“What is everybody’s favorite fruit?” Emory University undergraduate Mica Einhorn asked a room full of 3rd graders at Agape Youth and Family Center to kick off the Sprouting Readers afterschool session. “Watermelon! Dragon fruit! Strawberries!” the students exclaimed.
“What is the best adjective to describe your favorite fruit,” Einhorn asked. “Sweet! Sour!” the children responded.
Then program lead Kevin Li organized small groups of children to read with/to a volunteer, while tasting different fruits and vegetables they carefully placed on a skewer.
With school back in full swing, so is Sprouting Readers. Emory University student volunteers are engaging with K-3rd graders to promote reading and well-being at Agape weekdays after-school and at the Sara J. González Memorial Park (SJG Park) on Saturday afternoons. At each session, 10-20 children read with volunteers, participate in interactive hands-on activities and receive a book to take home.
“I came up with the idea when I saw how many kids couldn’t read,” said Joan Wilson, Assistant Director of the Emory University School of Medicine, Urban Health Initiative (UHI).
Seven years ago, Wilson started Sprouting Readers to address food access and literacy in food desserts with below-average high school graduation rates, following food insecurity initiative in a Westside community garden.
Wilson understood that poor literacy could threaten young people’s ability to graduate, get a job, and their well-being.
“I wanted to develop a program that could help kids at an earlier stage to change that trajectory,” Wilson said.
Post-pandemic, Sprouting Readers partnered with Agape, which annually serves 220+ K-12 students from eight schools with the help of 1,200 volunteers, and SJG Park – the first memorial and park in Georgia named for a Latino individual.
“Not only is Sprouting Readers a program that our students look forward to, but after reading they add steps that reinforce the learning,” said Wes Wooten, Agape Director of Programs & Partnerships.
Agape tracks student progress using Measures of Academic Progress [MAP] standardized scores.
“Four out of 5 of our K-5 students showed gains in their reading,” Wooten said. “There’s no way that Sprouting Readers isn’t part of that because of their reinforcement curriculum.”
Three years ago, Park Pride connected Sprouting Readers to Isabel González Whitaker, who designed and opened SJG Park to honor her mother, a leading immigrant rights advocate in the Southeast.
“I wanted to redefine what a park could be through her deep-rooted values of family, community, dignity and diversity,” said Whitaker who’s a steward of the City of Atlanta park. “To include features and programming that celebrate, uplift, empower – to be a beacon and a safe space. Sprouting Readers is part of that equation.”
Thanks to Whitaker and park supporters, SJG Park already had a learning nook, a little library and the Officer Edgar Flores Memorial Garden, named for the first Georgia Latino police officer killed in the line of duty. Whitaker was eager to add education programming. Today, Officer Flores’ story is woven into the Sprouting Readers curriculum.
The learning gained from Sprouting Readers extends beyond the K-3rd graders. Volunteers develop curriculum, lead sessions, secure book donations, measure outcomes and more.
Caitlin Farrell Skelton joined Spouting Readers in 2021, while a Masters of Public Health student at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
“I started as a coordinator, writer, advocate and conducted two years of sessions with Agape and SJG Park,” Skelton said. “Then we brought in 100+ volunteers.” After completing her MPH, Skelton still volunteers to sustain and expand the program, while volunteers like Einhorn lead sessions at SJG Park.
To date Sprouting Readers boasts 1,600 kids served, 4,100 books provided, 200+ sessions.
“We can always use more general operating funds to expand,” Wilson said. “We just started working with children in refugee families at the Clarkston Community Center. More general operating funds would help us when new opportunities like this happen. Reading just opens so many doors for children.”
Whitaker agrees the program should be replicated across the country.
“Sprouting Readers should be in every park,” Whitaker said. “Start small, but dream big.”
For more information on Sprouting Readers or donate to this program, contact Joan Wilson at joan.wilson@emory.edu. For more information about Emory Urban Health Initiative, visit this link.
