Generations Incorporated

Generations Incorporated is a 15-year-old non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. As an intergenerational literacy organization, its mission is to unite older adults (ages 55+) and youth in service to strengthen individuals and communities. The organization has four distinct programs:

*Reading Coaches: Volunteers meet with elementary school students twice per week in intensive, one-to-one instruction sessions to help struggling readers recover lost ground.
*Classroom Literacy: Volunteers serve alongside teachers in pre-K, Kindergarten, and elementary school classrooms during the literacy instruction block twice per week to help reinforce school curriculum and build students’ reading skills.
*Lunchtime Mentors: Volunteers meet with 4th and 5th grade students in fun, engaging, one-to-one weekly activities that lead to meaningful intergenerational relationships.
*The Literacy and Math Initiative: Through a partnership with Boston Partners in Education, volunteers meet at least once per week in one-to-one or small group session with elementary and middle school students who are struggling to master reading or mathematics.

As part of its evaluation protocol, Generations Incorporated tests students using the Basic Reading Inventory (BRI), a tool which was created by Dr. Jerry L. Johns, a former president of the International Reading Association, to measure student progress. While the BRI is not directly equivalent to a child’s grade level, Dr. Johns states that “an instructional reading level estimates the difficulty of the text materials that a student is able to read. If, for example, a student has a third grade instructional reading level, he or she should be able to be successful with grade 3 materials.”Fact|date=January 2008 Generations Incorporated tests students at the beginning and the end of the school year to monitor reading progress.

Organization Growth

Since 1999, Generations Incorporated has held a strategic partnership with the national Experience Corps Program, an innovative, intensive literacy support program that pairs trained retired tutors with struggling readers. Through expansion funding provided by Experience Corps, Generations Incorporated recently completed a 4-year expansion, growing its volunteer base from 42 older adults to 300. In the same period, Generations Incorporated grew from serving 500 children to 3,400.

Currently 300 volunteers Generations Incorporated volunteers are in service in 15 Boston Public Schools and 4 after school programs in the target communities of Roxbury, Dorchester, and South Boston. In 2007 they will reach 3,700 elementary students and will contribute over 45,000 hours of service.

In 2006 Generations Incorporated was designated as an approved provider of [http://www.doe.mass.edu/ses/ Supplemental Educational Services (SES)] . SES is available for students in schools which receive Title I funding but have not met or exceeded the goals for Adequate Yearly Progress.

In 2005 Generations Incorporated was named Massachusetts’ Community Champion by Citizens Bank and New England Cable News (NECN). Citizens Bank and NECN recognized Generations Incorporated for increasing the reading levels of each child it served by 2.7 reading levels, for being selected for expansion funding by the national Experience Corps program, for delivering its programs to a total of 15 sites within Dorchester, Roxbury, and South Boston, and, says Citizens Financial Group, for “serving as an innovative literacy model throughout the nation.” [ [http://www.citizensbank.com/au/news/ctz/2005/04_13_05_ma_champion.aspx] - quote reproduced with permission from Citizens Bank]

References

External links

* [http://generationsinc.org The Generations Incorporated website]
* [http://experiencecorps.org The national Experience Corps website ]