Gary Winnick Supports the Jewish Federation's KOREH L.A. Literacy Program

LOS ANGELES, June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- KOREH L.A. is the non-sectarian
volunteer literacy program created by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los
Angeles' Jewish Community Relations Committee. Koreh is the Hebrew word for
read. Each volunteer spends one hour, once a week, reading with a pre-school
or elementary school child.
The program was launched in 1999 in response to a serious literacy crisis;
surveys have shown that some 67,000 third grade students in Southern
California have significant reading problems and 80 percent of fourth graders
read below their grade level. At the time of its launch, KOREH L.A. began to
recruit, train, place and support volunteers at 30 public schools throughout
Los Angeles.
In 2000, The Jewish Federation received a special grant of $500,000 from
the Winnick Family Foundation, founded by international financier and
philanthropist Gary Winnick. The grant will be used to expand the reach and
scope of KOREH L.A. With the support of Gary Winnick, to date the program has
trained over 7,500 volunteers who have worked with more than 16,000 children
in 100 Los Angeles elementary and pre-schools. Principals, teachers, and
volunteers have noted the impact that KOREH L.A. volunteers have on the
reading abilities, attendance, classroom participation, and self-esteem of the
children.
"KOREH L.A. would not be where it is today without the generous gift from
Gary Winnick," said Federation President John Fishel. "Gary Winnick and his
foundation have demonstrated a serious commitment to the education of L.A.'s
children, and have enabled us to take this program to incredible heights." In
fact, today KOREH L.A. is the largest and most successful volunteer children's
literacy program in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Jewish community, with its extraordinary level of literacy
and its proud tradition of volunteerism, is proud to be playing a vital role
in remedying the injustice that is illiteracy.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles -- L.A.'s largest Jewish
nonprofit -- identifies and funds social service, educational and humanitarian
needs locally, in Israel and around the world. Through a network of agencies
and programs, the Federation helps alleviate Jewish poverty, provide emergency
relief, ensure a Jewish future and support the greater Los Angeles community.
SOURCE The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles

John Fishel for The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, +1-310-761-8111