Watch our new REACH Way Institute video, then join us in Oakland, May 2-3!

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Written By Lakisha Young • Founder and CEO

There is a reading and math crisis in America. The nation’s most recent report card — also known as NAEP scores —  shows we’ve backslid nearly two decades as the vast majority of 4th and 8th graders are failing to read or do math on grade level. It’s even worse for Black and brown students who were caught in the opportunity gap long before the pandemic shut down schools. 

We must be serious about solutions. We have to show up, collaborate, and problem-solve together. That’s why I am pleased to invite you to join REACH Way Institute (RWI) this May! Register now!

RWI will be a two-day event, Thursday & Friday, May 2-3, where you’ll learn about our Liberator Model, a solution that integrates both academic aspirations and socio-economic needs by upskilling parents and caregivers to be paid tutors. You’ll learn and self-assess what it takes to be ready to successfully implement this model in your own community.

Almost 90% of the last cohort’s participants said they are “likely” or “very likely” to recommend RWI to their network. One of our participants shared: “This was a fantastic training. I am looking forward to sharing this with the parents in our national network."

READ THIS BLOG TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

If you are interested in participating in RWI, please register here. The cost of RWI is $5,250 per participant and includes participation in two full-day sessions at The Oakland REACH offices and all meals/snacks for both Institute days. We will send registered participants our recommendations for Oakland hotels to book your stay. We are capping this Institute to a total of 30 participants. Depending on demand, organizations may only be allowed to send two participants and will be accepted on a first-pay, first-served basis.

We are excited to create a one-of-a-kind learning and collaboration experience among like-minded leaders who want to build bold and collaborative work. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email us at rwi@oaklandreach.org.

REGISTER AND PAY DEPOSIT NOW
Lakisha Young • Founder and CEO

Lakisha Young is Founder & CEO of The Oakland REACH, a parent-power organization that launched in 2016. She knows from her own story that winning in education is par for the course when you already have what you need to win in life — and because of that, everything REACH does is about ensuring every family has what they need to win in life.

Lakisha developed a formula that has guided REACH’s work since day one: Ask families questions. Listen to their aspirations. Build the solutions. Liberate our communities. This formula has produced a mix of groundbreaking programming and advocacy work over the last 6 years, including The Opportunity Ticket, which gives the most vulnerable students higher preference for enrolling in quality schools, and the Literacy for All campaign, which is about empowering the whole family around literacy to truly disrupt systemically poor literacy outcomes in underserved communities. 

During the pandemic, Lakisha pioneered one of REACH’s most innovative solutions to date: The Virtual Family Hub, a one-stop shop supporting families’ economic survival and their children’s educational success. The Hub has been featured in local, national, and international media, including Today.com, TIME Magazine, CNN, KQED, BBC News, Univision, The San Francisco Chronicle, and more.

Inspired by the Hub’s success and with families returning to in-person learning, REACH created The Liberator Model to train parents and caregivers in the community to become tutors in some of the lowest-performing Oakland schools. Through this model, REACH is now supporting the training and retention of ~200 tutors, providing high-quality, high-dosage tutoring to 5,500+ students across 38 schools. A study of the model called parents an “untapped pool of talent” and noted they were as effective as teachers in tutoring readers.

Lakisha is a respected national voice on parent power and regularly consults other cities across the country interested in learning more about REACH’s transformative model. She is a Senior Fellow at The Center on Reinventing Public Education and is a regular contributor to their “People in Action” series. In 2023, Lakisha was recognized by KRON4 as the Bay Area’s Remarkable Woman.

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