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Speaker 1: Good children. Happy New Year, Helen Breach.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Luke. So much going on over the summer.

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Speaker 2: So I hope you've had a good break and.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me just a memory.

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Speaker 1: Now appreciate the tree you brought me a muffin. Oh

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Speaker 1: that's your will day to be a muffin. I haven't

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Speaker 1: wasted any time in haling there have I I'm going

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Speaker 1: to blame her on the weather. You've got to have

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Speaker 1: something to motivate your own. Hey, So you're the coordinator

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Speaker 1: of this wonderful program. And what I love about it

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Speaker 1: most So it's so unique to Mid Canibary. It's called Boost.

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Speaker 1: Remind us about Boost? What's all this about?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? So Boost is a unique and locally funded literacy

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Speaker 2: initiative that was set up by Advantage Burton Community Foundation.

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Speaker 2: So they are one of our funders along with Mackenzie

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Speaker 2: Charitable Foundation and Heartland Bank. So we have about forty

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Speaker 2: seven volunteers that come into our local schools to help

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Speaker 2: younger children who are maybe just need a boost in

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Speaker 2: literacy or who are struggling. A lot of them have dyslexia,

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Speaker 2: some of them may have some learning difficulty. So it's

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Speaker 2: just that lovely reinforcement and that one on one care

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Speaker 2: from a volunteer yet to help help our children in

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Speaker 2: our local schools.

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Speaker 1: Students one hundred and eighty students, Yeah, one hundred and.

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Speaker 2: Eighty students on Boost. We're in eighteen schools in the

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Speaker 2: mid cant Be region from really Ashbertan Methin and the foothills.

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Speaker 1: Yeah wow, because you know so much these days we

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Speaker 1: hear about resources tightening up and maybe kids not getting

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Speaker 1: that one on one time as much as they used to.

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Speaker 1: You know, it must mean the world that you've got

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Speaker 1: this volunteer that's just dedicated to, you know, spending time

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Speaker 1: with your child and helping them develop.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really great. And we do lots of reinforcement

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Speaker 2: of call literacy skills, so things like letter formation and

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Speaker 2: handwriting and rhyming and spelling and read so all the

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Speaker 2: things to become independent learners.

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Speaker 1: You're seeing some call results, yes, so on.

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Speaker 2: Average, Look, we see about a year's spelling age gain

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Speaker 2: in our BOOST children, which is fantastic.

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Speaker 1: That's impressive. Yeah wow.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's a thirty week program. We start in

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Speaker 2: schools in March and it goes through till kind of

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Speaker 2: mid November and the commitment for volunteers is two hours

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Speaker 2: twice a week. So for our commitment, and I.

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Speaker 1: Imagine that's always the first question to get asked, if

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Speaker 1: that's manageable enough. This program wouldn't happen without volunteers.

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Speaker 2: No, that's exactly right. We are very fortunate to have

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Speaker 2: some amazing volunteers who are some of them are in

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Speaker 2: their eighth and ninth year volunteering with BOOST. So you know,

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Speaker 2: that's a really great acknowledgment to you know, to how

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Speaker 2: success successful it is.

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Speaker 1: Yet. So it's that time of the year where we

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Speaker 1: welcome in some new faces. Be great to see some

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Speaker 1: additions to the team. What sort of people you're looking for, like,

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Speaker 1: are you after ex teachers, those with the expertise.

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Speaker 2: No, we have volunteers from all walks of life and

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Speaker 2: they all bring their own little something to BOOST. So

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Speaker 2: I do a full training session at the Ashburton Learning Center.

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Speaker 2: We sit under the umbrella of the a Shburton Learning Center,

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Speaker 2: So the training is an hour and we use a

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Speaker 2: leading structured literacy program called STEPS Web. So we provide

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Speaker 2: all the resources and all the stationery and all the

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Speaker 2: training and support and laptops that our volunteers need to

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Speaker 2: be able to deliver the tutoring. And yeah, so we're

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Speaker 2: happy to train up anyone who is willing and able.

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Speaker 2: We just want someone who's caring and has empathy because

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Speaker 2: a lot of our children are struggling and they need

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Speaker 2: that positive reinforcement.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and just a caring soul.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, So you'd rather people get in

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Speaker 1: touch sooner other than later for all these reasons, just

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Speaker 1: to get all the structure in place for the for

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Speaker 1: the year ahead. If we'd like to give you a

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Speaker 1: helping hand, what is the best way of reaching out?

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Speaker 2: So I probably email so Helen Boost at hotmail dot

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Speaker 2: com all my mobile number which I can leave with you, Luke, get.

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Speaker 1: In touch with us here at the station. We can

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Speaker 1: pass it on.

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Speaker 2: That'd be great.

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Speaker 1: And that starts in March.

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Speaker 2: Yes it does. So it starts in March. And like

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Speaker 2: I said, we go through TOOLLS a thirty week program,

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Speaker 2: so we finished kind of November.

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Speaker 1: I can imagine it's just as rewarding for the volunteers

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Speaker 1: as the students, very much.

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Speaker 2: So, yeah, we definitely have volunteers who build lovely relationships

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Speaker 2: with their students and it's a really nice connection with

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Speaker 2: their local community. We know, we have volunteers that get

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Speaker 2: invited to things like judging it pet days and you know,

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Speaker 2: being invited to things that are happening in the school,

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Speaker 2: and that is so cool. You know. I think it's

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Speaker 2: a really nice connection with your local community.

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Speaker 1: Way to pay it back for some people too. You know,

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Speaker 1: you have this infinity with the school that gave so

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Speaker 1: much to you to be able to give back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a really nice nice thing as well.

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Speaker 1: Awesome thanks for coming by, Helene, Thank you, Thank you

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Speaker 1: for the muffin. Very well, bring the rest of it.