The ELF Program (Elementary Literacy Friends) is a charitable organization that manages a volunteer reading achievement program for struggling readers in grade two.
Students who are struggling to read at their grade level by the end of grade two can sometimes experience significant difficulty throughout the rest of their schooling years, falling further behind each year.
The ELF Program brings community volunteers, schools, and parents together to ensure children are reading at grade level by the end of the year. They currently have 580 ELF and CLEF volunteers helping students in 146 New Brunswick Schools.
Currently, Blackville School has one student from Ms. Sobey's Grade 2 class enrolled in the program and will have another individual joining the program after Christmas.
The program started at the first of November 2019 and will happen every Tuesday and Friday from 2 pm to 3 pm.
During this hour, the literacy volunteer and student will go over the material provided. They will participate in literacy games with rewards that are combined with reading interesting books and answering questions.
The students learn that developing important reading skills can be easy and fun. Volunteer Lana Cottow says she enjoys helping her student with his reading. She states that it is a wonderful program and it brings her so much joy to participate in it.
"We are so grateful to all of these volunteers who are giving their time to read with a child in their community. These children are receiving a boost in confidence and love of reading to help set them up for success throughout the rest of the school year. " The ELF Fall Newsletter.
