The Help Us Grow, Foundation, Inc. (H.U.G) strives to promote social equality and education for all students allowing them to achieve grade-level reading by completion of third grade. H.U.G. incorporates character development and confidence-building components to help struggling readers become confident grade-level readers, thus improving their life's trajectory.
The H.U.G. The Reading Program incorporates character development and confidence-building components to help struggling readers improve their vocabulary, literacy, and comprehension.
We mainly work with second, third, and fourth graders within schools in Kentucky, Florida, and Boston.
Each child uses an iPad, which connects them to a remote "background check" tutor who guides them through a fully curated reading lesson.
iPad, headphones, and training/orientation are provided to all involved.
During the lesson, the tutor/volunteer helps young readers decode words and checks for understanding.
At the end of each session, this data is collected. On average, an H.U.G. student learns about five new words per session.
We host tutor/volunteer training sessions twice a week. All our volunteers are background-checked. Since this is remote, the volunteers never directly contact students in person.
This Program runs for approximately three months during the fall and three months during the spring sessions for one hour per week.
We aim to help improve literacy nationwide and promote education and social equity.
We are a 502(c)3 Non-Profit