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The Troup County literacy program Get Troup Reading is continuing with its recently launched READ-LEARN-GROW tutoring program in the Troup County School System. The organization is seeking community volunteers to assist with this initiative.

Get Troup Ready is hosting two training sessions for interested adults who want to volunteer in the program. Interested volunteers can attend either one. The first will be Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The second is Wednesday at noon.

The READ-LEARN-GROW program is a tutoring program to benefit first graders. The program is currently being held at Callaway Elementary School and Ethel Kight Elementary School. Nicole Kennedy, parental engagement coordinator for TCSS and is conducting the program, hopes to expand to other area elementary schools as more volunteers step forward.

Volunteer tutors work in a first-grade classroom for a one-hour long session each week during school hours. Groups are broken down with two to four small children in each group and children will focus on literacy-related tasks, Kennedy said.

“We’re doing a lot of letter sounds and blending letter sounds, and different games and activities that deal with literacy and lots of reading,” Kennedy said. “We’ve had some great feedback from the 12-weeks that we’ve been running [the program] so far,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the idea for this program came about after she and other members of Get Troup Reading visited Bartow County schools in September 2019. After witnessing how their school system ran a similar tutoring program, they receied permission to create a similar program for TCSS. Kennedy wanted to launch the program in 2020 but COVID temporarily halted the program’s full effects.

“We had to pivot like so many other people did, and we held the program virtually with 50 students and volunteers who worked on Google Meet,” Kennedy said. “We still have a handful of students who are still working virtually with volunteers.”

Kennedy said Get Troup Reading currently has 12 volunteers who assist with the program.

Interested volunteers can contact kennedysn@troup.com to sign up for the program. Volunteers will need to undergo a background check and will be required to be vaccinated and wear a mask. A virtual training session will be available if volunteers cannot attend face-to-face training.