DC Tutoring & Mentoring Initiative
Cause Area
- Children & Youth
- Community
- Education & Literacy
Location
2437 15th Street NorthwestJosephine Butler Parks CenterWashington, DC, DC 20009 United StatesWebsite:
http://dcTutorMentor.org
Organization Information
Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide a tutor or mentor for the 60,000+ students reading below grade level or in need of additional academic or non-academic support in the District of Columbia and, in the process, create a stronger civic culture where we all take more responsibility for one another and for the community as a whole.
Description
We work with 50 partner tutoring and mentoring organizations and schools to help recruit volunteers for them. The foundation for our work is one-on-one canvassing and "civic conversations" with people at farmers markets and other public events and spaces: Only 31% of students in DC are reading at grade level. Teachers, schools and volunteer organizations can't fix education by themselves. Any time of day or day of the week, we are likely to have partner organizations that need help in neighborhoods that are readily accessible to potential volunteers. If we all take a little more responsibility -- typically 2 hours a week -- we can begin to transform educational outcomes and create a model for other communities trying to find shared purposes to bridge the divisions of class, race, and ideology.