According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 27% of adults in Louisiana struggle with basic literacy. 70% of kindergarteners and over half of our students in grades K-3 fall below expected reading levels. Slidell Reads aims to change that by empowering young minds and developing lifelong readers. 

Our Mission

To promote and improve literacy rates across southeast Louisiana

Slidell Reads offers most programs and services at low-to-no cost thanks to the support of the community. In-kind and monetary donations help us to help others. Reach out if you'd like to help support our mission. 

How do we accomplish that?

• By offering a variety of literacy-based programs and services that are fun, educational, and resourceful for adults, teens, and children
  
  
• By meeting young readers where they are developmentally and fostering language and literacy skills
  
  
• By instilling and encouraging a love for reading that lasts a lifetime

About the Founder

A former teacher and librarian, Jamie Lewis is the co-owner of Olde Towne Book Shop in Slidell, LA. Through two decades of working with children and families in educational environments, she recognizes the hurdles young readers face, the hefty expectations put on preschool-aged children, and the need for services that support and provide remedial assistance to fill the gaps that occur in traditional school reading programs. 

Though she's taught using a variety of public and private school curriculums, she finds the Montessori methodology of teaching children to be the one that most closely connects to the child, encouraging them on a path of individualized learning. These methods are scientifically-based and have proven successful for over a century. 

Why it Matters

It's too easy, and common, for a child struggling with literacy to fall between the cracks. By third grade, a child who cannot read proficiently is more likely to drop out of school. Action should be taken early, but when the literacy needs go unnoticed, the child learns ways to work around their struggles. These coping mechanisms help them reach middle school--often a new school entirely--and at that point, it's assumed that child can read. It goes unquestioned. It goes unaddressed. At this point, we've failed them.

Slidell Reads strives to reach these children long before this happens. Additionally, it supports older children and adults who struggle with literacy by matching them to free and low-cost services, it builds-up hesitant readers through social events and family educational programs, and it reinforces (or reignites) a love of reading through ongoing book clubs.