All Ages Read Together (AART)

Goal: $30,000.00

Specific Need

Help us meet our goal of raising $30,000!

We have seen a growing need for our services across Loudoun County. There are so many bright future scholars ready to experience their first day of school, meet their first classmates, and for some, take home their first book. We're looking to expand our reach in the county and meet our students and their families where they're at. By raising $30,000, we aim to provide our students with enough crayons, pencils, gluesticks, paper, and books (of course!) to make their first classroom experience the best it can be and to meet the growing demand we are seeing for our programs across Loudoun County. 

Mission

All Ages Read Together (AART) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) dedicated to educating children in need with free preschool programs in their communities.

We envision a future where all children, especially our most vulnerable, enter school prepared to learn and succeed. We strive for a future in which public education includes universal access to preschool, making the need for AART obsolete.

Profile

AART operates with one goal: to give our community's underserved children the opportunity to learn and grow in an enriching and supportive environment. 

Why? Because, in Northern Virginia, 29% of low-income children are enrolled in preschool, compared to 67% in higher-income households, making this the highest income disparity of preschool enrollment in the United States (Hughes, 2021-2).

Virginia does not have universal preschool. Many families turn to government-sponsored programs, like Head Start or the Virginia Preschool Initiative, where they face endless waitlists averaging 20 - 200 per site in our region. With test scores dipping across the board in our public schools, Northern Virginia's children need early intervention to foster a positive relationship with learning and to put them on track for academic success.

We bring members of our community together to support children who otherwise would have no learning experience prior to starting kindergarten. Our students reap many benefits from our program, from developing an early love for reading to making new friends outside the home to getting up to speed with their peers upon entering kindergarten. The social, emotional, and academic impacts of preschool are proven and can last a lifetime - every child in our community deserves a positive start to their education and to life. 

AART hosts a passionate staff of experienced teachers and teaching assistants, who, together with our wonderful volunteers, host classes multiple times a week for our students. We host our classes in donated-in-kind spaces located centrally in our communities, easily accessible by our students and their families. We remove as many barriers to access as possible for our families, and that includes travel. Our classes are held across Loudoun and Fairfax counties, including Alexandria. You can find us in community centers, libraries, rec centers, and other places where we all live, work, and play every day.

Our classes cover all the necessary skills our students need to succeed in kindergarten, including math, motor skills, reading, and writing. We also provide free books for our students to take home every week to kick-start their own personal libraries. 

AART's services are a life-changing opportunity for our students and their families, often giving both child and parent an introduction to our public schools and their community!

Sources:

Photos & Videos

Student playing with hand puppets.
Student playing with hand puppets.
Two students playing with toys during class.
Two students playing with toys during class.
A teacher reading aloud to her class.
A teacher reading aloud to her class.
Two students playing together in class.
Two students playing together in class.
Students painting together.
Students painting together.
A teacher and student displaying their art projects.
A teacher and student displaying their art projects.
A volunteer helping a student identify colors.
A volunteer helping a student identify colors.
A student identifying letters.
A student identifying letters.
A teacher and teaching assistant posing with students and their parents.
A teacher and teaching assistant posing with students and their parents.
A teacher helping students identify numbers.
A teacher helping students identify numbers.
A student displaying his art project.
A student displaying his art project.
A teacher showing students hand puppets.
A teacher showing students hand puppets.
An AART class graduation photo.
An AART class graduation photo.
Chef Dennis from Chantel's Bakery visiting with AART students.
Chef Dennis from Chantel's Bakery visiting with AART students.
A volunteer from Sony reading aloud to an AART class.
A volunteer from Sony reading aloud to an AART class.
Two students dancing together.
Two students dancing together.
Students sitting together in class.
Students sitting together in class.
Student playing with connecting toys.
Student playing with connecting toys.
Students playing together with connecting toys in class.
Students playing together with connecting toys in class.
Teachers and students dancing together.
Teachers and students dancing together.
Parents gathered for graduation day.
Parents gathered for graduation day.
Teachers helping a student put on their graduation cap.
Teachers helping a student put on their graduation cap.
Chef Dennis from Chantel's Bakery reading to AART students.
Chef Dennis from Chantel's Bakery reading to AART students.
Students decorating cookies in class.
Students decorating cookies in class.
$4,853.50 received
in 29 gifts
and 1 prize
16.18%  of  $30,000.00 Goal

Contact

1141 Elden Street Suite 200
Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: 540-277-3135

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