Reading Partners Twin Cities seeks to add 50 tutoring sessions in the next two weeks

Minnesota has one of the largest literacy opportunity gaps in the nation, which has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. In order to provide additional support to students, Reading Partners utilizes the power of community volunteers to act as trained reading tutors.

While Minnesota boasts the third highest rate of volunteerism in the country, volunteerism rates remain below pre-pandemic levels, according to the Star Tribune.

Reading Partners Twin Cities is launching a new volunteer recruitment campaign to add 50 tutoring sessions in the next two weeks to provide critical support to students to reach their reading goals.

“When you can read, you can access the world,” said Brooke Rivers, Reading Partners Twin Cities executive director. “Reading is really the basis and the foundation for all future learning that has a long impact for a lot of future opportunities.”

Reading Partners works with nine Twin Cities schools and partners across the metro area to offer in-person literacy tutoring to K-5 students, all with the help of volunteers from the community. Each volunteer who signs up to volunteer will fill a critical need: by signing up for a tutoring session, the organization can serve more students. Over 400 volunteers have tutored with the organization this year.

Reading Partners Twin Cities is working to serve the most students since the start of the pandemic. Students are being enrolled through the end of February and receive tutoring through the end of the school year. The program gets strong results for students: last year, 91% of K-2 students mastered foundational literacy skills.

Reading Partners Twin Cities’ recruitment initiative to add 50 tutoring sessions starts February 15 and runs through February 29. Sign up to volunteer here, or email volunteertc@readingpartners.org to learn more.