Tutoring Program
Imagine how your life would be different if you could not read.
If you couldn’t read, could you perform your job efficiently and effectively? Or tackle the routine tasks of daily life like following medical instructions, ordering at a restaurant or responding to a note sent home from your child’s classroom? Now, consider the fulfillment, even the magic, that reading adds to your life: that great book, catching up on news or sharing emails.
What if you could transform someone’s life by sharing this critical skill with someone who is hungry to learn?
We invite you to join our mission of changing lives through reading, writing, math and computer skills and access. At CFL, we connect volunteer tutors with learners who are committed to their own success and treasure the change that reading makes in their lives.
By becoming a volunteer tutor, you can help learners get a better job or go on to pursue educational or technical training. You will not only positively affect the lives of those you tutor, you will also gain experience in education and build valuable and rewarding relationships.
The Center for Literacy began as a volunteer organization back in 1968 and we know how to train and support you to be successful. Volunteer tutors at CFL are asked to make a six-month commitment to work in small groups with adult students working to improve their reading, writing, math, or English language skills. Although no certification is needed, a bachelor's degree is required.
Why are volunteer tutors needed?
Philadelphia is suffering from an epidemic ignored for too long. The epidemic — low literacy — affects the lives of an astonishing 22 percent of Philadelphia adults, according to the National Adult Literacy Survey.
But here’s what gets us excited and has energized us since 1968: people can learn, do learn and place great value on the change in their lives that results when they acquire these critical skills. Our learners find they can now qualify for jobs that pay a living wage. They can help their school-aged children by reading and responding to important information that is sent home and, increasingly, posted on the internet.
To serve the thousands of adults calling us each year requesting our help, we need YOURS.
“I’m interested. What do I do first?”
Please look at the Orientation schedule. Choose a workshop located in the area of the city in which you would like to tutor, and register by calling the contact person at the listed phone number. Workshops are free and open to the public; in order to attend, you must register in advance.