What We Do
Helps Education Fund offers multiple evidence-based programs and services that are designed to support educators, families, and community organizations to meaningfully advance learning outcomes for students of all ages. We are continuously working to expand what we offer.
All our programs are:
With a collaborative team of content experts, researchers, professional educators, community members, and other relevant stakeholders, we use existing research to develop our initial version of each program. We then spend several years pilot testing and systematically refining the program until it meets several rigorous standards for research and development.
Many educational programs do not have sound research evidence of effectively achieving the stated goals of the program. Educators, students, and families deserve to engage with programs that are comprehensively developed and have clear evidence of effectiveness. For this reason, Helps Education Fund only offers programs that have evidence of effectiveness, as evaluated by educational researchers.
All of our programs can be used by professional educators. But, to increase the potential impact of our programs, many can be used successfully by parents, caregivers, community volunteers, college students, high school students, retirees, and others who are not professionally trained teachers.
Through research and development, we not only develop and offer programs that are effective, we also ensure that each program:
- can be learned in a reasonable amount of time
- is feasible to use in the context for which it was developed, such as a school
- is enjoyable for the student receiving the program and the adult who is implementing the program
The majority of our programs—including all necessary implementation and training materials—are free to download, print, and use for educational purposes. Alternatively, Helps Education Fund can print, assemble, and ship the materials for a low cost–which many find more convenient.
100% of proceeds from sales of program materials go towards our work in supporting even more educators and students.
Why we do it
Helps Education Fund aims to strengthen students’ foundational skills in core content areas such as reading, writing, and math and for adult students in adult literacy, family literacy, and parenting. Our evidence-based programs and services are most often used by educators and community organizations who are teaching children and adults these important skills.
We offer our programs and services for free or at the lowest possible cost in order to remove financial barriers from educators and community organizations serving students. When financial costs prevent educators’ and community organizations’ access to effective resources, this fosters educational inequities and harms students and communities.
To promote educational equity, we focus our efforts on partnering with educators and community organizations that serve a high percentage of students who are economically marginalized and/or perform below adequate levels in core academic skills.
With each of our programs and services, we are consistently striving to merge educational research and practice for the benefit of teachers, students, families, and communities.
Our evidence-based programs and services can be used:
within schools by teachers, paraprofessionals, and community volunteers
within educational after-school and/or summer camp programs, by staff and community volunteers
within homes by parents, family members, and other caregivers
Partnership
Helps Education Fund would like to thank our financial and community partners who are working hand in hand with us to help us achieve our mission.
It is through their support and partnership that we are able to work alongside students, families, and communities and deliver the necessary programs and services for academic success.
Join us in advancing learning outcomes for all people
Current Partners
- Boys and Girls Club, Raleigh, NC
- Caterpillar Foundation
- Chatham Education Foundation, Chatham County, NC
- ChildTrust Foundation, NC
- Credit Suisse
- Davidson County Public School System, Davidson County, NC
- Duke Doing Good, NC
- Duplin County Schools, Duplin County, NC
- Guilford County Public Schools, Guilford County, NC
- Hasty Elementary School, Davidson County, NC
- High Point University, High Point, NC
- Homework Haven, Raleigh, NC
- Jerry and Dorothy Gray Foundation
- Johnston County Public School System, Johnston County, NC
- Kids N Community Foundation
- Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, NC
- Meredith College, Raleigh, NC
- Morgan Creek Foundation
- New Mexico State University, NM
- NC Literacy Corps-SCALE, NC
- North Carolina State University, NC
- Parents and Families of Wake and Johnston Counties, Wake and Johnston Counties, NC
- Professional Educators of North Carolina (PENC), Raleigh, NC
- Stephen L Cornwell Foundation, Charlotte, NC
- Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education (SCALE), NC
- Triangle Community Foundation, NC
- University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, Puerto Rico
- Wells Fargo Foundation
- Wake County Public School System, Wake County, NC
- William Peace University, Raleigh, NC