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Mission Statement
To help kids become BRiLLiANT, bright, and exceptionally clever in their reading and life skills by mobilizing Book Buddies to mentor them in Book Clubs.
Overview:
BBC aims to assist and support schools and teachers in their efforts to address the alarming rates of illiteracy present in our nation’s youth, by organizing and equipping community members to mentor elementary students during weekly lunchtime Book Clubs. It is our hope that students exceed their grade requirements for literacy, and that BBC and its volunteers make a significant impact on local, and then national, school drop-out rates, crime, and poverty.
Problem being solved?
Students below their reading level in 3rd grade are 6-8x less likely to graduate from high school. And 65% of 4th graders are not proficient in reading in the state of Oklahoma. With more than 7% of Oklahoma students being taught by a nontraditionally trained teacher (as the state recently set a record for the number of emergency teaching certificates) our schools need all the support they can get in helping our students keep up with their reading level.
How you are solving it?
We are a program aspiring to help increase our city’s elementary school reading levels by mobilizing volunteers to read with kids during their lunch period.
Why you are qualified?
Lindsay McClellan is the Executive Director of BRiLLiANT Book Clubs. She started the first Book Club with only one school and one church and is launching into the rest of Oklahoma City area hoping to turn around the most daunting statistics of education in our nation. She hopes our volunteers help show these kids that they are, and can be BRiLLiANT!
What is the urgency?
If a child can’t read proficiently AND is poor, that child is 8 times less likely to graduate than their classmates.
A dropout is 8 times more likely to be incarcerated than a person with a high school diploma.
Dropouts are less likely to find employment,and if they do, they earn about half as much as high school graduates.
70% of all incarcerated adults cannot read at a 4th grade level.