South Suburban College is working to boost volunteer tutor training sessions and basic reading and math skills of participants in its adult volunteer literacy tutoring program.
The much-needed program has operated for many years, training hundreds of volunteers to provide free one-on-one tutoring in phonetic reading, communication skills and basic math to south suburb residents. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced the college to reduce volunteer training sessions and resulted in a drop-off in individuals seeking to improve their literacy skills in 2020 and 2021, said Christopher McElroy, director of adult education at South Suburban College.
“We had a lot of people drop out due to the pandemic whether it be just the destruction of their normal schedule or because of (a lack of) technology,” McElroy said.
The pandemic made it even more challenging for adults who lack basic reading skills, he noted.
“There are a lot of things they didn’t know that they needed to know until the lockdowns and the pandemic started,” said McElroy. “For instance, just the simple fact to try to sign up for unemployment. You used to be able to just walk into the unemployment office. But for almost a year and a half, two years it was shut down. You had to go through this online application or the call-in system.”
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McElroy said that was difficult for a lot of people.
Pre-pandemic, the free tutor trainings took place roughly every other month.
“We’ve really increased our training,” McElroy said. “We have had training every month since March this year. We’re really trying to beef up our training because we know that because of the pandemic (there were) learning losses out there. We want to try to bring more tutors back into the fold and educate more students.”
The program is funded by a grant from the Illinois State Library, a division of the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. It is open primarily to residents living in 21 south suburb cities and villages in the South Suburban College’s District 510.
McElroy notes the college program is responding to statistics showing in the district, which has a population of more than 272,000 people:
* high school dropout rates are 4.5% compared to 2.6% statewide
* more than 15,600 adults 16 and older have less than a 12th grade education
* more than 8,300 adults 16 and older have less than a 9th grade education.
Lack of basic reading and math skills put individuals at a severe competitive disadvantage in the job market and makes everyday tasks more difficult.
The tutor training uses best practices, is a minimum of 12-hours on-site training plus homework, said David Stephens, literacy grants manager for the college.
“We focus on reading and writing and math but also life skills and work skills that are relevant to adults,” Stephens said. “We train tutors to keep an eye on that and share some of their life experiences around workplace professionalism, communication, personal goal setting, getting library cards, getting driver’s licenses, filling out forms which are relevant to adult literacy. We try to include all of these important areas.”
Volunteers who complete the program receive literacy training certification. Once they are certified, tutors can receive free professional development services through the program. Successful tutors also are eligible for letters of support or recommendations for employment, scholarships and educational opportunities, according to the college.
Once certified, the volunteers are matched up with adult learners who are tutored at libraries within or near their neighborhoods. Tutoring sessions are flexibly scheduled based on the availability of tutors, learners and tutoring sites, said McElroy.
The program’s goal is for tutors to provide a minimum of 40 hours of tutoring and to help participants gain a minimum of one-grade level improvement in basic math and in basic reading, said Stephens. The program helps lay the foundation to prepare students to be successful in obtaining a high school equivalency diploma and is designed to meet the needs of community residents.
“With our tutoring program, they can be with a tutor one to two hours a week until they are able to move up to the next step,” McElroy said.
Tutors have included individuals from various backgrounds, among them retired educators, teachers’ aides, college students, individuals who completed their GED and wanted to give back, said McElroy.
“I always encourage a lot of people coming right out of college and current college students to become tutors as a resume builder,” he said.
Tutoring offers mutual benefits, he stressed. He was a volunteer tutor in the South Suburban College program while a student working on his bachelor’s degree at Governors State University.
“The first person I tutored was a woman who was just trying to become better at reading so she could read at her church,” he shared. “She was 75-years-old. Being able to help her was amazing.
“This is such a great opportunity for not only the tutor but the learner. Very rarely in life do people get the chance to teach and influence people in this way. If you go through the training, you are able to sit across from someone and help them understand, help them read.”
The next volunteer training sessions are 3-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 12 to 28, at South Suburban College’s main campus, 15800 South State St., South Holland. Sessions also are scheduled 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Aug. 9 through 25, at the college’s Oak Forest Center, 16333 S. Kilbourn Ave. To register and for more information, contact David Stephens at [email protected] or 708-596-2000, Ext. 2558.
Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown
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