Our Vision: To Help Eradicate the Illiteracy Epidemic in NYC!
Urban Hope recruits Volunteers to serve in our Literacy Program at our Public & Charter Schools in Staten Island, where our children in K- 2 grades, are struggling the most and reading below their grade levels. The Literacy Program runs from January - June, during the academic year.
The minimum requirement is to assist
One Child, Once A Week, for One Hour.
Whether you are a High School Student, College Student, Working Class or Retired Professional we are looking for individuals that care about children and their well-being- those who have the time, skills and heart to be a Mentor & a Tutor.
This is a wonderful way of helping and serving your community and an opportunity for students to have volunteer, field or internship experience. If this describes you, please sign up today!! We need an army of volunteers to be able to service our schools' needs and change the trajectory of our children's lives in a positive and effective way.
As a Volunteer Tutor & Mentor, you will be assisting the kids of Staten Island, with their education requirements and with their social development. We would like to have enough volunteers so that volunteers and students are on a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio. The children thrive when individuals give them guidance and instruction through personal attention and engagement.
As an In-Person Tutor, you would be tutoring the children around their free time (most likely their lunch period / after school), at least once a week, per child. You are welcome to help more children and stay for additional periods or come in on more days. Literacy Materials are provided to the schools, so Volunteers will have access to beautiful, nonfiction leveled books, phonics charts, and practice sheets that reinforce what the students are already learning in their schools. (For ex: letter recognition, phonics, special sounds, sight words, word families, vocabulary, etc.). We encourage that both the student and the volunteer read to each other and work together on the practice sheets. No teaching experience is required, and advanced preparation is not necessary, just a willing heart who wants to help and make a positive difference. Training is provided for the Volunteers.
Volunteers have the joy of knowing that their time is being used to invest in the lives of children, who will have more of a likelihood of growing up to be teens that will graduate High School. These children will have a higher probability of becoming responsible young adults who move on to college and/or have employable skills to work. Volunteers who are College Students may also be hired or be given references by the very schools they work in, upon their graduation.
*All Volunteers must follow current DOE Visitor Policy.
Volunteers must also go through a background check and be fingerprinted (there is no cost for this).
The Need for Literacy Tutoring & Mentoring
Principal Louis
Principal Louis Bruschi
Volunteer Testimonials
Anthony Wilson
Audrey Jackson
Terrance Van Excel
Urban Hope Literacy Collective
We find it unbearable that a child's fate could be decided in 2nd grade. The statistics are clear and tragic. If a child is not reading at grade level by 3rd grade, it is extremely difficult to escape the trajectory towards criminality and/or poverty. 85% of the juvenile offenders of our city are illiterate. Literacy mentoring from K-2nd grade can stop this downward spiral.
We choose to take a stand against
the illiteracy epidemic.
We are Changing Lives
Students who have engaged in our literacy initiative in the past have advanced an average of 2-3 reading levels! Well over 300 students, in five elementary schools, have jumped the 2nd grade literacy hurdle and experienced a life-changing infusion of love and mentoring.
Many local principals are asking us to bring the program to their elementary school. Help us to see this dream come true!
We are certain that with strong funding, we can end the low-literacy epidemic on Staten Island’s North Shore, and scale our simple model throughout NYC and other cities facing the similar challenges.
But only with YOUR help can we!
Urban Hope - Literacy Program Student Testimonies
What our kids, volunteers, and
teachers are saying
Josiah, 2nd Grade,
P.S. 18
It's always fun! I learn something new every time I read with my volunteer.
Jayne, P.S. 18
My student looks forward to our time together and his reading level and comprehension have greatly improved. It's a joy for me to participate in helping enrich these children's lives.
Andrea, 2nd Grade,
P.S. 18
The Volunteers help me become a better reader. They make me sound out new words.