy organizations and programs working with older children. | | | | Q: | Is special training required to be a volunteer? | |  We require a love of reading, the ability to read well, a love of young children, and the willingness to commit to showing up when scheduled. We provide initial and ongoing training and support, including personal training sessions for groups, as well as written training materials and a free training video that shows how to choose books, how to capture and hold the children's attention, how to troubleshoot, etc. We also offer the opportunity to observe other readers, mentoring and on-site help for new readers, free quarterly workshops, resource suggestions for finding books, an an online chat room, and other tips for effectively reading aloud.
| | | | Q: | How often would I read? For how long? | | We will schedule you so that your travel time and reading time last a total of about one hour. If you have more time, we will schedule you accordingly.
We arrange for you to read to the same children on a regularly scheduled basis. Most people read to one or two classes once a week. Some people read more often and in more than one school. The minimum commitment is once every other week. Some people team up with a friend or co-worker and alternate weeks.
We ask readers to commit to reading for at least one full semester, but we prefer a commitment of at least one full academic year. We encourage people to read during the summer too-- but not unless you will be in town for at least 10 weeks.
How long you stay in a classroom depends on you, on the class and on the number of groups and their arrangements. Most read-aloud sessions take no more than 30 minutes. Some readers like to cover two classes, which takes about an hour.
Most readers read to a whole class, because of space and organzational constraints in the schools. But in some cases, people are able to read to several small groups, one at a time. For example, a reader might divide a class of 20 into 4 small groups and read to each group for fifteen minutes. | | | | Q: | What days of the week and times of day would I read? | | We read when the preschools are in session, Monday-Friday, except from 11:30-12:30 (lunch time). All these schools are closed evenings and weekends.
Most schools like us to come after 9:00 a.m. and finish by 11:30 a.m. or to come after 1:00 p.m. and leave by 4:30 p.m. We coordinate volunteers' needs with the schools' schedules, and we can usually accommodate everyone who has a little flexibility during the day.
We have many volunteers who work full-time and can take an hour break for and early or late lunch. We have readers whose companies encourage volunteerism and allow employees to leavework to read for us. If you live or work within 10-15 minutes of one of our schools, we can usually place you there.
Some schools stay open all year. Others close for the summer. We have readers who go all year and some who read from September-May and take the summer off. It's up to the reader.
| | | | Q: | Where are the schools? How do you decide what school a reader will go to? | | There is a list of our current preschools on this web site. The schools are all Head Starts and similar programs, which are located in neighborhoods all over the City and County of St. Louis, as well as in St. Charles County. We also currently have a few schools in adjacent counties. We work with you and the schools. Basically, we want you to choose a school that is convenient for you, as well as one that we know needs readers. If you want to go to a preschool that isn't on our list, let us know. If 85% of the enrolled children live below the Head Start poverty guidelines, we are willing to add that preschool to our list. | | | | Q: | Where would I get the books to read to the children? How would I know what books to get? | | We offer some donated books to volunteers who attend our workshops. We also help schools and companies start their own small lending libraries. But most people choose and bring their own books for weekly sessions. We provide booklists and new book suggestions to our readers online and an an ongoing basis. (See our Booklist on this web site for books we recommend, short reviews or these books, and suggested age ranges.)
We strongly urge readers to use the children's sections of the public libraries, which allow online and phone renewal services and allow people to keep books for many weeks. Some readers prefer to get their read-aloud books from family and friends. (See our booklist on this website.) Our readers may also purchase books at 40% off list price at The Booksource (www.booksource.com) | | | | Q: | Is there any upfront expense to volunteer? | | No. | | | | Q: | How do I begin the process of volunteering? | | You can either download an application from this web site or you can call us at 314-991-1903 for an application. If you plan to drive to the preschool, you will also need to provide us with proof that you are insured. You may mail or fax us a copy of the insurance card that you carry with you when you drive.
Once we have your application and a copy of your insurance card, we will contact you and arrange your schedule with you.
| | | | Q: | How do I donate books to you? Are there guidelines? | | We welcome new and gently used picture books which can be read aloud to preschool children, ages 2-5.
We can use fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc; but the books you give us should be big enough for a class to see all the pictures. The book should have pictures on nearly every page, and the pictures should occupy far more space than the words. We are a non-sectarian organization and do not use books about any religion or religious holiday.
Please see our book list on this web site for titles we would like to have.
We only use books that can be read aloud to very young children.
We do not use activity books, coloring books, jigsaw puzzles and toys.
We do not use books for children who are already reading--such as easy readers, chapter books, novels, etc.
We are a non-sectarian agency, so we do not use books about religion and religious holidays. Call us with any additional questions and to arrange for pick-up/delivery. | | | | Q: | Who runs Ready Readers? | | Our Board of Directors meets every other month. The Board is organized into standing committees, which oversee the management of the agency's operations, including its program features, its finances, its development work, and its book distribution program.
Day-to-day operations are managed by the agency's staff. The staff includes the following people:
Pat L. Simons, Executive Director, was formerly an attorney in private practice, a Past President of the Women’s Bar Association of Greater St. Louis., and a former English and French high school teacher.
Suzanne Michel, Assistant Director, has extensive experience in banking, accounting, administration and project management.
Diane Sinclair, Volunteer Program Supervisor, has expertise in business and in NPO volunteer program management.
Nora Steele and Toni Heifner are our Administrative Assistants. | | |
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