New partnership plans to boost literacy, family support, mental health
Published 1:52 pm Thursday, August 13, 2026
QUINCY —A new literacy effort based in Quincy hopes to hit the ground running in the 2026-27 school year.
A Tracy Family Foundation Challenge What’s Possible Innovation Grant made possible Literacy Matters, a partnership between Bella Ease, Literacy Advocates of West Central Illinois and Cornerstone Foundations for Families.
The program, being piloted as part of the Bella Ease afterschool offerings for fourth grade and up, combines reading instruction with family support and mental health services.
“We know how desperately kids who come through our programs need assistance with literacy,” Bella Ease Executive Director Cheryl Williams said. “There’s a lot of shame and trauma at times for kids having difficulty or who don’t read up to capacity.”
Literacy Advocates founder Julie Schuetz already worked with Bella Ease students to boost literacy rates as part of the Freedom School and welcomed the opportunity to work with students in the afterschool program.
“What will be different about this afterschool program is it’s not homework help. It addresses any literacy deficits,” Schuetz said. “It takes an investment. It takes somebody recognizing we have a crisis on our hands with illiteracy and to recognize that something has to be done. The Tracy Family Foundation recognized this is an area they can support and truly make a difference.”
Tutors trained in structured literacy will assess students, pinpoint any deficits and work to boost those skills.
“We’ll go as slow as we have to to get it right but as quickly as it can because of how important it is,” Schuetz said. “Every year a student struggles with literacy, they’re going to miss a lot of learning. There’s not a subject you can access truly if you can’t read.”
Beyond just students, the program targets the entire family — not only to reinforce what’s offered after school but to provide additional support. “Literacy struggles can really wear on the whole family,” Schuetz said.
Cornerstone Executive Director Melissa McKelvie said the effort looks at kids, learning struggles and academic difficulties in a more holistic manner.
“We want to be there to help kids with how this impacts their self-esteem and help families where there may be rifts between parents and older kids who don’t understand their kids had some real difficulties,” McKelvie said. “We want to help families and students get together, understand each other better and move forward.”
Paid staff, volunteers and, potentially, an advisory board will oversee the program.
“Our hope is we can lean on the community and help the community understand how important it is we have a literate community and ask community support in the endeavor,” Schuetz said. “We’re hoping when they see we can make a difference in kids’ lives they see how good that is for kids, families, schools and the whole community.”
Williams said the program stands to benefit the community.
“Ultimately the goals are to reduce the amount of kids not attending school, the truancy of the kids. If you look at the truancy numbers for Quincy Public Schools, the majority are low-income houses and minorities,” Williams said.
“If we get this in here, we can diminish some behavior issues, some reluctance to go to school. If you can’t read and can’t comprehend, avoidance and acting out sometimes is the result,” she said.
Expanding the program into other counties served by Bella Ease — Brown, Cass, Hancock, Morgan, Pike, Schuyler and Scott – would be “amazing” as would offering the program for adults.
“We’d love to expand in adult literacy,” Williams said. “It’s the most requested service that we don’t have.”
