Program Details
The Augustine Project
Student Mentoring
Durham Academy
The Augustine Project is a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit founded in 1994. Its mission is to train and support volunteer tutors who provide free, long-term, one-on-one instruction in reading, writing and spelling to low-income children and teens who struggle with literacy skills.
Every year, more than twenty DA seniors take a year-long full-credit elective that trains them to use the project's research-based, multisensory, phonetic literacy curriculum, based on the Orton Gillingham approach. After a month of preparation, each DA senior is paired with a child at a local public elementary school. To be eligible for tutoring, the child must qualify for free or reduced price lunch and perform below grade level in reading. Lessons last 45 minutes and take place three times a week from September through May. Students supplement their tutoring with readings and discussions about literacy, poverty, brain development, and related topics. Click here to read more about DA’s partnership with The Augustine Project, whose motto proves true each year: “Tutor one child. Change two lives.”