Students who are falling behind their peers because of reading disabilities are receiving extra assistance and support this school year in part from a coordinated effort to address dyslexia and other learning disorders led by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Through its Strauss Literacy Initiative, the foundation has recently directed more than $1.2 million in grant funding to regional partners to identify students who may benefit from help, coach teachers and administrators in how to better assist them, offer scholarships and more. The goal: a future in which all students with reading differences receive the support they need to thrive.

“When students struggle to read, many begin to internalize the belief that they are less capable than their peers, even though they may be highly intelligent and creative, and they can lose confidence because of the frustration and embarrassment they feel,” says Community Foundation Vice President of Community Impact Kirsten Russell. “When students with dyslexia and other reading challenges receive the explicit, direct instruction they need, it transforms their lives, bringing back their love of learning and giving them hope and excitement for the future.”

Support from the Community Foundation is directed to a broad coalition of schools and nonprofit organizations across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. The partner organizations serve students from grade school through college to ensure that all young people in our region have the chance to benefit from effective, up-to-date and research-backed literacy education strategies grounded in the science of reading, regardless of their age or where they live.

Grants issued from the Ira and Patricia Strauss Fund for Children’s Literacy since last December have gone to longstanding Strauss partners such as the School Board of Sarasota County, the School District of Manatee County, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, St. Mary Academy and State College of Florida. A grant to the School District of DeSoto County, meanwhile, represents the fund’s first foray into DeSoto County public schools and marks a new chapter in the evolution of the Strauss initiative.

Grants Fund Multi-Pronged Approach to Reach Students at All Levels

While The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity estimates that dyslexia affects one in five individuals, the condition frequently goes undiagnosed. Identifying students with characteristics of dyslexia and developing a personalized learning plan for them are crucial to helping students reach their potential, but they are just the first steps in a long journey. To help students along the way, each Community Foundation partner is charged with developing programs that help reach students and their families in unique ways.

• In Sarasota County, charitable dollars are being used to support Literacy for All, a Sarasota County Schools initiative to strengthen K-12 literacy skills by enhancing professional learning opportunities around literacy for educators and administrators in collaboration with the University of Florida’s Lastinger Center for Learning, a widely respected leader in providing research-based learning programs for educators. Through the initiative, literacy specialists and interventionists can pursue dyslexia certification opportunities, while literacy interventionists and coaches receive additional support materials and training. Funding for a full-time district-wide program specialist staff position, meanwhile, supports efforts to provide effective instruction to struggling readers and students with dyslexia, and dyslexia screeners help identify students who may need extra reading assistance. Also in Sarasota, St. Mary Academy—a private school for students with learning disabilities—is able to offer scholarships to students with dyslexia so that they can benefit from the school’s expertise in helping diverse learners.
• In Manatee County, the school district is also working with the University of Florida’s Lastinger Center to help administrators, teachers, literacy coaches and interventionists and paraprofessionals improve their early learning and literacy teaching skills. Elementary schools have also implemented small-group teaching strategies proven to be successful and are using dyslexia screeners.
• In DeSoto County, a new partnership between the school district and the Community Foundation, established just this school year, will soon deliver decodable text lending libraries, professional learning opportunities, dyslexia screeners and more.
• At State College of Florida’s campuses across the region, students are receiving psychoeducational testing services that help diagnose reaching challenges, as well as devices and technology that boost their classroom performance.
• And outside of school walls, Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties help maintain progress made during the school day through the summer and after school hours. The organization hired teachers this past summer at six sites to provide reading instruction for students hoping to catch up—or at least maintain skills—between academic years.

“Dyslexia is a neurological condition that affects so many students in so many different ways, and addressing it requires a similarly wide range of strategies and techniques,” says Russell. “In working with this coalition, we hope to build understanding about dyslexia itself and reach every student we can so that no one is forced to endure the frustration and low self-esteem that often accompany dyslexia.”

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month, and while the foundation’s literacy work happens year-round, the month brings heightened attention to the condition, which deeply affected Patricia Strauss, one of the donors behind the Strauss Literacy Initiative. Patricia found it difficult to read and write well into her adulthood, until she was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. Together with her husband Ira, Patricia helped create the blueprint for the Ira and Patricia Strauss Fund for Children’s Literacy, which was established at the Community Foundation in 2018 with an endowment of nearly $23.6 million from the couple’s estate. To date, the fund has awarded more than $4.3 million in grants, and Russell says the efforts—and the impact—of the initiative are growing exponentially every year.

“Each year, as we deepen our collaboration with local schools, educators and families, we are learning more and more about how dyslexia affects students, and with that greater understanding come targeted and effective programs to help them,” says Russell. “We believe that our region can become a model for how school districts and partner organizations address reading disabilities nationwide, and we are committed to taking action today so that students develop the skills they need to succeed tomorrow, and for the rest of their lives.”

About the Community Foundation of Sarasota County: The Community Foundation of Sarasota County is a public charity founded in 1979 by the Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council as a resource for caring individuals and the causes they support, enabling them to make a charitable impact on the community. With assets of $544 million in nearly 1,600 charitable funds, the Community Foundation awarded grants and scholarships totaling $56 million last year in the areas of education, the arts, health and human services, civic engagement, animal welfare and the environment. Since its founding, the Community Foundation has been able to grant more than $500 million to nonprofits in our community thanks to the generosity of charitable individuals, families and businesses. For more information, visit cfsrasota.org or call 941-955-3000.