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United Way Summer Literacy Program
United Way of Horry County Partners with Horry County Schools on Summer Literacy Program
Conway, SC, June 27, 2019– United Way of Horry County partnered with Horry County Schools to bring a five week Summer Literacy Program into Horry County. The program is taking place at Finklea Community Center in Loris, South Carolina.
The program started on June 10, 2019 with over 40 children signed up to improve their literacy skills. Selena Melvin, the Summer Day Camp Program Director and her team are focusing on helping students from Kindergarten through second grade. Intentional small group instruction allows teachers to work with students on their specific area of need. Each student is given a take home kit, full of new books and color pencils, to encourage interaction at home with their parents and the honing of their skills. The ultimate goal of the program is to provide instruction that will help move each child to grade level proficiency. Also, preventing “summer slide,” which is the tendency for some students, especially those from low-income families, to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year. Each child was given a test at the beginning of the program to assess their current literacy level and will be tested during the final camp week to see how far they have improved. These results will be shared with the students’ base school to use as an additional source of data to help determine what level of support a child may need during the upcoming school year.
Ashley Buxton, Interim President & CEO of United Way of Horry County, states that “working with the children in an area of the county with limited resources was one of the main reasons why we have positioned the program at Finklea Community Center. We want to be a partner in giving these children an opportunity to move ahead, breaking generational cycles below basic literacy skills. We are so excited to work in partnership with Horry County Schools and hope that we can continue to grow this program in order to support children in need.”
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United Way of Horry County fights for the health, education and financial stability of every person in Horry County.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Madison Tinkel at 843-347-5195 or email at Madison@UnitedWayHorry.org.