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At Moorhead Community Resource Center, kids waiting for a haircut will soon be able to get help improving their reading skills.
The program, Barbershop and Books, which starts at the beginning of this school year, is the brainchild of Elisha Smith, a community center volunteer and parent of two students in Warren Township. Smith is also a graduate of Freedom Readers Fellowship, a program that trains Indianapolis-area parents and community members in literacy and prepares them to work in schools.
Smith, who wanted to use the skills she got through the fellowship, now does small-group literacy work with students while they wait for a trim.
The Freedom Readers Fellowship’s goal is to provide participants with a 16-week boot camp in the science of reading and ultimately help participants find employment in schools. Science of reading research advocates teaching kids to read through direct phonics instruction as well as phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
The fellowship is a follow-up to RISE Indy’s Freedom Readers program, which helps parents interpret their children’s test scores and uses these insights to improve their kid’s reading.
Freedom Readers was born in 2023 out of a realization that parents were mostly left out of efforts to help Indiana students become better readers. Many programs focused on teachers and students, explained Kamilah Hatcher, associate director of community affairs at RISE Indy, but, “What’s that missing demographic? Parents!”
Freedom Readers began amid a push to improve Indiana kids’ reading skills through historic investments in phonics-based instruction and a requirement that schools adopt reading curriculums based on the science of reading. In the latest ILEARN results, 40.6% of Indiana students passed the English language arts section of the test.
The fellowship offers a more in-depth look at literacy for community members who have participated in the Freedom Readers 1 and 2 workshops.
“Parents who came through Freedom Readers were hungry for something more,” said Hatcher. “They want to be in their kids’ school and helping.”
From this, the fellowship was launched. The inaugural class of 10 fellows met once a week for 16 weeks for in-person classes on literacy.
They learned from experts such as Lacey Ladd, executive director of the Marion University Literacy Institute. She explained the theories behind the science of reading, such as how speech is the basis of reading, and taught fellows how to break down concepts like phonemic awareness and phonics for kids. Fellows also received training in UFLI, a University of Florida learn-to-read program used by some Indianapolis districts.
Finally, fellows got the chance to put their new skills into practice through volunteering at Warren Township elementary schools and the charter school Global Preparatory Academy. The inaugural class graduated in June.
For many, the program is a path to employment; five fellows were hired by the Warren Township elementary schools they volunteered in.
“While we were working with the kids, we built relationships and trust with the township that, when the time came for us to apply, we would be front-runners for the position,” said Troy Tate, a fellow who was hired as a teacher assistant in Warren Township.
Many of the principals were so satisfied with the volunteer work of the fellows that they specifically requested certain fellows come to work at their school following graduation from the program, Hatcher said.
The fellows learned more than just how to teach literacy; they also learned about discipline and classroom management. One highlight for Elisha Smith was learning the acronym HALT – hungry, angry, lonely, and tired – as a way to consider the factors that could affect a student’s success. It caused Smith to reflect on her role as a parent.
“Learning that aspect was like, wait, do I send my student to school like that? Does she end up hungry? Did she eat breakfast this morning? Does she feel emotionally okay?” said Smith.
Both Smith and Tate believe literacy is crucial to a student’s future success.
Being able to read a story and comprehend the meaning “is an incredible boost to their confidence and the way they behave in class,” said Tate.
Smith believes programs like Freedom Readers Fellowship that include parents and community members are critical to fostering such confidence and improving outcomes for Indiana students.
“We definitely need all hands on deck,” she said. “These kids are our next generation, so they’re gonna lead us on and forward. So we want to be sure we’re connecting them with what they need to the best of our ability.”
The search for the next group of Freedom Readers fellows will begin this fall. To stay updated, follow Rise Indy on social media.
Samantha Camire is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Samantha at scamire@chalkbeat.org.
Samantha Camire 2025-07-30 11:00:00
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