Parentis Foundation

Since our launch in 2017, our dedicated older-adult volunteer tutors have provided over 57,000 one-to-one reading tutor sessions to struggling readers in underserved Orange County communities. During the 2024-2025 school year, our tutors provided 800 tutor sessions each week to 445 students first grade through fifth grade. As an enhancement to our current one-to-one intergenerational literacy support program, mentors incorporate our One Kind Word Initiative which uses enriching literature focused on topics centered around anti-bullying, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each book concludes with a Question & Answer exercise, a retention assessment, and open dialog on what the student learned. The books are age appropriate and provide guided questions and activities for the student's mentor and families to initiate rich conversation while strengthening the mentor/mentee connection.
One Kind Word Promotes
• Anti-Bullying
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Equity
• Sportsmanship
• Fairness
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Trustworthiness
• Caring
• Mindfulness
The primary goals of the program are to (1) improve reading fluency and accuracy and (2) improve student attitude toward reading. To measure our impact, assessments are conducted at the beginning of year (BOY), mid-year (MOY), and end of year (EOY) by our Literacy Reading Specialist. Our secondary goals are to (1) retain our volunteer population, who are critical to the delivery of our program; and (2) provide our volunteers with satisfactory volunteer experience. As such, our success will be measured against the following outcomes.
Reading fluency and accuracy goal: 67% of students will achieve at least 1/2 grade level improvement in reading fluency and 85% increase in reading accuracy.
Student attitude toward reading goal: Students will show a 70% increase in four Social Emotional Learning (SEL) categories: participation, self-confidence, motivation, and concentration. Positive increase in social/emotional growth is an indicator of overall academic success.
Volunteer tutor Retention Goal: Retain 95% of volunteer tutors for the 2024-2025 school year.
Volunteers surveyed at EOY will show 95% satisfaction in overall volunteer experience.

2024-2025 Program Year: 445 students served 1st-5th grade, 220 volunteer tutors (age 50+), 13 program locations: San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Aliso Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Tustin, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and Santa Ana.