Soar Detroit

Mission: To provide literacy tutoring and sports to foster life-changing relationships and help kids flourish.

Soar Detroit was founded in 1999 by Doug Kempton, at that time operating under the name of Eagle Sports Club. With a strong passion to reach Detroit families with the gospel, Eagle Sports Club launched its first soccer league at Balduck Park with just over 60 kids and a heart to build life-changing relationships in communities. In 2005, the team introduced Soar, a literacy program for kids on Detroit’s east side, with just 15 students. Our impact on the city of Detroit has grown from serving a few hundred students to over 1,000 kids, with each child’s reading improving by an average of 2 ​grade levels in each year of tutoring.

Our long-term vision is to turn Detroit’s literacy rate upside down, promote a healthy community in our city, and see kids come to know Jesus.

Soar Detroit provides one-on-one literacy tutoring that caters to the individual reading needs of each child. Tutoring is open to children in grades 2-5 who are 1 or more levels below grade expectations. Our lessons are created by professional education specialists and led by our passionate volunteer mentors. We work with students in Detroit through our partnerships with school districts. Each student receives individualized lesson plans specific to their reading needs, one-on-one tutoring two days a week, and decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary-building sessions.

Additionally, in November of 2023, we launched Soar Storytime, a read-aloud initiative on YouTube to help increase book curiosity. Soar Storytime allows children of all ages the opportunity to explore and participate in reading activities at home with their families.