OUR STORY

• Collaboration: Winning Inc. of America, a 501c3 educational nonprofit since 1993, defines its purpose as preparing children for successful lifelong learning through an evidence-based literacy program called Project Learn. Winning Inc. and the Benton Harbor Boys and Girls Club have successfully partnered for the past fifteen years by providing mentoring and literacy programs that focus on improving members’ reading comprehension, thinking, listening, and writing proficiency.
  
  

• Program:  Project Learn addresses the critical needs of members, ages 6 – 14, attending the Boys and Girls Youth Club.  The first step is to determine whether participants are non, emergent, or struggling readers and to place them into small age-appropriate and ability-leveled reading groups.
  
  

• “Learning to Read” Fourteen reading coaches provide non, emergent and challenged readers an evidence-based curriculum, like Reading Recovery components, that include ability-leveled phonemic awareness, reading skills and strategies, hands-on educational tools, frequent word recognition for building their word base, fluency, and comprehension strategies. The daily lesson plans also include guided reading and running records.  Participants focus on ability-leveled books and must achieve a ninety percent comprehension proficiency to advance.  Project Learn is successful because the literacy intervention instruction mirrors the reader’s specific needs. 
  
  

• “Reading to Learn”  Members age eight and above, reading a grade below, on, or above grade level participate in a personalized literacy curriculum strategically designed to enhance comprehension, thinking, speaking, listening, and writing abilities for greater academic success. Our first objective is to improve each participant’s literacy challenge, strength, and comprehension.  When reading fiction or non-fiction narratives readers practice discovering and applying their thinking, writing, and reading strategies with written and verbal responses.   Daily practice, consisting of repeating learned reading skills & strategies, is critical for achieving grade-level comprehension and fluency proficiency.  Second, to respect and help each reader improve his/her confidence, self-esteem and ultimately to realize lifelong academic potential.