Partners Read Archives - WakeEd

Wake Ed Partnership’s Partners Read Program Joins Forces with The Brown Bookshelf to Inspire Young Readers

WakeEd — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:05:32 +0000

Raleigh, NC – [September 23, 2025] – WakeEd Partnership announced today a new collaboration between its Partners Read program and The Brown Bookshelf http://thebrownbookshelf.com, a nationally recognized coalition of children’s authors. Together, they will bring celebrated authors of color into Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) classrooms to share stories, spark imagination, and encourage a lifelong love of reading.

The Brown Bookshelf works to amplify awareness of the many Black voices writing for children and young adults. Through this partnership, WakeEd will connect WCPSS Title I elementary school with acclaimed authors who reflect the communities they serve.

“Every child deserves to see themselves in the pages of a book,” said Keith Poston, President of WakeEd Partnership. “By bringing these outstanding authors directly into classrooms, we’re not only inspiring young readers but also helping them imagine themselves as storytellers and creators.”

This school year, the program will host readings and distribute free books to students, featuring:

Tameka Fryer Brown, Charlotte-based author, sharing her inspiring picture book All the Greatness in You
Kelly Starling Lyons, Raleigh-based founder of The Brown Bookshelf, reading Ty’s Travels: Super Ty from her award-winning series
Tracey Baptiste, New Jersey-based New York Times bestselling author, with her new story Super Goat Girl

The first school visits will take place on September 24, 2025, when author Tameka Fryer Brown will meet with students at Forestville Elementary and Hodge Road Elementary. More than 200 first graders will each take home a personal copy of All the Greatness in You.

About Partners Read

Partners Read places community volunteers into Wake County elementary schools to work one-on-one with developing first-grade readers. Last year, more than 300 volunteers supported 560 students at 62 schools, distributing 1,240 books for children’s personal libraries. Learn more at wakeed.org/partnersread.

About The Brown Bookshelf

Founded by children’s authors, The Brown Bookshelf highlights the breadth and depth of Black voices writing for young readers. Its signature initiative, 28 Days Later, showcases the best in picture books, middle-grade, and young adult literature. More at http://thebrownbookshelf.com

About WakeEd Partnership

WakeEd Partnership is an independent nonprofit organization composed of business and community leaders committed to improving public education. Since 1983, WakeEd has advocated for excellent educational opportunities for all students in the Wake County Public School System. Visit wakeed.org.

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Building Healthy Communities Through Literacy

WakeEd — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:01:17 +0000

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What comes to mind when you think of UNC REX Healthcare? Exceptional doctors and nurses, the birth of your children, or cutting-edge technology may be front of mind, but did you know that UNC REX Healthcare partners with WakeEd Partnership to help children learn to read? Though a focus on literacy may seem counterintuitive for a hospital, UNC REX Healthcare recognizes its significance and influence on every sphere within a community.

WakeEd Partnership’s Partners Read program enlists volunteers to read with first graders in more than 50 WCPSS elementary schools. On Friday mornings, volunteers read one-on-one with students who are not yet reading on grade level, in hopes of helping them reach this critical benchmark.

Under the leadership of Community Relations Manager Erin Gill, UNC REX Healthcare joined the program in 2015 and, in 2019, has more than 25 employees faithfully volunteering each week. Erin herself is a Partners Read volunteer. She remembers vividly her first Friday with Partners Read, three years ago, when her timid student approached her with hesitation. He picked out a book for them to read together and as Partners Read time came to an end, she gave him a high-five and sent him on his way to begin the school day. He started walking away, but then stopped suddenly, turned around, and ran to give Erin a hug. After a year of reading with Erin, this budding reader received the Reading Ninja award at his school for “most improved.” These moments, and more, illustrate the impact of Partners Read each year in Wake County, and keep UNC REX Healthcare volunteers coming back for more.

Every year, Wake County’s most pressing needs are identified and evaluated through extensive interviews, surveys, and forums conducted by the Wake County Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). In 2019, Wake County CHNA determined that the top five county-wide priorities should be transportation options, employment, access to healthcare, mental health and substance use disorders, and housing and homelessness. As one of the Triangle’s top employers, UNC REX Healthcare has searched for ways to provide community support in the area of employment. Since 2015, UNC REX Healthcare has been prioritizing literacy through Partners Read because they believe that good readers become good employees. In short, literacy is the foundation of workforce development.

“It is vital for businesses to have a pulse on what the needs are in the community. If we come together for those big priorities, we can make a difference. All of that impacts every single business.”

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According to Erin, part of corporate social responsibility includes engaging employees in meaningful work in the community. UNC REX Healthcare goes beyond investing financially, working one-on-one with students who may one day become the doctors, teachers, architects, and artists of the Wake County community. “With Partners Read, it’s not just about the reading, it’s about the relationship,” she shared. Once employees become involved with the program, they want to continue year-after-year because it makes such an impact. In fact, in the spring of 2019, UNC REX Healthcare employees wanted to do more for the children involved in Partners Read. At the end of the school year, they assembled more than 300 summer literacy bags for students in the program, providing tools to help them continue their reading practice over the summer. The bags included books, bookmarks, a small dry erase board and markers, and local public library information.

Partners Read has a simple, but powerful structure that makes it easy for all businesses to get involved. Many literacy programs require a background in education, “but Partners Read accepts all volunteers,” Erin said. The only requirements are a love of reading and a willingness to give back. Volunteers see first-hand the value of interpersonal relationships in the development of strong literacy skills.

Medicine and literacy seem worlds apart, but UNC REX Healthcare understands their interdependency. Erin and her fellow volunteers believe that WCPSS students are the “next generation of employees”, and that “it is important that we set them up for success”. By encouraging employees to volunteer, UNC REX Healthcare has a guiding hand in the growth and development of Wake County’s future workforce.

“It is important that the next generation has the tools they need to succeed. As a Wake County business, that is our responsibility.”

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Why Grade-Level Reading Matters

WakeEd — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 14:09:58 +0000

Being able to read on grade-level by the third grade can change a child’s life. For five years, WakeEd Partnership’s Partners Read program has placed mentors into Wake County Public Schools to read with developing first and second grade students and has provided nearly 20,000 books to fill students’ home libraries.

In 2014, a small group of Wake County lawyers was evaluating literacy programs across North Carolina, looking for a way to give back to schools in their community. Originally called “Lawyers Read,” Partners Read grew out of a shared concern for students not reading on grade level by the third grade. This crucial learning benchmark was receiving national attention after the Annie E. Casey Foundation published a special report called Early Warning: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, to launch the National Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. This study, and its 2013 update, provided important data that identified grade-level reading proficiency as an “essential step toward increasing the number of children from low-income families who succeed academically, graduate from high school on time and do well in life and the workforce.”

It was this study that inspired three attorneys, John Mabe, Nicolette Fulton, and Tom Worth to act locally. “Lawyers, by nature, are people who want to help others,” John shared. “Lawyers go into the profession to try to help other people and to make the world a better place.”

With the full support of the Wake County Bar Association (WCBA), John recruited WakeEd Partnership to help them develop a new literacy initiative in Wake County. After months of collaboration, WakeEd, WCBA, and the Wake County Public School System identified several key elements that would make Lawyers Read most successful.

“We’re lawyers, not educators,” from the very beginning, volunteers and the school system acknowledged that a tutoring program would not be a good fit. “We’re not teaching kids to read, we’re reading with kids and spending time with them” to help boost their confidence.

Since then, Nicolette Fulton, like many volunteers, has seen first-hand that confidence can make all the difference. “One of my students was the only one in his family who could speak English,” so he was struggling to translate while also learning to read. She recalls clearly the day they met, when she asked him who he could practice reading with at home and he told her: “my teddy bear.”

“This is where we can make the biggest impact on a child’s life. If you help a child learn to read and love to read, you give them confidence to help them succeed inside and outside school.”

Another key priority was to place volunteers in schools that were on their way to work, allowing them to stop in during their commute on Friday mornings. “Just reading a book for thirty minutes becomes the highlight of our week,” John shared, “and thirty minutes on your way to work…who can’t do that?”

Literacy is truly a community effort. Supported by welcoming schools, energized volunteers, and dedicated program administrators, the Lawyers Read program launched in the Fall of 2014 with approximately 20 lawyers in three elementary schools. A year later, WakeEd rebranded the program as “Partners Read,” inviting other organizations to participate. John and his colleagues from WCBA were inspired by the program’s initial impact, and “hoped that it would be a good way to put more business people in classrooms.” Now, students read with more than 250 volunteers from businesses, organizations, and community groups across Wake County.

Some of our newest volunteers are from Wake County Public Schools! When Cheryl Stidham from WCPSS Human Resources heard that there was a need for more volunteers in 2019, she immediately pitched the program to her team. “We’re here to serve schools and Partners Read gives us an opportunity to serve the children in our schools in a different way.”

The Human Resources department has fully embraced this opportunity to give back. “Not only did we go to one school, we filled in gaps throughout the county,” Cheryl shared. “I think that speaks volumes about the commitment that my department has to giving back, not just through the work we do on a day-to-day basis, but by genuinely touching the lives of kids in the process.” “There is nothing greater than seeing that six-year-old smile every Friday morning.” Students light up the media center when they come running in from the bus to read with their mentors. Their improvement through the year is exciting, but it is the personal relationships that mean the most to students and volunteers.

“The books become a part of their life but the memory of how that book was shared also becomes a part of them.”

Cheryl was Principal of Stough Magnet Elementary School when they adopted Partners Read in 2015. She describes Partners Read as a privilege and remembers fondly how excited her students would be when they came in on Friday mornings. “As a former teacher and school leader, kids are my passion, and I know if we can close the gap for them, especially at an early age, they could potentially become lifelong readers.” Cheryl and her colleagues hope that by giving a little time each week, they can inspire a lifelong love of reading.

Like many other volunteers, it was a love of books and reading that led former Broughton High School teacher Jennifer Cates to join Partners Read. “Every success in my life I think goes back to the fact that my parents read to me as a child, and one of the little promises that I made myself when I stopped teaching, was that I wouldn’t stop reading in the classroom.” For Jennifer, sitting in a library, surrounded by books, getting to know a child, and giving them the encouragement they need to believe in themselves, has been a dream. “It’s just so very easy and rewarding. I’m spending one-on-one time with a child, reading a book – it doesn’t get much simpler than that.”

Cheryl agrees and cherishes the memories that she has already made with her Partners Read students, “nothing can replace the feeling that comes from spending quality time with a child – it’s an irreplaceable opportunity that we don’t get enough of.”

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Kathy Hartenstine Memorial Fund Established

WakeEd — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 13:30:36 +0000

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WakeEd is honored to announce the Kathy Hartenstine Memorial Fund to support childhood literacy through the Partners Read program. Kathy was a lifelong educator, dedicating more than 35 years to Wake County Public School System as a teacher and principal. Committed to the educators and families of our community, she served as a member of the Wake County School Board following her retirement.

Kathy’s children, Melissa and Julie, remember their mom as “passionate about education and dedicated to her career. She invested her time and energy into improving access and quality for all children.” Honored by the launch of the Kathy Hartenstine Memorial Fund, they conclude, “There is no better way to carry on her legacy than the gift of education through books partnered with involvement from the community.”

Community members inspired by Kathy’s zeal for life and education launched the fund. Neighbors Ted Botzum and Patty Oakes remember Kathy as someone who “touched the lives of everyone with her love, knowledge, light and joy.” They hope the Memorial Fund will “continue her legacy for love of children and will continue to educate and inspire.“

Investments in the Kathy Hartenstine Memorial Fund will be used to purchase books that will become part of children’s personal libraries. Funds will be directed to specific WCPSS Partners Read schools that Kathy served. Investments to the fund may be made to WakeEd Partnership, with designation for the Kathy Hartenstine Memorial Fund.

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Four NC Communities Receive National Honors for Literacy Initiatives

WakeEd — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 13:43:54 +0000

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Four NC Communities Receive National Honors for Literacy Initiatives & Orange County Joins Campaign

Raleigh, NC (June 21, 2018) – The national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) is recognizing four North Carolina communities for measurable progress on key indicators of early school success. Read Charlotte in Mecklenburg County; Chatham Reads in Chatham County; Growing Moore Readers of Moore County and WAKE Up and Read in Wake County reported progress in 2017 for children from low-income families toward at least one CGLR indicator: school readiness, school attendance or summer learning.

Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is a critical milestone toward high school graduation and career success. Only 39 percent of North Carolina fourth graders and 24 percent of students from economically disadvantaged families scored at or above reading proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2017. Students who are not reading on grade-level by that time are more likely to drop out of high school.

Highlights about the winning North Carolina Campaign communities include:

Read Charlotte: Each year the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading honors Pacesetters to highlight communities that serve as proof points and represent the leading edge of innovation, impact and improvement within the Campaign. This year 29 communities were recognized across the country, including Read Charlotte for creating a Data Collaborative in 2017.

The Data Collaborative focuses on: the use of common literacy assessments across agencies, program impact reviews and staff professional development on using data to drive results. Through this partnership, literacy providers across the birth-through-third-grade continuum receive a comprehensive understanding of children’s language and literacy skills using a common assessment and a stronger understanding of areas for growth within the organizations, as it relates to students’ language and literacy development.

Read Charlotte partnered with several organizations that each made a three-year commitment to the Data Collaborative, including Ada Jenkins Center, Above & Beyond Students, Bethlehem Center, Charlotte Bilingual Preschool, Freedom School Partners, Lakewood Preschool, The Learning Collaborative, Thompson Child & Family Focus, YMCA and YWCA.

“The Data Collaborative is vital in achieving the goal of 80 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg third graders reading proficiently by 2025,” explained Read Charlotte Executive Director Munro Richardson. “Strategic use of data by nonprofit agencies and funders will help our community better understand what works to improve children’s literacy. Working alongside early literacy partners to provide this type of support is an exciting piece of our efforts here at Read Charlotte.”

Read Charlotte was also recognized for launching a Reading Success Dashboard, a community resource that makes it easy to track overall and school-by-school progress while empowering local community members to take action to improve early literacy outcomes in the schools they serve.

Chatham Reads: Chatham Reads was recognized as a Campaign Bright Spot for teaming up with the Chatham County School System to expand its Bookmobile as part of its summer learning initiative. Schools were able to upgrade book collections to include high-interest, bilingual books in Spanish. Another partner, Communities in Schools Chatham County, supported the bookmobile with their Student Support Specialist riding along to engage parents. Communities in Schools and the Chatham Literacy Council piloted a program for a dozen families to participate in a multi-generational program to link adult literacy learning with facilitated parent engagement.

Growing Moore Readers: In Moore County, Growing Moore Readers was recognized as a Campaign Bright Spot for its successful summer learning program called Reading Feeding Frenzy. Three libraries, the Rotary Club of the Sandhills and other organizations collaborated to provide summer learning opportunities and nutritious lunches. Reading Feeding Frenzy was designed to support the county’s most vulnerable neighborhoods with resources and opportunities for learning. Over 10 weeks, 84 children attended the program and 306 books were distributed.

WAKE Up and Read: WAKE Up and Read in Wake County was recognized as a Campaign Bright Spot for its Partners Read program to bring volunteers to schools to read to children. Partners Read began through collaboration between WakeEd Partnership, the Wake County Public Schools Literacy Team and the business community. Volunteers spent 40 minutes, once a week for 10 weeks reading to first and second graders before the start of the school day. Students keep the book read each week to add to their home libraries. In four years, Partners Read has placed 170 volunteers – that’s more than 2,000 volunteer hours – in 31 schools, giving nearly 4,500 books to first and second graders in Wake County.

Orange County Campaign for Grade-Level Reading: As more communities align their literacy efforts across the state, a diverse coalition of 20 organizations in Orange County has joined the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. The Orange County Campaign has developed an action plan with funders, nonprofits, faith leaders, school systems and government agencies to put children on a pathway to reading proficiency by the end of third grade. Applying racial equity as its main driver, the collaborative is focusing on children and families of color, and particularly those children and families of color who are living in poverty and are under-resourced.

Orange County is joining 13 North Carolina communities that are part of the NC Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. Led by the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation (NCECF), coalitions are active in Chatham, Durham, Johnston, Gaston, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Moore, Nash/Edgecombe, Pitt, Richmond, Rowan, Wake and Wayne counties.

“We are proud of North Carolina communities being recognized for their achievements to ensure more children are ready for school and reading on grade-level,” said Lisa Finaldi, Community Engagement Leader for NCECF. “This progress demonstrates the power of communities working together. Orange County is joining a strong group of communities in North Carolina.”

About the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation (NCECF)

NCECF is the state\’s only organization focused exclusively on children from birth through age eight—the most rapid period of development in human life. It promotes public understanding, spearheads collaboration and advances policy to achieve its vision that each North Carolina child has a strong foundation for lifelong health, education and well-being supported by a premiere birth-to-age-eight system. Learn more at http://www.buildthefoundation.org

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/buildthefoundation.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/buildthefoundation.

About the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading

Launched in 2010, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a collaborative effort of more than 360 communities, representing 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. The Campaign works to ensure that many more children from low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship. To learn more, visit gradelevelreading.net and follow the movement on Twitter @readingby3rd.

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(Law) Partners Read in Wake County Schools

WakeEd — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 14:50:15 +0000

The discussion around workforce development often focuses on students\’ middle and high school experiences, but research suggests that student success can be predicted as early as grade three. From kindergarten to the third grade, students are learning to read, but when they arrive in the fourth grade, they are reading to learn. This means that students who are not reading on grade-level at the end of third grade are likely to fall behind in all school subjects – not just reading. In fact, children who fail to meet this critical milestone are four-times more likely to drop out of high school.

Since 2014, volunteers from the Wake County Bar Association (WCBA) have invested time and money in WakeEd\’s Partners Read program. Originally called \”Lawyers Read,\” Partners Read began in only a handful of schools, with the goal of helping first and second grade students gain confidence and enjoyment in reading. Four years later, more than 150 volunteers will be working with students in 31 WCPSS elementary schools.

One of those volunteers is Maria Lynch of Lynch & Eatman. In November of 2017, Maria received the Joseph Branch Professional Award, the highest honor given by the Wake County Bar Association, for her service to the Wake County community through programs like Partners Read. In this edition of WakeEd Insight, Maria shares some of her most memorable experiences with students at Stough Elementary School.

From Maria Lynch:
Most of the members of our small law firm participate in Partners Read at Stough Elementary School. We walk up to Stough together on Friday mornings, our cheap form of team building. The enthusiasm of the children is contagious, and all of us have seen improvement in their reading skills. We are particularly fortunate to have a great teacher assigned to the program, Jennifer Arnold, who is both very well organized and very dedicated.

The children often ask her when “their lawyers” are coming to read.

Each of us reads with two students throughout the year. During my first year, I read with two students who were both very excited to be included in the program. I received a sweet thank you note from both a parent and a student. On the back, the student drew illustrations of the books that we read together.

In my second year, I read with two students who really enjoyed reading. During our sessions, one student was often visited by his younger brother in kindergarten. This year, I am reading with his younger brother. My other student this year is a very shy girl who has come into her own and greets us exuberantly every week. Both of them like to stay and read through the session of the other.

I make a small-time investment and get a tremendously rewarding experience.

For the students there is the benefit of an improvement in reading skills, and when I am lucky, the development of a love for reading.

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