Mission

Beyond Basics works to achieve literacy for everyone, transforming the lives of students and creating stronger communities through an intensive tutoring program that helps students achieve grade-level proficiency and beyond in reading. 

History

In 1999, Pamela Good took the Joy Road highway exit to a struggling inner-city school in Detroit, delivering coats to kids who needed them. That first encounter revealed that the children needed much more than outerwear. This led Good and the late Dr. Joanne Wagerson to cofound Beyond Basics to provide enrichment activities, soon discovering that many of the children could not yet read. Beyond Basics was formally incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2002 to develop and implement intensive one-on-one reading tutoring and literacy enrichment programs for K-12 students in Detroit and the metropolitan area. Beyond Basics’ data-driven, multisensory, structured literacy interventions help students achieve academic grade-level movement in an average of six weeks. Beyond Basics’ methods unlock the miracle and power of reading for those who need it most.