Augustine Project About Us

History & How It Works
The Augustine Project was founded in 1994 by Holy Family Episcopal
Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We train and support volunteer
tutors who provide free, one-on-one, long-term instruction in reading,
writing, and spelling to low income children and teens who struggle
with literacy skills. The program provides each tutor with 70 hours of
training (classroom and practicum) based on the Orton-Gillingham
approach, using research-based reading materials from a variety of
sources, including the Wilson Reading System®. The Orton-Gillingham
approach is a systematic, multisensory, phonetic teaching
methodology that is proven to work with learning disabled children
and others with reading difficulties.

Upon satisfactory completion of the Augustine training, each tutor is
paired with a low income child and commits to work with him or her
pro bono for a minimum of 60 sessions. Tutors usually meet with their
students at the child's school two or three times a week. An Augustine
lesson is 45 minutes long. Comprehensive pre and post testing - using
professionally recognized instruments to measure phonological
awareness, word attack, rapid naming, fluency, comprehension and
spelling - is administered to evaluate student progress.

Because reading, writing and spelling difficulties can result in poor
school performance and low self-esteem, families who are financially
able send their children with language related learning differences to
special schools or hire private tutors. In Durham and Chapel Hill, tutors
charge from $25 to $60 an hour. The Augustine Project is committed to
providing caring, professionally trained tutors for those whose families
cannot afford to pay. The combination of nurture and knowledge that
an Augustine tutor offers can mean the difference between prison and
productivity for an at-risk student.

Tutor training sessions are offered every year in Durham and Chapel
Hill. We offer full scholarships to needy trainees, and all participants
are charged significantly reduced tuition because of their commitment
to help a disadvantaged child. After the initial two-week training,
Augustine tutors are provided with materials (including access to our
resource library), ongoing support and continuing education
opportunities. In addition to working with their "Augustine child",
tutors can earn supplemental income by tutoring other students at
market rates.

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Who We Serve
We serve students in grades 1 through 12 who attend Durham, Chapel
Hill, Chatham or Orange County public schools. Participants are
referred to the program by family members, guardians, teachers,
counselors or learning disability specialists. The two eligibility
requirements for Augustine tutoring are: 1) low income, qualifying for
free or reduced price lunch, and 2) below grade level performance in
reading, writing or spelling. We do not require that our students meet
the discrepancy criteria used by the state of North Carolina to
determine eligibility for LD services in the public schools (a 15 point
difference between ability and achievement scores obtained through a
psycho-educational testing battery).

A number of our tutors go beyond academic language therapy and
serve as advocates for their students, seeking appropriate testing,
services and accomodations. This is important to the population we
serve since support from home may be weak.

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Staff
The Augustine Project has two staff members, a full time Executive
Director and one part time assistant. It is funded through grants,
church outreach funds and private donations.

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Replications
The Augustine Project has been successfully replicated in
Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Hickory and Fayetteville, NC; Conroe, TX and
Greenville, SC. We encourage and support the creation of new
chapters. To learn more about our replication policy, click here.

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Concentrated Trainings
The Augustine Project of Chapel Hill/Durham also offers on-site
concentrated trainings for professional educators and/or volunteer
tutors from a particular church or civic organization. The trainings last
15 hours and include a two-day practicum.

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High School Senior Elective Course
Since 2007, The Augustine Project has offered an elective course for
seniors at Durham Academy Upper School, pairing these students with
students at Forestview Elementary School in Durham. This year, Trinity
School of Durham and Chapel Hill seniors will also be working
one-on-one with students at Forestview Elementary School. All of
these seniors earn credit taking the course which meets daily
throughout the school year.

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Facts and Figures
Number of tutors trained this year: 75

Number of tutors / teachers active: 239

Number of schools / after school
programs with Augustine tutors /
teachers: 92

Number of names on potential
trainees waiting list: 58

Number of students who need
Augustine tutor in service area:
6,000 +

Number of C.E.U.s offered by school
systems for Augustine training: 6

Number of staff members: 2
(executive director and 1 part time
assistant)

Number of replications: 6
(Winston-Salem; Charlotte,
Fayetteville and Hickory, NC; Conroe,
TX; Greenville, SC)

Testing results:
-Phonemic awareness scores
improved by 46%
-Word attack improved an average of
1.2 grade levels
-Sight word recognition increased an
average of 33%
-Spelling improved an average of 1.1
grade levels
-Reading fluency scores rose an
average of 1.5 grade levels
-Reading comprehension scored rose
an average of 2.1 grade levels

Funding sources (Budget):
-12.5% Holy Family Outreach
-87.5% grants from foundations;
training fees; gifts from churches,
civic groups and individuals