United Way of Central Georgia will hold a press conference on Thursday, June 23 at 3 p.m. to announce Read United, a new initiative addressing the literacy challenges facing Central Georgia. The press conference will take place in the downstairs lobby of the Peyton Anderson Building located at 277 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Macon, GA 31201.

Read United serves as the umbrella initiative for Read2Succeed and other educational programs managed by United Way. Expanding upon the successful Read2Succeed program, Read United will further promote the importance of pairing volunteers with students for weekly tutoring sessions to improve reading proficiency. This will ultimately strengthen our community by closing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates, and disrupting the cycle of poverty.

The success of this initiative depends on volunteers from the community. If you are interested in tutoring students in reading once a week, please contact Ariel Malcom at [email protected] or 478-745-4732, ext. 205.

More than 80% of low income children can’t read proficiently by 3^rd grade. Read United organizes and equips volunteers to tutor students so that they will read proficiently. In 3^rd grade, the curriculum shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. If children can’t read, then they will rapidly fall further behind. Not reaching this milestone has a resounding impact on a child’s life and our community at large.

Students in Macon-Bibb County who participated in the Read2Succeed initiative during the 2015-2016 school year saw a significant increase in Lexile scores, a nationally accepted educational measure of reading skill level.

Press conference speakers will include Dr. Curtis L. Jones, Jr., Bibb County School District Superintendent, George McCanless, President & CEO of United Way of Central Georgia, and Matthew Michael, Co-Founder of M&R Marketing Group.