Experience Corps of Greater New Haven
Experience Corps is a community-based volunteer program that engages people over 50 as tutors to help students become better readers by the end of third grade. The program helps students to succeed and the volunteer tutors to become involved in the community. With the Structured Session program, tutors follow a well-planned process, helping students gain confidence in what they are reading.
JOB OPPORTUNITY
Do you have a passion for the community?
Are you interested in elevating:
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Positive experiences for senior volunteers
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Literacy skills for area youth
The Program Manager position is now open. Apply by January 9th.
Email:
Program Logistics
475-257-6534
Questions?
Experience Corps of Greater New Haven (Experience Corps) is proudly stewarded by IVCG as one of seven premier community programs.
We currently tutor students in Grades 1 through 3 in the New Haven and Hamden communities. The program is a powerful tool for advancing educational achievement while also supporting the dignity, connection, and wellbeing of participating seniors.
Our volunteers’ job as tutors is to engage students and help them see that improving is a process, it can be fun, and they will get there. One of our mottos is ‘practice makes permanent.’
The volunteers love seeing the impact tutoring has made. Kids cannot find the magic in books if they feel frustrated. So many say they dislike reading, but it is really the struggle to get the words right … and they feel their friends and classmates are leaving them behind. Once they start to feel confident, their reading worlds and their imaginations expand. Recently one student who is in the program this year told her tutor that “now when she reads aloud in class, no one laughs at her anymore.” A wonderful testament to the program.
The work of EC-GNH began in 2006 when the Agency on Aging of South-Central Connecticut (AOASCC) initiated this program. After 17 years of support from the AOASCC, the torch was handed over to one of their longtime community partners - your Interfaith Volunteers! Transition efforts over the summer of 2024 were successful thanks to the EC staff, volunteers and new community collaborators including the Clelian Center, an adult Day Care.
Through IVCG's stewardship and partnership with the AARP Foundation, volunteer tutors will continue elevating literacy in New Haven County with the potential to grow connections with more local elementary schools. To advance this work, donors are invited to support the work of EC-GNH by contributing to IVCG. Your donations advancing literacy are magnified with use of the AARP Foundation program tools, on-going guidance and support from the Foundation’s staff, and local seniors benefiting from their volunteer service.