The Writers Place shares office space with a wonderful organization - Lead to Read KC. Their mission is to create a community of readers, one lunch period at a time. They accomplish this by placing volunteers in schools once a week for just 30 minutes to read one on one with an elementary student in Kansas City area schools. Children who can read proficiently by third grade are more successful in school, and their important work aims to increase the number of proficient readers in our community. 

The Writers Place board is excited to partner with this organization and as an initial effort, we would like to challenge our membership to become volunteer readers with Lead to Read KC. 

The process is simple:

1) Complete a volunteer application at www.leadtoreadkc.org and a required background check (cost of $15). 

2) Watch a short training video.

3) Commit to a schedule of reading with one student one day a week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays between the hours of 11am - 1pm). You may also share a weekly shift with another volunteer if you can commit to volunteering 2x a month, or volunteer as a flex volunteer on a once-a-month basis.

4) Donate new and gently used children's books or make a donation to Lead to Read for the purchase of books.

We know you understand the value of reading and that writers need good readers! We invite you to join us as volunteers with Lead to Read KC. Please make sure to let them know you are with The Writers Place when you complete your application. Thank you for your support of this worthwhile project!