Youth Organization United to Rise (YOUR) Community Center was the recipient of the Foundation’s community-based literacy award for 2002. This NW Washington after-school literacy program has served neighborhood children and youth who have reading deficiencies. Using volunteers from local colleges, the program provides supervised homework, tutoring services, and enrichment activities, including creative writing, computer skills and field trips. The summer program directs resources to neighborhood teens that would otherwise lack access to enrichment programs.
The foundation partners with the DC Public Schools, DC LEARNs (District of Columbia Literacy Education and Resource Network) and the Humanities Council of Washington, DC to implement its projects. An underlying premise for the Foundation’s mission is the belief that “Information is Power” and literacy is the key to accessing that power