Grant to support after-school reading initiatives

SUNSET — The Inspiring the American Dream Foundation announced this week that it has been awarded an $8,000 grant from Dabo’s All In Team Foundation.

The grant will help Inspiring the American Dream Foundation to maintain momentum for its American Dream Reading Camps, while at the same time, fuel expansion for its literacy, character development and career awareness programs throughout Upstate South Carolina.

Made possible through a grant provided by Dabo’s All In Team Foundation in 2014, Inspiring the American Dream Foundation’s Opportunity to Succeed Program was piloted as an After-School Reading Camp for a group of third-grade students at A.R. Lewis Elementary School in Pickens. Launched in February, the A.R. Lewis Reading Camp focused on improving third-grade reading proficiency, while instilling in students important character traits necessary to achieve the American Dream.

Inspiring the American Dream Foundation’s Opportunity to Succeed Program has been developed around three guiding principles — teach, share and empower:

• Teach students about the American Dream, while making the learning experience fun and interesting

• Share with students the necessary skills and character traits to achieve their American Dreams

• Empower students by helping them to visualize their personal American Dream journeys

Due to the results of the A.R. Lewis pilot, the School District of Pickens County subsequently incorporated components of Inspiring the American Dream Foundation’s Reading Camp curriculum into its state-mandated Read to Succeed Summer Reading Camps.

Propelled by these recent successes, Inspiring the American Dream Foundation is now in the process of fortifying the organization and its programs to fuel an aggressive growth strategy throughout the Upstate. Central to this effort is the development of an Educator Tool Kit. The tool kit will include a copyrighted curriculum, select mentor texts, a series of training videos and ongoing training support.

“We are truly grateful for the generous donation made by Dabo’s All In Team Foundation,” Inspiring the American Dream Foundation chairman Robert Basmadjian said. “Inspiring the American Dream Foundation is committed to expanding our literacy, character development and career awareness programs for students all throughout South Carolina’s Upstate. Through the continued support of Dabo’s All In Team Foundation, we will be able to maintain momentum for our reading and literacy initiatives and help scale our program for optimum impact.”