OAKLAND — In the ground-floor space of a former church and one-time pool hall at the corner of 23rd Street and Telegraph Avenue, volunteers are working to ensure Oakland’s youngsters have the most fundamental skill of all: literacy.

“Reading proficiency by third grade is the most important predictor of high school graduation and career success,” the current tenant, Chapter 510, says in its mission statement.

It goes on to cite some alarming statistics about Oakland students:

More than 80 percent of low-income children miss that reading proficiency milestone. Among white students, 77 percent are proficient at third-grade reading, but only 26 percent of Latino and 36 percent of African-American students are.

Enter Chapter 510, a literacy project modeled after San Francisco’s 826 Valencia, a nonprofit agency founded by author Dave Eggers to help teachers boost youngsters’ writing skills.

Chapter 510 is opening an after-school drop-in tutoring program in January, with funding from Oakland’s Fund for Children and Youth. Kids enrolled in the program will focus on homework for an hour and then have opportunities to write, design, publish and make books, the nonprofit’s executive director, Janet Heller, wrote in an email.

Heller added that she named the organization “inspired by the multiple meanings of chapter (portion of book or section of whole), which is central to a writing program. 510 is where we live … the kids and families we serve.

“We are standing side by side with teachers and students,” she said. “Having the support of someone who is willing to help you convey your emotions one-on-one is the only way writing can happen.”

“We work long-term and in-depth,” she said.

Since it began in 2013 operating out of the Rock Paper Scissors space on Telegraph, Chapter 510 has been active in three Oakland schools, tutoring more than 400 students at MetWest High, Acorn Woodland Elementary and North Oakland Community Charter.

It also has run summer writing camps and published students’ writings in a half-dozen books, two of them in Spanish translation. Among them is Rosario G. Sanchez’s “Ten Stories — One Dream” tales of immigration the MetWest High senior collected from friends and family. She has participated in Chapter 510 programs since the beginning.

“We’ve been out in schools and libraries,” Heller said. “Now we’re trying to bring kids here.”

The space at 2301 Telegraph was for a long time a pool hall — Chino’s — and most recently the Greater Faith MBC church. It also served as a center for domestic violence victims, a pornography emporium and a Black Panther hangout, Heller said.

“The history of the building has always been a sanctuary. We’re a modern version of that,” she said. “Safe spaces for children to write about their feelings.” Chapter 510 moved in in September 2015, Heller said.

On Saturdays this month and next from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., high school seniors are welcome to receive help with college applications and essays.

“We will have rad, writerly volunteers at the ready to help you finalize your college essays and applications,” Chapter 510 promises. “Plus, there will be food and beverages.”

They will be sharing space with kids trying their hand in the National Novel Writing Month program that has hundreds of thousands of participants around the world.

This Sunday and again on Dec. 18, there will be a book-making open house to familiarize the community with the upcoming after-school tutoring and writing program and accept enrollments.

On First Fridays, Chapter 510 has been hosting Family Maker Night events with free food, a DJ and activities such as book-making that draw between 300 and 400 people. For December’s event, they will present youth writing, a reading by Robert “Tres” Trujillo from his “Furqan’s First Flat Top” — and free haircuts, Heller said.

The organization has big plans for the future.

Above the 1,800 square feet of street-level space, the hope is to construct low-income housing for teachers and artists. In the meantime, there is a lot going on at the ground level.

Photos on the walls show a work crew opening up the ceiling, events at schools and libraries around town, collaborations with some of the dozens of local artists such as Trujillo or Leon Kennedy brought in to help trigger the writing impulse, music-makers on the small stage and more.

All this, overseen by a staff of two.

“Volunteers are signing up in droves,” Heller said. “Parents, retired teachers, librarians, people who are newly arrived in Oakland and want to fit in.”

Contact Mark Hedin at 510-293-2452, 408-759-2132 or mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com.