Literacy Volunteers

Issue A Call For Tutors

DANBURY — Literacy Volunteers of America-Danbury, Inc., said this week that the agency has such an extreme shortage of volunteer tutors that more than 100 foreign-born applicants are patiently waiting for their opportunity to learn to read, write, and speak English.

Volunteers are urgently needed, and must take a short course of instruction, before being given one or two students to tutor, based on the tutor’s ability to teach.

The next training program will begin on Monday, June 12, and will continue on Mondays and Thursdays from 7 to 9:30 pm at the Literacy Volunteers of America-Danbury headquarters, 5 Library Place in Danbury. The training course consists of 12 hours of instructions, given over six evenings. At the completion of the training, the volunteer is matched with an adult student who wants to either learn English as a second language, or learn to read.

The course will be taught by Ellen Parrella of Newtown and Ellen Cote of New Milford. Both instructors are volunteers who have themselves been tutors, and have taken special training courses to qualify them to train new tutors.

The course is a detailed seminar in basic instructional techniques. It also covers cultural differences.

LVA is celebrating its 22nd year of tutoring the foreign-born and now serves 14 towns including Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, Kent, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield, Roxbury, Sherman, and Southbury. LVA has tutored more than 1,000 students.

To learn more about volunteering call LVA at 792-8260, by e-mail at lva-d@snet.net, or visit the web site at danbury.org/literacy.