In 1994, Mr. John Glasser founded Better Basics, an in-school literacy tutoring program that is now available in 20 Alabama counties. As the reading program expanded to more public school children, Mr. Glasser came to realize that a large percentage of these children had never been in a church nor heard the Gospel. Mr. Glasser's personal burden for these children began to grow.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2001 allowed public school principals to invite organizations into their school building before and after regular school hours. This enabled Mr. Glasser to start Discovery Clubs, whose first club met at Gate City Elementary in 2003 with 40 children and 14 volunteers from Mr. Glasser's church, Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Discovery Clubs currently has 164 trained volunteer mentors reaching over 1000 children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 19 public elementary schools in Birmingham and the surrounding counties and is adding schools each year.
Today, Discovery Clubs is a ministry of the Birmingham Metro Baptist Association and is supported by many partnering churches from all denominations throughout Birmingham City and the surrounding counties.