Volunteer this summer reading with students in Yesler Terrace

The Youth Tutoring Program (YTP) of Catholic Community Services’ Summer Reading Program is an intensive six-week literacy program for elementary and middle school students (1st-8th grade) at or below grade level in reading. YTP serves students living in low and mixed income housing communities in Seattle. The goal of the Summer Reading Program is to motivate academically at-risk elementary and middle school students to read independently, to improve students’ language arts skills, especially reading comprehension, and to encourage more positive attitudes toward reading as an activity of choice.

Volunteer tutors and students read books, write book reports, participate in reading related activities, learn new vocabulary words, improve listening and reading comprehension and hopefully discover the joy of reading. Volunteers will help encourage positive attitudes toward reading and develop awesome partnerships with students.

A summer reading program is crucial for our students. Research shows that over the summer, the achievement gap between low-income and higher-income students actually grows. Middle-income students experience slight gains in reading performance during the summer while low-income students move backwards in reading achievement by more than two months (Cooper 1996). YTP's Summer Reading Program is designed to narrow that achievement gap and bring students that would otherwise continue to fall behind, up to grade level.

This opportunity begins June 28th and ends August 5th. The program meets Monday – Thursday evenings from 4:00-7:40; most tutors participate one to two hours a week. Early Elementary Readers meet Monday-Wednesday 4-5:20 PM and Elementary/ Middle School Readers meet Monday-Thursday 5:30-7:40 PM. Any amount of time or days per week one can give is helpful.

Yesler Terrace is located on the south slope of First Hill, and it was the first Seattle Housing Authority community, built in 1939. It was the first racially integrated housing project in the nation and currently houses about 1200 residents in 561 apartments. YTP uses the Yesler Community Center for nightly tutoring.

YTP does ask that all volunteers be at least 14 years old, and if they are out of high school, that they posses a high school diploma (or equivalent). Any amount of previous experience is acceptable, because we offer free training before the program begins.

For more information or to apply online, visit us at www.ccsww.org/ytp. Or, for more information, contact the Volunteer Coordinator, Rebecca, by phone at (206) 328-5659 or by email at volunteerytp@ccsww.org.