Brainstorming session: Monday, December 6
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Be a Reader (BeAR) Literacy Program is refusing to hibernate this winter. Instead, it is roaring into new territory.
BeAR will host a creative brainstorming session to consider new ways to reinvent volunteerism for the program. Many dedicated people have been involved in the BeAR program, and now looking ahead to 2022 and beyond, ideas and experience from past/present BeAR captains and mentors, local educators, librarians, and reading specialists are being solicited.
The BeAR program offers several ways to be involved. The first option is when schools are again open to volunteers, join the team of mentors. If the time commitment is a concern, consider the BeAR Share volunteer option where two volunteers share the weekly time obligation for their student. BeAR students need great trainers, and no one ever regrets helping a child learn to read.
If it’s not possible to donate time, consider financially supporting literacy in Tidewater. BeAR is in eight local Title 1 schools and assists more than 100 students annually, providing books, workbooks, pencils, erasers, crayons, sketchpads, and other materials to help build each student’s personal library.
Contact Robin Ford, BeAR program coordinator, at 757-321-2304 or rford@ujft.org to learn more about BeAR, to participate in the brainstorming session, or to volunteer time or dollars. Visit JewishVA.org/BeAR for more information.
–Robin Ford