Through partnership, ReadUP grows in Boone County
For a decade, Boone County Mentoring Partnership has matched kids and teens with mentors to help them realize their potential.
They offer one-on-one mentoring and help high schoolers finish their degrees. They connect families with resources to help them overcome barriers.
Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, they added another offering to the list: United Way of Central Indiana’s ReadUP program.
Boone County Mentoring Partnership took ReadUP – with the backbone, mission and goals of United Way – and made it a Boone County program.
“It’s really melded well together with the partnership,” said Alisha Reeves, director of operations and programming for Boone County Mentoring Partnership. “We’re very grateful for that opportunity.”
In its first year running ReadUP in Boone County, the nonprofit grew the program – with nearly 50 volunteers working with over 30 third graders in three Lebanon elementary schools. It’s a collaboration United Way hopes to pursue in other counties, partnering locally to reach more students.
“I'm excited to see how this model might be uniquely replicated in other communities,” said Matt Wilson, Boone County Mentoring Partnership’s executive director.
United Way’s ReadUP program sends volunteers into elementary schools across the region to read with students and help them get on track with grade-level literacy. The program, in existence for over 15 years, focuses on third grade, a critical juncture when students shift from learning to read to reading to learn.
Wilson first learned of ReadUP and began talking with United Way about running the program years ago. ReadUP’s presence in Boone County dwindled in recent years, and an official partnership between the two nonprofits to revive the program took root last summer.
ReadUP seemed a natural fit for Boone County Mentoring Partnership, Wilson said: “I see ReadUP being an introduction to what a mentoring relationship looks like."
Boone County Mentoring Partnership has strong relationships within the community and schools, and they have the expertise about their community's needs, said Kierra Hall, United Way’s manager of ReadUP.
“It's much better to put it in the hands of the people who actually live in the community,” Hall said.
Boone County Mentoring Partnership recruited and trained volunteers, managed registration and ran the program during the school year – honing and tailoring it to their local community and schools.
Boone County wanted ReadUP back and embraced the program when it returned. Former ReadUP volunteers signed up; schools, churches and a retired teachers’ union spread the word. Employees of Eli Lilly and Company, which is expanding in Boone County, raised their hands to volunteer.
Reeves also recruited a group of volunteers from CrownPointe Assisted Living Facility in Lebanon. Their activities director drove them each week – even in blizzard conditions – and she stayed to volunteer, too.
One volunteer, in his 90s, forged a bond with a student that extended beyond ReadUP. The boy and his family visited him at CrownPointe and want to continue doing so, Reeves said.
“This gentleman said, ‘I realize now that I know why God has had me live to 93. I found my purpose. I’m meant to go read with these kids,’” Reeves recalled.
That’s the power of ReadUP, she said: It helps third graders build their confidence as readers and have a positive relationship with an adult who is not a teacher, parent or tutor.
In addition to the ReadUP partnership, Boone County Mentoring Partnership received an $80,000 grant from United Way’s Family Opportunity Fund in early 2025. It was the first time United Way opened the fund to nonprofits outside its accredited partner network.
The funding is helping Boone County Mentoring Partnership grow its Youth Assistance Program, which connects children and their families with resources. Funding is allowing the nonprofit to dig deeper and take a more holistic, systemic approach to solving challenges faced by families as a whole, Wilson said.
“It's enabling us to really be able to problem-solve within these families,” Reeves said.
Interested in partnering with United Way to grow ReadUP in your county? Contact Kierra Hall, manager of ReadUP: kierra.hall@uwci.org.
Become a ReadUP volunteer at the buttons below.