Mentoring Month provides perfect opportunity to take action to support early literacy in NYC

For Immediate Release

Contact: Maris Goodstein, Executive Director, Reading Partners New York City
(646) 395-3831, maris.goodstein@readingpartners.org

January is National Mentoring Month and 250 students in New York City are in urgent need of a volunteer reading partner

(New York, NY) January 4, 2017 — January is National Mentoring Month, and Reading Partners is encouraging more community members to join its efforts to provide students in under-resourced schools with the tutoring and mentorship they need to become proficient readers by the fourth grade. A proven national nonprofit that mobilizes community volunteers to work one-on-one with struggling readers, Reading Partners aims to serve 970 students in New York City in the 2016-17 school year. Currently, there are over 250 students at 19 local elementary schools waiting to be matched with tutors. Mentoring month is the perfect time to get involved.

Across New York City, only 21 percent of fourth graders from low-income families are reading at grade level. Reading is the foundation for all future learning and Reading Partners tutors provide the individualized literacy support and mentorship to help students make the all-important shift from learning to read to reading to learn.

“Our volunteers are the heart of our organization,” says Maris Goodstein, Executive Director. “They play a critical role in helping our students develop the literacy skills they need, and also serve as role models and mentors as a weekly presence in their lives.”

Reading Partners volunteers utilize an easy-to-follow, individualized lesson plan each week, specific to their students’ needs in order to meet them at their level and help build both literacy skills and confidence. Reading Partners New York City has an immediate need for volunteer tutors who can commit at least an hour a week to work with students in the following schools:

Manhattan

East Harlem Tutorial Program – 344 E. 104th St., NY, NY 10029
PS 7 Samuel Stern – 160 E. 120th St., NY, NY 10035
PS 38 Roberto Clemente – 232 E. 103rd St., NY, NY 10029
PS 123 Mahalia Jackson School – 301 W. 140th St., NY, NY 10030
PS 126 Jacob August Riis – 80 Catherine St., NY, NY 10038
PS 140 Nathan Straus – 123 Ridge St., NY, NY 10002
PS 175 Henry H Garnet – 175 W. 134th St., NY, NY 10030
PS 188 The Island School – 442 E. Houston St., NY, NY 10002
PS 192 Jacob H. Schiff – 500 W. 138th St., NY, NY 10031

Bronx

Hyde Leadership Charter School – 730 Bryant Ave., Bronx, NY 10474
PS 63 Author’s Academy – 1260 Franklin Ave., Bronx, NY 10456

Brooklyn

PS 7K Abraham Lincoln School – 858 Jamaica Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11208
PS 3 The Bedford Village School – 50 Jefferson Ave., Brooklyn, NY 100216
PS 305 Dr. Peter Ray – 344 Monroe St., Brooklyn, NY 11216
PS K315 The School of the Performing Arts – 2310 Glenwood Rd., Brooklyn, NY 11210
PS 58 Warwick – 400 Ashford St., Brooklyn, NY 11207

Queens

PS 33 Edward M. Funk – 91-37 222nd St., Queens Village, NY 11428
PS 40Q Samuel Huntington School – 10920 Union Hall St., Jamaica, NY 11433
PS 48 William Wordsworth Elementary School – 108-29 155th St., Queens, NY 11433

To learn more, please email volunteerny@readingpartners.org or call (646) 395-3831.

About Reading Partners

Reading Partners empowers students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. The national nonprofit organization will provide proven, individualized literacy tutoring to more than 11,000 elementary school students in under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia in the 2016-17 school year. Visit readingpartners.org, or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, to learn more.