February 13, 2014

Corporate Volunteering: Great for business and great for students

At the start of the 2013 school year, Reading Partners opened its doors to a new reading center at Carthay Elementary School. Usually opening a new reading center can be a bit stressful, scrambling to find enough volunteers for the students in need of tutoring, but at Carthay it was a different story. From day one volunteers were already lined up and ready to tutor.

Surprisingly, Reading Partners’ pathway to opening a reading center at Carthay started with a request from the folks at City National Bank, a corporate partner and Reading Partners sponsor.

At the time, City National was already involved with reading and homework programs at Carthay and Reading Partners had been established in ten Los Angeles area schools. When City National began to look for a program that offered measurable results for the students they were serving they thought Reading Partners would be the perfect fit.

According to Min Yoo, Community Relations Specialist at City National Bank, “We knew Reading Partners was doing great work in our community and [we were] especially impressed with the measurement component of [Reading Partners].”

Corporate Volunteerism

In addition to helping finance the Reading Partners’ program at Carthay, City National also provides volunteers through their corporate volunteer programs. City National’s Reading is the Way Up program, awards employees three hours each month designated for literacy-related volunteering and an additional 3 hours for financial-literacy related volunteering.

Currently, eight City National employees are volunteering at Carthay Elementary. These volunteers have been a vital resource to students in need of additional literacy support and to Reading Partners in building a strong program in the inaugural year at Carthay.

Partnering for Success

In this partnership, the benefits are mutual. City National’s corporate volunteer program provides the volunteer tutors students need to become successful readers. At the same time, City National Bank’s philanthropic ideologies also support long-term growth in the community, and enhance workplace culture, comradery, and happiness.

When asked why City National Bank donates employee time to volunteer, Yoo responded:

“Contributing to the economic and cultural vitality of our communities not only has a positive, measurable impact on the growth and prosperity of those communities, but it makes good business sense for the Bank.”

Learn More
Learn more about Reading Partners program by visiting our website at readingpartners.org. If your company is interested in partnering with Reading Partners through corporate volunteerism, please contact a location nearest you.