We very often fail to think as carefully about helping others as we could, mistakenly believing
that applying data and rationality to a charitable endeavor robs the act of virtue.
-William MacAskill, Doing Good Better
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3rd grade is when students go from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn.’ |
In 2021, 20% of Clarke County 3rd graders were reading at grade level. |
A non-proficient reader in 3rd grade is unlikely to graduate high school. |
Average high school dropouts have a negative net fiscal contribution to society. |
Since its inception, the mission of Get Comfortable has been to channel the generosity of many toward the greatest local needs. In 2021, we approached our Advisory Council—a consortium of social services professionals—to help us identify a single area of focus to which we would direct our resources and energy over the next 5 years, with the aim of achieving a measurable impact.
Through the guidance of this group, we selected early literacy as the first multi-year impact area, targeting 3rd-grade reading proficiency as our metric of success.
Literacy is more than just an educational issue. The studies—cited above—show that the prevalence of early literacy has either positive or negative long-term effects: contributing to increased employment and economic development on the one hand, or predictive of poverty and incarceration rates on the other.
Therefore, for the next 5 years Get Comfortable is committed to increasing the percentage of Clarke County 3rd-grade students reading at grade level from 20% to 60%.
In pursuit of raising our county’s 3rd grade reading proficiency, we’re conducting a pilot program at H.B. Stroud Elementary, with the aim of achieving a proof of concept that we plan to subsequently roll out district-wide. We’ve locked arms with Books For Keeps—a local agency aimed at reducing literacy loss—to launch our Reading to Learn literacy mentorship program.
Through this partnership, Creature employees and community volunteers are oriented, trained, and paired with select 2nd or 3rd-grade Stroud students for the duration of the school year. As a result, each participating student is exposed to an additional hour of literacy instruction every week.