Literacy San Antonio Inc

Literacy San Antonio has a community vision that has been implemented in a very collaborative manner. The leadership of this organization has a clear plan of how to reach the children of Bexar County and their objectives are achievable through coordination with other organizations. As a Board member of this organization, it is easy to participate with a group of people who have clearly defined objectives and execute in such an efficient manner. It has been a joy to be able to be part of a group that is so passionate about their mission. They understand the underlying issues of literacy that have proven to be barriers to the students growing up in Bexar County. Before they ever started the project, they understood what had to be done in order to achieve their goals. Literacy San Antonio has a mission and a vision that is truly making a difference and will continue to be seen in the years ahead. Thank you to the leadership for allowing me to be part of a group that will actually make a difference in the lives of San Antonians in the years to come.

I have had the opportunity to work with SAReads over several years as both a community partner and volunteer. This campaign has a clear and specific goal of making grade-level reading a reality for all students in Bexar County. They do this through a variety of programs including a book drive (which has successfully collected and distributed over 150,000 books in our community), a book bank where books are sorted and prepared for distribution throughout the area, a reading curriculum that is used across the county to support grade-level reading skills development, a reading tutor/mentor program that engages students (helping them learn to read and inspiring them to read to learn). The leadership and staff at LSA/SAReads are: knowledgeable, focused, innovative, well-organized, and results-oriented. But, perhaps most importantly, they are passionate about increasing literacy.

I am a pediatrician who has been working to promote early literacy in San Antonio for over 10 years. It is my impression that there are many people and organizations working in this area, but there has not been much collaboration. Literacy San Antonio has really changed that. They have successfully brought many groups together to improve literacy in San Antonio. I am most impressed with the work they have done with their tutoring program. Their emphasis is in ensuring that their programs are evidence-based and that their work yields documentable gains. They have also developed a very impressive book bank which will benefit many programs in the community. Literacy San Antonio is led by a group of passionate and dedicated people who are committed to improving literacy in our city.

Literacy San Antonio, Inc. is doing an excellent job of improving students' literacy levels in San Antonio. Literacy San Antonio, Inc. also provides opportunities for Texas A&M University-San Antonio's (A&M-SA) pre-service teachers to gain experience tutoring elementary students who are struggling with learning to read.
I am an assistant professor at A&M-SA, and the pre-service teachers enrolled in the my course, Foundations of Literacy Instruction, are given the opportunity, through SA Reads, to tutor two students each semester. Each section of the course (~100+ students) are able to help elementary students understand many basic literacy concepts. In addition, pre-service teachers gain knowledge of how best to teach a student to read. The SA Reads program is valuable to our pre-service teachers' literacy knowledge and skills. I feel that their experiences with SA Reads will prepare them for students who will be enrolled in their classes once they become teachers.
The pre-service teachers continually state that their experiences with tutoring their students has made a positive impact on their lives as future teachers. I believe the experiences that SA Reads affords our students is equally important in preparing them to become future teachers!

Literacy San Antonio effectively demonstrates the significant impact a literacy coalition can make on a community. As the statewide coalition, Literacy Texas strives to aggregate best practices and models for coalitions and literacy providers across Texas. We strongly believe that Literacy San Antonio can be used as a model for other areas in the state.

Under Pamela Toman’s visionary leadership, LSA led community stakeholders in identifying issues and, ultimately, focusing efforts on early literacy. To address the growing problems in early literacy in San Antonio, LSA coordinated the SAReads campaign. Research shows that children who are unable to read on grade level by the third grade face serious consequences, including higher dropout rates. SAReads is a program dedicated to making grade level reading a reality for all students in Bexar County. It is a student-centered program that uses volunteer tutors to help at-risk, K-3 students improve their reading skills.

I have had the privilege of serving in a consultant/advisor position to Literacy San Antonio for the past several years and have found them to be a committed, efficient non-profit agency dedicated to serving the community and connecting agencies together for collaborative efforts to address literacy issues within the Greater San Antonio area community. When the organization commits to an effort they channel time, resources, and networks to support the endeavor. I have worked with several non-profit agencies over the years and LSA runs the most efficient program I have seen thus far. They also seek to refine processes and improve that efficiency whenever possible.

Pamela came to our daughter's school and spoke to a girl's community service organization. Our daughter found her talk engaging and encouraging. Following the discussion about the importance of learning to read, many of the girls participated in a reading project with the kindergarten class.

This organization set a huge goal and is tenaciously pursuing it. They are working to blend traditional philanthropic values (collaboration, community) with a metrics driven, programmatic discipline. They have a true understanding of how technology is useful in this area. They are well on the way toward turning the literacy curve in Bexar County up and to the right.