What's Happening?
Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County to offer services in Schenectady County
A Capital Region non-profit organization with decades of experience teaching adults to read and write is expanding to Schenectady County and seeking volunteer tutors to provide English instruction at no cost to learners in one-on-one and small group settings. Paving the way for Literacy Volunteers to serve Schenectady County is a $75,000 grant from The Schenectady Foundation.
The first training session for new tutors will be held Oct. 22 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Karen B. Johnson Central Library at 99 Clinton Street. Those interested in signing up or learning more can email shortonlvorc@gmail.com, call Literacy Volunteers at 518-244-4650 or use the contact form at www.lvorc.org.
Literacy Volunteers aims to fill a void created in 2019, when an organization providing tutoring services, Literacy New York Greater Capital Region, closed its doors. The loss of this valuable resource prompted Schenectady County referral agencies and residents to reach out to Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County.
“We’ve been providing English instruction to adult learners in Rensselaer County for 56 years and Albany County for four years,” said Nancy Benz, executive director of LVORC. “I noticed an influx of calls from Schenectady County requesting services for native English speakers who were low-level readers. One woman, in particular, lost her job because she couldn’t read. I knew we could help people by setting up shop and matching learners to tutors.”
Support for Literacy Volunteers services comes from individuals, businesses, foundations and government grants. The Schenectady Foundation funding comes from its emergent needs grant program,
which addresses new and emerging needs in the community. The Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady also provided a $5,000 social justice grant.
“The Schenectady Foundation is always on the lookout for opportunities to address needs in the community, and we are excited to help restore much-needed literacy tutoring services to Schenectady County,” said Robert Carreau, executive director of The Schenectady Foundation, a charitable trust that invests in programs that benefit the health and well-being of people who live and work in Schenectady county. “It fits with our mission of filling gaps in services in partnership with community groups and other stakeholders.”
Benz said the greatest need for Literacy Volunteers is tutors. Tutors are not required to be teachers or former teachers or have a background in education. “They just need the interest and inclination,” Benz said.
Many adult learners served by Literacy Volunteers are native English speakers and do not fit into programs designed for non-native speakers. They read at a low level or not at all and are struggling to find employment or advance in the workplace. In Schenectady County, they are often from Guyana, Jamaica and other English-speaking countries.
Using trained volunteers, Literacy Volunteers provides one-on-one tutoring, small group classes and resources like reading materials and digital tools. The organization assesses learners’ needs, creates personalized learning plans and offers flexible scheduling to accommodate the diverse lifestyles of its adult learners.
Contact:
Nancy Benz
Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County
(518) 244-4650
Robert A. Carreau
The Schenectady Foundation
(518) 393-9500
