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TAMPA, Fla. – Inside Sulphur Springs K 8 Community School, PCAT Literacy Ministries helps young students master the basics: letters, sounds, and confidence.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit, which stands for Parents and Children Advance Together, works with kindergarten through second grade students identified by their teachers as reading below grade level.<\/p>\n
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What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
Executive Director, GiGi Moise, says the program strengthens phonics, fluency, and foundational reading skills during the years that matter most.<\/p>\n
Research shows students who are not reading at grade level by third grade are far more likely to fall behind and eventually drop out.<\/p>\n
Many children face barriers beyond their control, including language challenges or limited access to early learning programs and books at home.<\/p>\n
READ: $362 million Selmon Expressway expansion moving forward in Tampa<\/a><\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n PCAT currently serves 90 students at Ruskin Elementary and 30 at Sulphur Springs, but Moise says the need stretches far beyond those campuses.<\/p>\n For her, the work is personal. She credits a similar program for helping her succeed as the child of immigrants and says she is now committed to giving other children that same opportunity.<\/p>\n PCAT Literacy Ministries partners with local\u00a0schools to provide targeted reading support and connect families with literacy resources.<\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n If you would like to volunteer or donate, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Corey Beckman and Mark Wilson.<\/p>\n What’s Right with Tampa Bay<\/a>Tampa<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Inside Sulphur Springs K 8 Community School, PCAT Literacy Ministries helps young students master the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,115,405,135,137,136,628,3970],"class_list":{"0":"post-162951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-hillsborough","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-series","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-whats-right-with-tampa-bay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/vlcsnap-2026-02-20-14h15m27s136.jpg\")
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