Allen County Education Partnership D/B/A Project Reads

“Depending on the timing of the meetings and the receipt of form 990, it is either reviewed by the finance committee and/or the executive committee.”

“A copy of the conflict of interest policy is given to all board members, employees and volunteers or other key stakeholders upon commencement of such person's relationship with acep or at the official adoption of such policy. Each board member, officer, employee, and volunteer shall sign and date a disclosure form at the beginning of his/her term of service or employment and each year thereafter. Failure of anyone to sign does not nullify the policy. Following full disclosure of a possible conflict of interest, the board of directors shall determine whether a conflict of interest exists and, if so the board shall vote to authorize or reject the transaction or take other action deemed necessary to address the conflict and protect the acep's best interest. Both votes shall be by a majority vote without counting the vote of any interested director, even if the disinterested directors are less than a quorum provided that at least one consenting director is disinterested.”

“The executive director's salary is reviewed and determined by the hr committee and/or executive committee.”

“The organization's irs form 990 for the past three years is available at www.guidestar.org.”

“Governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are made available upon request.”

“According to local studies, functional illiteracy in the adult population of allen county results in the community having an insufficient pool of skilled workers. Project reads hopes to help program participants attain a quality of life in which they are self-sufficient in the economic world and active in their communities. Thus, by promoting literacy, project reads' programs help participants grow as individuals, thereby fostering a stronger, more educated, and more productive community. Due to the coronavirus and school closures, project reads does not have a full school year of statistics to share at this time although we are working with our district partners to gather them. Once project reads' staff realized school sites were closed, we quickly switched gears and created a reading challenge for project reads participants which ran march-may and also a june challenge in 2020. Again, we are compiling data on the reading challenge successes. Long term successes over the last five years indicate that 595 out of 763 or 78% of the students enrolled and active in project reads program have increased their reading skill level by four or more reading levels. Additionally, over the last five years 732 of the 763 or 95% of the students demonstrated reading improvement and growth in reading levels from the beginning of the year. The following highlights our recent accomplishments for the 2019-20 year: 116 students and 97 volunteers participated until the sites closed mid- march. 28% of students participated in both reading challenges offered march-may and june. It is important to note that a core feature of project reads is the economic impact made by our volunteer mentors. Each mentor meets with each program participant for one hour per week over the course of the school year, totaling approximately 30 tutoring sessions. A for-profit tutor with similar literacy training would cost a family about 25 per hour or 750 for the school year. The 150+ project reads trained mentors provide over 100,000 in no-cost literacy training to allen county children. That's 100,000 that stays in the pockets of area families which can then be used for school supplies, food, shelter and other necessities of family life. We are proud of this contribution to our local economy and immensely grateful to our generous volunteers.”