This past year, Happy House President Carol Loweree, spent a lot of time piloting a program we call the Happy House Literacy Booster.

This program is designed to one thing: increase a person’s literacy—any person. It can help children just learning to read for the first time, students who missed certain steps in their path to literacy and even adults who have problems reading.

There are a HUGE number of literacy programs out in the world. The majority of them involve just having students read. At first blush one thinks, okay, they are learning to read by reading.

But almost none of these programs involve taking reading down to its component parts and building, step by step, the skills a person needs to be fully self-sufficient in literacy—able to read anything on their own at any time.

Based on materials developed by Sue Young of Bright Sky Learning, the literacy booster programed is designed so that kids can coach each other through the materials.

In this past month alone, 60 Jr. Cadets at LAPD Foothill Station and 60 Jr. Cadets at LAPD Mission Station have been doing the program. This past week kids at Foothill were asked how the program was going. One student raised his hand very excitedly saying “I just was finally tested into 7th grade reading!” He’d been in a 5th grade level up to that time. A parent commented on how her two boys have improved a lot with good reviews from their teacher!

Stay tuned for a LOT more news about this program.