Story reposted with permission from The Times-Standard.
She might not describe herself this way, but I’d say Susan Benoit finds herself on a crusade … a nice crusade. She serves as spearhead of the Redwood Coast Reading Alliance, an online information and resource clearinghouse for families, educators and physicians in Humboldt County who are interested in learning more about reading and dyslexia.
Knowing that rural communities have few resources for people who struggle to read, Susan and her colleague, Stephanie Strasser, created their website to offer the community a centralized resource hub where families can access all they need to know about dyslexia. Their goals are to educate the community about the causes, symptoms, assessment and remediation of dyslexia, to provide information about available resources in the county and nationally (including a list of local literacy coaches, reading specialists, educational psychologists, family therapists and language therapists), to promote teacher training programs grounded in the science of reading, and to collaborate with organizations working on behalf of people with dyslexia.
Susan served as a teacher of the hearing impaired, a speech and language therapist and, later, as a reading teacher. Her initial experience teaching reading began out of necessity when years ago her first-grade child struggled to read. Susan never forgot the difficulties she faced trying to find support in Humboldt. Her hope in creating RCRA is that other parents seeking help for their children won’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Susan described another unusual catalyst for the creation of the website.
“I have a friend from college named Terri,” Susan said. “In 2018, Terri began to despair about the tone of our national dialogue. She wanted to do something to counteract the negativity she saw spreading through the culture, so she decided to start a Kindness Movement. She asked 50 people to become Kindness Ambassadors, providing each person money to give away in acts of kindness, no strings attached.”
$33,000 in Susan’s case. Susan mostly provided funding for teachers to obtain training in teaching reading. She became friends with one of those teachers, Stephanie, and together they decided to create the website.
A documentary called The Power of Small was made about Terri’s Kindness Movement, with Susan’s efforts and the experiences of five other ambassadors providing the grist for the story. You can attend a special screening on September 12th at Playhouse Arts in Arcata. The $10 admission includes the film, a panel discussion and a reception (see https://www.playhousearts.org/event-details/the-power-of-small). 100% of the proceeds from the screening will support the Reading Alliance.
The term “Alliance” in the website’s title is significant. Susan networks with providers and teachers, as you would expect. But there is also outreach to bookstores, to libraries and to others. Through the website, Susan and her colleagues established a fund at the library to help purchase decodable books for beginning readers, as well as books about dyslexia in general. RCRA offers scholarships for families interested in private reading support for their children, scholarships for teacher training in programs grounded in science and an in-person simulation called Experience Dyslexia, which helps people better understand the challenges and frustrations faced by individuals with dyslexia.
I asked Susan: What should people most know about dyslexia?
She replied that “most people with dyslexia have average to above-average intelligence. They’re often highly creative, and they can achieve anything they want to achieve with the right support and perseverance. The key is early intervention. It’s really important for families to get support for their children as early as they can, ideally by first grade or before.”
Susan believes that there is now greater understanding in the schools of the science underlying reading, and the early reading screening being performed now is a good thing. She sees teachers as unsung heroes.
“They are now getting better training, and we want to be a part of that,” she said.
Recently, the Redwood Coast Reading Alliance became a DreamMaker Project of the Ink People Center for the Arts. This allows them to accept donations tax-free to the donor. People can donate here: https://tinyurl.com/mr7rmdbj. (When donating to a DreamMaker project, indicate the project’s name in the comments section of the donation page or the memo line of your check.)
Most importantly, Susan wants us to know that this resource exists and for us to refer people who need information and help about dyslexia to the website redwoodcoastreadingalliance.com.
Consultant Michael Kraft writes the Good Work series, volunteering on behalf of the Northern California Association of Nonprofits (NorCAN). NorCAN, another DreamMaker project, supports connections between people and organizations that work every day to keep our communities strong by offering professional development, board support, networking connections and more. Learn more at https://norcal-nonprofits.org/. To nominate a deserving nonprofit organization to be profiled, email michael@kraftconsultants.com.