Fortitude Re: A recipe for reading success

Fortitude Re’s support for the Bermuda Education Network is raising literacy standards in public schools. 

What is it: Bermuda Education Foundation 

Who is the supporter: Fortitude Re 

What does Fortitude Re do for BEN? Fortitude Re has been a repeat donor, including $250,000 in 2024 to BEN to support the organization’s summer learning programme and teacher training initiatives. Fortitude Re employees also take part in BEN programmes, including reading children’s books at the BEN Book Club, a monthly event for young children and their families. The book club is designed to foster early phonic awareness, language development and a love of reading and learning.

Why does it matter? BEN, founded by Becky Ausenda, works to improve the quality of teaching and literacy in Bermuda public schools through a variety of programmes, including experiential learning through its Horizons Programme for Primary school students; a summer reading program that provides accelerated learning for students who have finished P3 but have not yet achieved reading proficiency; the BEN Book Club that creates opportunities for children to develop language skills at the pre-reading stage, such as phonemic awareness, rhyme and repetition; and an annual Teacher Awards programme. 

Fortitude Re is a relatively new Bermuda company, which focuses on the long-term re/insurance business but also operates in the property and casualty space. From the beginning, the company has prioritized community engagement through giving and employee volunteerism.  

Through its operations in Bermuda, Nashville and Jersey City, the company supports a range of community initiatives under the banner of Fortitude Re 4 Good with a particular focus on education and youth, the environment, and lifting up underserved populations. 

While BEN has served as a signature partner, Fortitude Re supports a wide range of other charities through donations and volunteerism, including OUT Bermuda, Eliza Dolittle and Nspire. 

The $250,000 donation to BEN is being used to expand education and literacy programming including Fortitude Re’s Summer Reading Program, run by BEN in partnership with Somersfield Academy and Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation. Fortitude Re’s donation will also enable students participating in the summer programme to receive follow-up services in the subsequent school year.

A long-term relationship

Fortitude’s relationship with BEN began some years earlier and has built over time. 

“With the new Fortitude Re 4 Good strategy, we identified BEN as a signature partner, so that BEN could continue to broaden its reach across the Bermuda public schools and deepen the impact that we have on students in our community,” said Amanda Stewart, who leads the Fortitude Re 4 Good programme. 

“I’ve personally been able to observe BEN in action and it's really powerful. A couple of summers ago, a colleague and I were invited to observe the summer learning programme, and it was impactful watching the kids have so much fun while learning. They were thriving. 

“I got to see some of the before and after data on their reading capabilities and it was absolutely incredible seeing such a significant change in a very short period of time. There was something special happening and we realised we wanted to do more in that particular space.”

Getting employees involved

Stewart said a favourite amidst BEN’s volunteer activities for Fortitude Re colleagues is the BEN Book Club, where volunteers read stories to children and their families once a month.

“Some of our colleagues, who may not be around kids that often, will come back and say, ‘That was so much fun. I was not expecting to enjoy that so much.’”

Stewart said BEN provides analytics on reading progress from the summer camps, but she said some of the measurements are more straightforward.

“All of the work that we're doing comes down to the impact we can have on Bermuda youth,” she said.

“Something that you can't really measure but is just as important as the data and the metrics is seeing kids be inspired and seeing them smiling while they're learning and participating in these programmes. That equals success. Investing in the development of our educators and showing them that they're appreciated and so important to our community equals success.

“Knowing that we are making an impact on levelling the playing field with child literacy in Bermuda equals success. Being a part of this work is really important to us.”

An invaluable gift

Ausenda said an earlier donation from Fortitude Re had enabled BEN to buy a new reading curriculum with an effective assessment tool which measures a child’s ability to accurately decode words and the speed by which they can do it.

She said that 45 to 50 students participate in the summer learning programme each year, of whom an average of 80% make gains in accuracy and 90% make gains in speed.

Ausenda said it is “hard to overestimate” how important Fortitude Re’s support has been.

It has enabled the organisation to hire a literacy consultant, Natalie Roberts, who is expanding the professional development series for teachers, which includes providing resources and lesson plans and ways to enrich the curriculum to teachers, she said.

“I think that Fortitude Re recognises that this is a long-term play,” she said. “It's about building partnerships between BEN and the classroom teachers and seeing what we can do to actually influence teaching and learning in the schools.”

Ausenda said Fortitude Re has enabled BEN to expand its summer reading programme, which is free for the students, who are all from public schools.

“We have a fantastic team of about 20 private and public school educators who give us their time during the summer,” she said. “We have classroom teaching going on during the mornings and then in the afternoons it’s one-on-one tutoring for the children who really need that extra support.

“It's an expensive programme. The overall cost of the program is more than $100,000 and that's for three weeks and 50 children.

“Our teachers get very emotional when they talk about what this is giving to the children who are involved, because it can be really transformative. They can come to us having not mastered the basics of reading at age 7. After our programme, they often return to school in September having caught up with the other kids in the class.”

“We have lots of great testimonials from parents saying that their child had always struggled a little bit with reading, and then after this programme, they're doing much better, and they're incredibly grateful.”

Ausenda said the programme is valued by Primary 3 and Primary 4 teachers, but also by specialist reading teachers.

“If we’re able to catch students up over the summer, that means they do not have to be pulled out to go to the reading teacher for extra learning support. So, this programme is quite strategic.”

An incubator for teaching

The programme also offers paid internships to student teachers.

“The other way that we can expand the impact of this programme is by making it almost like an incubator for great teaching of reading,” Ausenda said. “We're pulling together a team of teachers from private and public schools who are all sharing expertise. They're comparing notes on best practices in reading instruction.

“Even better than that, we've built an internship programme for undergraduates – all Bermudian – who are studying education. We have had six student teachers participate and they just love it.

“They're getting really high-quality, hands-on work experience in education. It's hard to choose a favourite, but that is almost my favourite piece of this partnership with Fortitude Re, because I can see we're inspiring these young teachers, and at the moment, we're facing a worldwide shortage of teachers, particularly specialist teachers.

“BEN is partnering with Fortitude Re to help in growing new reading teachers for the island, and we certainly aren't seeing the numbers of students who have reading needs diminish. So, this is an incredibly impactful way to contribute to the community.”

The importance of inclusion

Stewart added: “Something that's important to us is being inclusive as a company. We want a working environment where everyone feels comfortable showing up as their authentic selves.”

She said the company wants to mirror that ethos in the communities where employees live and work.

“We want to create opportunities to level the playing field for children, no matter what their background is or where they come from. Setting these kids up for success is so important, and to get to be a part of that is pretty special.”

Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.