Denniston International works to eliminate obstacles to children and youth’s educational and social development. The Readers as Leaders project consists of a two part process: (1) developing the physical environment of a school library to be appropriate for growing readers and to store additional books and (2) preparing secondary school students to serve as leaders in their local community through a series of ‘Roving Reader’ home visits geared towards underserved children.

Denniston International partners with St. Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua (SJCM), a high-performing secondary school in the Valley, which identifies students in need of financial assistance. Denniston International works with these students to eliminate obstacles to their educational and social development. In exchange for this support, students are expected to maintain a high level of effort towards their studies and are required to “give back” to their community.

The Readers as Leaders project would provide Denniston International sponsored students another means to become active as change agents in their community. The initial pilot project would begin with ten Denniston International students being trained as “Roving Readers”. Pre-school aged children at ten homes with limited resources will be visited by these “Roving Readers”. Before any of this can happen, the SJCM school library needs to be transformed into a warm, inviting place where students will love to read, and where books dedicated for this project can be stored in a clean, temperature-controlled environment.