BATAVIA, Ohio — A Batavia nonprofit that grew from a single fitness studio room is now serving more than 200 students a week, and a new $20,000 grant is helping it reach even further.
Letters to Literacy, a Batavia nonprofit focused on literacy and phonics, has grown from a 300-square-foot room at Anchor Fitness into a 4,300-square-foot building where students receive reading tutoring, math support, speech and occupational therapy and high school writing instruction.
Founder and Executive Director Cassie Carter said the growth has been rapid.
"We have grown. This past summer we saw over 300 students a week, and now we're sitting at 210 students a week that we see," Carter said.
WATCH: How Letters to Literacy in Batavia is expanding with a $20,000 Scripps Howard Fund grant
The nonprofit uses the Orton-Gillingham approach, a multisensory phonics technique that focuses on connecting letters to their sounds rather than relying on context clues or illustrations to decode words. Carter said she was trained in the method in 2018, and it changed the way she thought about reading instruction.
Carter left classroom teaching to start Letters to Literacy after a Facebook post in the summer of 2023 drew 30 students almost immediately.
"We would work so, so hard in that one year that I had to teach them what I could, but really the phonics scope and sequence to get through it takes, you know, three years if you're really wanting to get to mastery for a lot of our kids, not all of them but a lot of them," Carter said.
What began as reading tutoring for younger students has since expanded to include math tutoring, speech and occupational therapy and high school writing. The nonprofit now has 23 tutors, and students also benefit from visits with therapy dog Izzy, who roams the lobby once or twice a week while her owner leads crafts with students.
"We're up to 23 tutors now, and I tell people it was a snowball event that happened. It wasn't something I planned, but after posting in '23 to have kids come to us for reading, it kept going," Carter said.
Letters to Literacy moved into its current 4,300-square-foot space in September 2025, relocating just across the road from its original location. The building includes separate tutoring spaces for older and younger students, dedicated math rooms and a lobby that Carter described as a community gathering space for families.
The nonprofit has also built a partnership with the Clermont County Library's Batavia Branch, where students can check out materials tied to their current lesson.
"At the Clermont County Library Batavia Branch, our students can go there and ask for whatever lesson we're on," Carter said.
Letters to Literacy recently received a $20,000 grant from the Scripps Howard Fund and WCPO 9. Carter said the funding is opening doors for students who previously could not be served.
"That $20,000 from Scripps Howard is allowing us to reach our low-income students who are outside of Clermont County, which is something brand new," Carter said.
The nonprofit already partners with Clermont County Jobs and Family Services to support low-income students within the county. The Scripps Howard grant extends that reach to qualifying families outside county lines. Carter said no family is turned away due to financial need.
Families can visit Letters to Literacy's website and click the "Register Now" button. The enrollment form includes an option to indicate a need for financial assistance.
When asked how proud she is looking back at where the nonprofit started, Carter became emotional.
"The people we have here are what make it. We have the best tutors and the best community; we created a little community here, and it's really cool," Carter said.
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