Help immigrants learn English!

Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House, a community-based nonprofit in Long Island City, offers free ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes to immigrant adults. We have five evening classes at IS 126, located at 31-51 21st Street in Astoria, as well as three morning classes  located at 10-25 41st Avenue in Long Island City. We are looking for volunteers to work with our adult ESOL students during the program year, which runs from September 2011 to June 2012. We ask that volunteers commit to one two-hour session each week for the duration of one session, which generally lasts three to four months. The following opportunities are available: I. Conversation Partners II. Computer Lab Helpers III. One-on-one Tutors IV. Translators (languages other than Spanish, especially Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, and Farsi) Conversation partners will meet with an Advanced ESOL Class every Tuesday from 7:15-8:30 pm to engage with small groups of ESOL students. Computer lab helpers will also meet with a class one evening per week to help students use technology in the classroom. One-on-one tutors will meet individually with students from different levels that would like to further their skills in certain areas. We will make an effort to pair lower level students with bilingual volunteers. Volunteers that speak languages other than Spanish will assist us on an as-needed basis to interpret for lower level students (in person or via phone) and to translate short documents. We are open to discussing alternate volunteer assignments based upon volunteers’ interests. The Coordinator of Immigrant Services will be available to meet with individual volunteers about any questions or concerns they may have, and to provide level-appropriate learning materials on an ongoing basis.

Experience and interest interacting with people of diverse backgrounds.

Some experience with teaching/tutoring and working with immigrant communities is a plus, but not required. 

Flexibility and patience.