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WHEREAS, the Neighborhood Learning Alliance (NLA) runs afterschool and summer programs for lower income and African American students across the city; and,
WHEREAS, NLA hires 40 to 50 primarily African American Pittsburgh Public School high school students each year through the City's Learn and Earn program and other local funders including the Heinz Endowments, Allegheny County Department of Human Services and McAuley Ministries; and,
WHEREAS, these teens, known as Reading Warriors , act as reading coaches and mentors to approximately 300 elementary children who need additional academic support in summer camps and after school programs run by its partner organizations - Allegheny Youth Development, Bloomfield Garfield Corporation, the Thelma Lovette YMCA, Mt. Ararat Community Activity Center, and Schenley Heights Community Development Center; and,
WHEREAS, throughout the program, the Reading Warriors document their accomplishments with the elementary children in order to earn digital badges through the Pittsburgh City of Learning; and,
WHEREAS, this summer, all of the Warriors earned a Read Aloud badge where they planned and conducted a lesson that engaged elementary students and got them excited about reading; and earned other badges including the Metacognition badge, which requires them to make lesson plans and teach students how to make predictions, make connections, ask questions and visualize text; the Professionalism Badge which acknowledges their initiative, hard work, appropriate attire, attendance and punctuality, and Independent Reading Badge which documents their efforts to improve their own reading habits; and
WHEREAS, through just this summer's program, the Reading Warriors and their elementary children have logged over 250,000 minutes of reading; and,
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NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby commend the Reading Warriors Program and the Reading Warriors for the work ...
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