Baltimore’s intergenerational alliance of young people and older adults won a long-awaited victory this week when Mayor Sheila Dixon added $250,000 for the successful reading program to next year’s city budget.

Last month, 85 members of Experience Corps went to the Baltimore City Council to ask for funds to expand the successful program in which 373 senior volunteers help students in 20 Baltimore area schools learn to read. More than a dozen people described Experience Corps’ positive impacts on children, as well as the satisfaction it affords the adults who mentor them.