Dear UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff,
Following up on the Chancellors December email asking us to come together as a University to support student literacy efforts in our region, we are very excited to share some additional resources and information.
Literacy Initiative Webpage
The Literacy Initiative webpage provides great background information on the UW-Green Bay Literacy Initiative and UW-Green Bays opportunity to be a part of the solution facing our communities.
Reading Mentor Prep Course
UW-Green Bay education faculty members, Dr. Cory Mathieu and Dr. Samantha Meister have finished designing a self-paced, online reading mentor prep course available in Canvas at no cost to students, faculty, staff, and the community. The course is a tremendous resource for anyone interested in learning strategies to use while reading with children. It offers insightful tips for before, during, and after reading guidance as well as links to additional resources. We are incredibly grateful to Cory and Sam for their time, expertise, and support!
Volunteer Information & Guidance
Working with several school districts and other organizations, we have identified specific ongoing volunteer opportunities and will continue to add more as they become available. We also want to encourage you to reach out to your local schools, libraries, or other organizations for more possibilities. Please know that each organization will have its own procedures to follow including asking for information to conduct required background checks.
Like the UW-Green Bay Day of Service, employees must have their service hours agreed upon between themselves and their supervisor to ensure adequate operational coverage. However, unlike the Day of Service, service to this initiative would be unpaid (true volunteering) through flexibility in work schedules, and may not occur all within a 4-hour block of time. Flexible hours can inadvertently cause unique complications for hourly employees, including differential and overtime pay. To ensure that we are properly supporting hourly employees, supervisors are welcome to consult with HR when a request is made by an hourly employee to flex their hours to volunteer for this endeavor. If you have additional questions about the service hours, please also contact hr@uwgb.edu. There can be no reimbursement for employee travel for these hours. We sincerely hope this will lead to continued interest in volunteering on your own time.
Voluntary Logging of Hours
CUEGB.com will be available to log volunteer hours in support of this initiative. Please see the site for more information on the UW-Green Bay Literacy Initiative. For more information about how to log your hours, please review this video and reach out to Ben Dresdow at dresdowb@uwgb.edu with questions.
We hope you will find this initiative rewarding on so many levels, and that together we make a difference for future readers (who become leaders!) as they rise.
Respectfully,
Susan Grant Robinson
Chief of Staff