Current Investments
Portland Reading Foundation
They say until third grade, kids learn to read; after third, they read to learn. Portland Reading Foundation wants to make sure all kids in Portland are ready to learn. With the help of teachers, PRF identifies children in primary grades who are most at risk for failing to learn to read, and provides them with scientifically-based, multi-sensory instruction. Their students not only become great readers, they become great learners.
In 2008, PRF piloted a model for training and paying parent tutors to deliver the reading instruction in some classrooms. The model has not only proven effective for improving the children’s reading skill, it is also an effective education and job training activity for neighborhood moms.
SVPP Partners are invested in helping our kids read, so we will work closely with PRF’s impressive and effective leaders to achieve the growth and organizational goals they envision. In addition to modest general operating support, SVPP will:
- assess their current infrastructure
- develop an outcomes measurement system
- strategize, plan and sequence their growth goals
- support capacity-building needs to achieve the vision for the investment; and,
- provide access to SVPP’s venture philanthropy network of donors, community leaders, consultants and contacts.
Stay tuned to our progress and the impact of PRF on our community’s most challenged readers.
