You probably know I'm the Grand Poobah of a nonprofit organization that runs the WriterCoach Connection (WCC) program in San Francisco Bay Area middle and high schools. (If you didn't know that was true, I wouldn't be clogging up your inbox with this.) WCC recruits and trains community volunteers to work one-on-one with students, in class, on their English writing assignments, to help develop the students' writing and critical thinking skills.

Hard to believe, but we''ve been doing this for nine years. This year, 400 volunteer writer coaches are working at seven school sites, collaborating with 30 teachers in 68 classes, sitting down throughout the school year with 1,700 students for more than 11,000 half-hour writing conferences. (Whew!) Each student gets up to ten writing conferences a year, and we coach every student in a given grade level, regardless of the student's writing skill level.

Assessment results are overwhelmingly positive every year, based on surveys and on assessment of student writing achievement using school district data. This program really works, and the  bonds that coaches form with their students keep the coaches coming back to do this, year after year.

We depend heavily on the kindness of friends and strangers to pay for this program and so here I am, hat in hand.  This website makes it easy to donate. Not easy to find the money to give, but easy to give any gift you will consider. Community Alliance for Learning is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. You'll even get an official thank-you letter from me, on letterhead and everything, although it won't say my title is Grand Poobah.

If you're so moved by all this that you can't stand it, you can even create your own page to help me raise dough for WriterCoach Connection, with your own message, photo, etc. (If you like, I can send you the Community Alliance for Learning logo to insert.)  It's really easy, although, of course, doing this would require you to admit you know me.
 

I'm hoping to raise $1,000 all by my lonesome, and more with the collaboration of my WCC colleagues. Many thanks for thinking about helping me get there, and for passing this along to anyone else whose spirit might be moved by the work we're doing with these kids.

Robert Menzimer

Executive Director

Community Alliance for Learning

PO Box 6098

Albany, CA  94706

510.528.5066 (office)

510.813.3698 (mobile)

510.527.2250 (fax)

Bringing WriterCoach Connection to Students and Schools