College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Andrew Asaro
Joseph Cohen
Alex Moreno
Lillian Soares

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The goal of our social change project was to increase the quantity and quality of reading materials used by the Downtown YMCA and their tutors and, more importantly, to positively contribute to the learning environment of disadvantaged youth. The YMCA Youth Literacy Program Director, Chris Nicolaus, stated that we could best benefit the program by coordinating book fairs through American Book Display where the Downtown YMCA will receive a donation of 10% of the book fair proceeds in the form of dollars or books. The main purpose of the Downtown YMCA Literacy Program is to help every child achieve their reading potential before they become functionally illiterate.

The Downtown YMCA seeks to prevent adult illiteracy by providing free, quality tutorial services to youth that are experiencing reading problems now. The YMCA literacy program offers qualified tutorial workshops to recruited volunteers that, after completing twelve hours of training, are then matched with students ages 8 – 18. Their teachers and parents have assessed these students to be reading below their grade levels. These tutors then provide one-on-one tutoring to a youth for a period of six months or until the student reaches their reading level. Currently, the program is in its ninth year of existence and services a current count of over 150 students countywide.

The youths in the program represent an ever changing and evolving climate in San Diego. More and more youths needing literacy tutoring come from families that are underprivileged and disadvantaged. Families confronting this problem usually face poverty, low income, lack of educational resources, and family instability. In such cases a youth literacy program that provides free assistance becomes extremely beneficial for the family.

Social reasons for our getting involved with the YMCA’s Youth Literacy Program are many. We realize that a young person who is having trouble reading may be stigmatized for the rest of their lives. They may lead a life of underachievement, being personally unfulfilled, suffer from a lack of confidence or self-esteem, all because nobody could 1) identify their need for more instruction in reading skills and 2) nobody made themselves available to help when a reading problem was made known. Having reading deficiencies go unattended when illiteracy is widely acknowledged is apathetic. The social benefit of our project can best be measured in the coming years by how the disadvantaged youths we assisted, who attained an adequate level of reading proficiency, strengthened society by increasing the knowledge base.

The ethical reasons for our project’s importance may be a little harder to articulate and enumerate. Since we are aware of the problem of illiteracy we chose to not ignore it and use our time and resources to affect change. Our sense of virtue is strong and we believe that who we are outdistances what we do. Involving ourselves with the YMCA enhanced our personal beliefs regarding our own theory of virtue. After being made aware of the YMCA’s program our ethic of care came to the forefront in each of us and we wanted to help. We wanted to help correct what we perceived as an injustice. We saw equals being treated unequally, in this case children not getting the necessary attention and instruction in reading because of a lack of materials, effort, or personnel. Our ethic of deontology told us that even if we were unable to raise funds for the YMCA, or if we were unable to directly help improve one child’s reading skills our actions, in an attempt to do so, were still justified. Our actions were morally right. These are some of the ethical and moral reasons for choosing the project we did. Illiteracy affects more than the people who have trouble reading. Illiteracy has repercussions felt throughout society.

Our team’s efforts resulted in over $1,572 in donations in the form of dollars, books and materials to the YMCA’s Youth Literacy Program. We were able to secure book and material donations for the YMCA’s Youth Literacy Program, thereby increasing the quantity of training materials. Books and materials that were donated are from reputable, well-known organizations and contain the most popular children’s titles; thereby, increasing the quality of training materials. We gained insight into the community and the children’s societal struggles and the steps organizations like the YMCA are taking to improve their world. The disadvantaged youths directly benefit from the YMCA’s Youth Literacy Program, and perceive the program as valuable to enhancing their reading skills and improving their overall education. Success was ultimately derived through teamwork, flexibility, patience, and perseverance among group members.