DeKalb County Human Services Department seeks senior volunteers for literacy tutoring program

DEKALB COUNTY, GA–The DeKalb County Human Services Department is recruiting volunteers to participate in a tutoring program designed to help DeKalb students improve their reading skills.

Volunteers  are needed to partner with the American Association of Retired Persons Experience Corps Program. The tutors will begin working with students in kindergarten through third grade in September for the 2024/2025 school year.

Since 2019, the DeKalb County Department of Human Services has been working in collaboration with the United Way of Greater Atlanta, the AARP Foundation and the DeKalb County School District on this initiative.

The tutoring program is designed to improve reading proficiency by focusing on students who are one to two grades behind in reading grade level. The AARP Experience Corps Program is designed to be implemented by volunteers who are 50 years old and older. Volunteers must have at minimum a high school diploma or G.E.D. to participate. Experience Corps is a national program that also produces positive mental and physical health benefits for older adult volunteers.

Last year, the program resulted in 70 percent of students moving up a grade in reading proficiency, officials stated.

The program follows the school district’s calendar through May 2025 and tutoring sessions are conducted in-person. Participating DeKalb schools include: Stoneview, Pine Ridge, Murphy Candler, E.L. Miller, and Redan Elementary schools.

To learn more about the program, contact Ann Pope, Human Services special projects coordinator senior, by email at adpope@dekalbcountyga.gov.

Online volunteer applications may also be completed at https://unitedwayatlanta.org/volunteer/read-with-children-and-the-aarp-experience-corps/.