Times-News features Elon's Village Project as it approaches 10th anniversary

An Aug. 5 article in the Burlington Times-News takes a look at the impact that Elon University’s “It Take a Village” Project has had on the broader community as the innovative program approaches its 10th anniversary. 

The article by Reporter Jessica Williams tracks the history of the project at Elon, which started in 2008 with students in the School of Education offering reading help to 16 third-graders after school. The initiative, which has garnered support from a variety of sources including a $1 million grant from the Oak Foundation last year, now serves 400 students from the Alamance-Burlington School System. 

The “It Takes a Village” project uses a collaborative approach to address reading difficulties faced by many students through after-school and summer sessions that focus on reading and tutoring. That collaboration involves the active participation of Elon’s School of Education, Elon students, faculty and staff, in-service teachers, various community partners and most important, parents and other family members. ​

Jean Rattigan-Rohr, Elon’s executive director of community partnerships and director of the Center for Access and Success, launched the program and gives the parents of participating students a lot of the credit for its success. 

“People always ask, because [we’ve completed nine years], ‘How do you guys sustain it?'” Rattigan-Rohr told Williams. “Education programs — they last two years, and then they’re done, and you move on to something else, and so how do we manage to do it? And I really think it’s the parents.”

Read the entire article here.