Bridge Project guides youngest readers
Sometimes, all a budding mind needs is guidance.
Fartuna Abdirahman never thought about writing as a means of expression. Not until a Bridge Project educator suggested she put pen to paper.
Many pages later, the 10-year-old, whose parents immigrated from Somalia, beams with satisfaction. She’ll have plenty of tales to tell in middle school next year. Some might be about animals, others could be fairy tales, but, using what she has learned through Bridge Project’s Early Literacy and Writing program, many stories will be about her life.
Bridge Project, started in 1991 as a community outreach initiative of the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work and the Denver Housing Authority, provides educational opportunities for underserved K-12 students through comprehensive after-school programs.
More than 350 certified educators, tutors and volunteers work with more than 500 students each year at four sites around the metro area.
Fartuna is among many young learners who have flourished at the Columbine location.
“I liked it because we got to write what we wanted to,” Fartuna said, recalling her most recent writing class. “They inspire you to do different things.”
The Early Literacy and Writing program, just one of Bridge Project’s many educational components, focuses on reading and writing fundamentals for K-5 students.
The program recently received a Mile High United Way Social Innovation Fund grant and is using research through the OMNI Institute to determine the best ways to teach these necessary skills to young students.
“We have undergone a pretty extensive development of the program,” Bridge Project executive director Jesse Burns said. “So we have improved more pieces of our curriculum.”
This year, elementary education coordinator Jacquelyn Scranton is emphasizing writing. For many kids at Bridge Project, English is a second language. The ability to formulate stories, from a simple outline to a satisfying conclusion, has helped them become invested in learning.
“I found the biggest thing is within personal narrative,” Scranton said. “Where they are able to write from their experiences and their cultures and interests.”
Students like Fartuna gain crucial lessons in Bridge Project’s social, emotional, action and listening teachings, known as SEAL, through creating and sharing stories. A strong foundation in the SEAL aspects helps students excel throughout their educational career.
“When you have a program that only focuses on high school graduation, it can be really challenging to catch a kid up” who’s been lagging behind peers for years, Burns explained.
Kids don’t receive grades for their work with the Bridge Project, but program leaders examine how students’ classroom grades are affected by the supplementary education. An OMNI Institute study compared early literacy outcomes of children who live in subsidized housing — those who are Bridge Project participants and those who are not. Bridge Project students were outperforming their non-participant peers by their second year in the program.
“We’re evidence-based, so it’s not a program that’s good because we say it is, it’s good because we can prove it is,” Burns said.
Fartuna enjoys Bridge Project so much that she plans to return as a middle schooler.
Whether she participates in Bridge Project’s social advocacy course, Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning, acquires homework help, or just finds a welcoming place to draft that story about a moose she’s been pondering, she knows the Bridge Project will be there to guide her. Alexandra Katechris teaches reading skills to kindergartners and first-graders through the Bridge Project at Columbine center. The Bridge Project Early Literacy and Writing program uses an evidence-based, small group instruction model for elementary school students.