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Heart House Austin
February 2009
Note: If you have problems viewing the graphics included in this
email, a copy of this
e-newsletter can be seen online at
http://www.hearthouse.org/newsletter.htm
In this issue:
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Our
Program: Looking
at Literacy
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Volunteer
Spotlight: If Abe Arevalo could bottle up and sell his energy
and charisma, he would be a millionaire in a month.
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Upcoming
Volunteer Orientations
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SpawMaxwell:
Our Donor Spotlight brings the right tools for afterschool!
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Student
Spotlights: Adrian and Mitchell show us the best side of kindness
and curiosity
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What
Have You Heard at Heart House?
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Photo
Scrapbook
Looking at Literacy
 As a program that focuses on academic support and enrichment, Heart House has very meaningful opportunities to enhance the confidence, skills, and progress of so many children. One of the major challenges facing youth today is literacy. Reading and writing is essential to success in school and life. Did you know that as early as age 6, kids have already decided whether or not they like or want to read? Can you imagine the impact this can have on youth throughout the rest of their lives?
While
illiteracy is an unseen problem, it profoundly impacts our society. U.S.
Department of Education statistics reveal that 60% of prison inmates are
illiterate, and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.
Illiteracy leads to low self-esteem, unemployment, poverty, and crime.
Literacy empowers people to better their lives and the lives of their
families, and our communities.
At Heart House, we recognize the significant value of kids developing positive relationships with reading and writing. That is why we strive to improve our children’s reading and writing skills each year through the materials and programs we offer.
Specifically, programs like “Reading Buddies” which partner struggling readers with adult volunteers for fun literacy activities, have highly impacted our kids’ success in reading and writing. In fact, “Reading Buddies” is a program we have offered for the past 4 years, one that is incredibly popular among our kids. Everyone wants a Reading Buddy!
During the 2008-2009 school year, we are proud to say that
90%
of Heart House children improved their reading level by at least one
level or improved their TAKS reading scores.
(Read about even more of our success
at Heart House.)
We know that our afterschool
program has the unique opportunity to motivate and encourage children to believe in themselves and their abilities.
At Heart House, “disguised learning” happens all the time! (Those little moments when kids are having fun and smiling without even realizing that they are learning new skills.)
 Also, our
site directors continue to pursue and nourish relationships with reading
specialists in schools and the community to provide tools and strategies for our volunteers and staff that will truly encourage and enrich literacy at our centers—whether its phonics, fluency, or comprehension.
We are incredibly excited to start a new theme for the next two months focused on reading and writing. Our theme titled “Read, Write, Rock On!” will emphasize that reading and writing can be a truly positive and enjoyable experience in our daily lives. Kids will learn that reading and writing are essential tools for almost any hobby, skill, or career they wish to have!
Current youth and adult literacy rates across the state and country are staggering. But as educators, volunteers, family and community members, we CAN make a difference by making reading and writing fun, relevant, and meaningful for everyone!
Facts about Illiteracy:
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In 1998, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tested children nationwide for reading
skills.1 The results for reading tests for 4th graders
revealed that 38% read below the most basic level, while only 7%
could be considered above-average readers.
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In 1998 there were ten million children between seven and eleven years of age who performed below the most basic level of reading achievement.2
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The average reader spent about 6 minutes per day reading connected text. Children with reading problems spent about one minute per day. The amount of time students spent on worksheets did not relate to gains in reading achievement. What appeared to be most relevant was time spent reading connected print.3
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Children who struggle in vain with reading in the first grade soon decide that they neither like nor want to read.4
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In 2000, fourth grade students who reported reading more pages daily in school and for homework had higher average scale scores than students who reported reading fewer pages daily.5
How
you can help>>
Volunteer to be a Reading Buddy! For more information, please
contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Shelly-Marie Rios, at (512) 929-8187
or volunteer@hearthouse.org.
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If
Abe Arevalo could bottle up and
sell his energy and charisma, he would be
a millionaire in a month. He has been an
inspiring volunteer with Heart House for
more than a year. As a behind the scenes
volunteer, Abe has consulted us on several
software projects that have strengthened
the infrastructure of Heart House. He is
also a member of HHVAC (Heart House
Volunteer Advisory Committee) and has
contributed such well thought out
proposals for improvement that he was
recently voted in as our newest member of
the Heart House Board of Directors. And,
Abe doesn’t stop there. You will also
find him working directly with the
children on homework and activities. When
asked what his favorite volunteer memory
was, he didn’t talk about helping the
staff with our computer projects, instead
he mentioned the kids, “It would have to
be just coming in and getting an
enthusiastic hi from the kids, sometimes
it's literal and other times you can tell
by their reaction when you walk in the
door.”
about Abe
and other Heart House
Volunteers.
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You
may also set up a one-on-one volunteer orientation if none of these
scheduled times work for you. For
more information on volunteering at Heart House Austin, contact
Shelly-Marie Rios, our Volunteer
Coordinator, at 512-929-8187.
Join
the Heart House
Volunteers
Facebook Group!
SpawMaxwell is known as the premier interior and renovation construction specialist in Austin, Dallas and Houston.
Jane Kalina, the general manager of SpawMaxwell's Austin office, and Tim Garbutt, a
business development executive, approached Heart House with a creative and generous idea in December. In lieu of sending holiday gift baskets or other tokens of appreciation to clients, friends and business partners as SpawMaxwell had done in the past, Jane proposed using those budgeted funds to make a gift to charity. Their employees all agreed.
Tim from SpawMaxwell, along with our good friends at i2i
Group, designed a postcard that was sent to SpawMaxwell's constituencies to inform them of this gesture made on their behalf. We had fun taking pictures of the children wearing SpawMaxwell hard hats and holding blueprints and other construction tools. The end result (shown here) was beautifully
done, and raised several thousand dollars for Heart House.
More about SpawMaxwell: They treasure their talented employees ("people first!") and have fostered a "work hard, play hard" culture where work/life balance, family and fun are valued highly. As evidence of SpawMaxwell's fun and generous spirit, the company hosts an annual "Night of Comedy" fundraiser which allows their construction professional employees to moonlight as Jerry Seinfeld or Kathy Griffin for one night, and in 2008 raised $17,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
In addition to serving clients in the health care, technology and hospitality industries, SpawMaxwell serves civic and community-based clients in the public sector, building libraries, churches and non-profit offices. In fact, here in East Austin, SpawMaxwell is nearing completion on the renovation of a 30,000 warehouse that will house the Lance Armstrong Foundation's new offices; more than 85% of all materials used were recycled!
Heart House feels extremely fortunate to have been chosen by SpawMaxwell. The children in our program will benefit tremendously from this generous gift.
Our
February donors were extremely generous this month.
Thank you so much -- you've all truly made a difference in the lives of
these deserving children, and working together, Heart House will be able to
continue its important work. WE APPRECIATE YOU ALL SO MUCH!
Recent Donors:
America's Charities
Amy Wilson
Andy Land
Austin Hospitality Association
CeCe Ridder
Driskill Hotel
Earl & Laura Hebert
Emeka Obianwu
Jay Rogers
Jessica & Sam Sacheck
Pape Foundation
Stacy Ehrlich
Sunil Patel
Teri Sanchez
You can securely enter your online donation using your credit card
through our partnership with Groundspring.org. You may choose to
give a one-time donation or a recurring monthly or annual donation.
Your information is kept private and secure, and will not be shared nor
sold.
If you'd rather donate via mail or fax, simply download one of the forms
below.
Donation
to Heart House Austin (PDF Document)
Donation to
Heart House Austin (Word Document)
Look for Heart House Austin under the America's Charities listing on
your giving campaign form. America's Charities is Heart House Austin's
partner in the workplace, with inclusion in hundreds of state and local
government, public sector, and corporate employee campaigns. You can
designate Heart House Austin as the beneficiary of your payroll
deductions or choose to make a one-time gift.
These
are just some of the wonderful children you help support with your gifts
of time and funding. THANK YOU for making a difference for these
future citizens!
Adrian received the “Most Improved” student award in his group in January for all of the hard work he has put into improving his effort and attitude at Heart House!
(He is on the right in the above picture.) His program leader is so proud of the progress he has made and commented that she notices how he tries to keep other students on task now! He is a super helper during clean-up time and loves to take on any leadership role he can at Heart House. We are very excited about all of the great ways he is modeling positive behavior for other Heart House kids since returning from the holiday break. Way to go, Adrian!
Mitchell wows us in all kinds of ways! Whether he is working on activities in the classroom or scoring touchdowns during outside time, Mitchell is a prime example of how perseverance, enthusiasm and heart lead to success. Plus, his quick wit and kind thoughtfulness make him a joy to be around. We can’t wait to see all of the great things that Mitchell is sure to accomplish in the future.
Read
more Student
Spotlight posts on the Heart House blog.
“Sometimes I wanna help the kids (the K-1st graders) because they need help with their homework and they’re very small and I can get them untangled from some situations that they are in.” –Mario,
Heart House child
“At Heart House we all learn how to be a community and care about each other and respect each others’ differences. The more we learn about each other, the more we connect.” –Nene,
Heart House child
Thank
you to Keep Austin Beautiful for providing us with several activity kits
to supplement and enhance our “EnviroKids” activities!
Creating
their own landfills
"Compost
Critters" activity kit provided by Keep Austin Beautiful
Exploring
the worm bin
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The Heart House Herald is an online publication of
Heart House, a free afterschool program dedicated to providing a
safe haven and academic support to low-income children and encouraging
them to become good citizens.
www.hearthouse.org
Sources
for Statistics for Literacy Story:
1
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics. The Executive Summary of the 1998 National Assessment for Educational Progress Reading Report Card for the Nation, NCES 1999-50 (Washington, D.C.: March 1999).
2 Population Estimates Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau Washington, D.C. 20233
3 Stahl, Steven A., Ann Duffy-Hester, et al. "Everything You Wanted to Know About Phonics (But Were Afraid to Ask.)" Reading Research Quarterly 33, no. 3 (July-September 1998):338-356.
4 National Research Council. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Catherine Snow,
5 Susan Burns, Peg Griffin, eds. (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998).
Education Statistics Quarterly. Vol 3, Issue 2. “The Nation’s Report Card: Fourth Grade Reading 2000”
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