Readers as Leaders teaches middle school students leadership skills and provides them with opportunities to build their self-esteem. Through their weekly reading sessions, the older students transmit the value of reading to the younger students. The kindergarten students benefit from a positive role model and one-on-one reading time.

	At the beginning of the school year, middle school students are selected to participate in the program. These students attend a retreat where they participate in team-building activities, learn about leadership, and build relationships with other readers in the program.
	The middle school students also receive basic literacy training in how to read to and hold the interest of kindergarten students.
	Then, each middle school student is matched with a kindergarten student and they read together once a week for four weeks.
	At the end of the four-week period, the middle school student is paired with another kindergarten student. Over the course of the school year, each middle-school student reads to four or five kindergarten students.
	Both middle school and kindergarten students receive books to start their own libraries. This gives students the message that reading and books are important!

Middle-school students learn:
	How to apply leadership skills that will encourage their success in school and in life
	That what they have to say counts
	That they can be valuable role models
Kindergarten students:
	Learn the value of reading
	Benefit from the positive interaction
Both students:
	Form a relationship and learn from each other
	Develop a love and appreciation for reading

Students:
	Learn that reading is fun and become more enthusiastic about books and learning
	Are exposed to new ideas
	Develop better listening and vocabulary skills, and learn to think more creatively
	Develop leadership skills that will help them succeed
	Become more self confident from positive, caring relationships
Schools:
	Are able to reap the benefits of a program that helps their students become more interested in reading and more receptive to learning, without assuming any administrative burden or cost
The Community:
	Benefits from a more self-sufficient constituency
	Is helping to secure the skilled workforce we need to sustain economic growth
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Readers as Leaders helps children learn to want to read, encourages positive self-esteem and lays the groundwork for students to be better prepared to succeed in school and in life. Over time, this will help insure that Connecticut will have the literate workforce required to keep our state strong. By supporting Everybody Wins! CT, you are:

	Taking out an insurance policy in the continuation of economic growth in Connecticut
	Providing resources to children who are the future of our state

Why Is Readers As
Leaders Important?

The National Literacy Act of 1991 defines literacy as "an individual's ability to read, write, and speak English, compute and solve problems at levels necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals, and develop one's knowledge and potential.”

An estimated 41% of Hartford's adults function at literacy level one. This suggests that 40,000 adults are unable to fill out a job application, follow instructions at an ATM, find a location on a map, or access public transportation.

An estimated 73% of Hartford's adults read below the sixth-grade level. That means 73,000 are unable to manage a checking account, help with their children’s homework, read a training manual, or follow written medical instructions.