Riverside Central Elementary School Needs Volunteers Like YOU
Looking for a way to make a difference in a child’s life? Do you have 30-60 minutes a week to support a child in his/her reading development? Volunteers at Riverside listen to students read books and talk with the students about their books. Students are expected to read 30 minutes at home; however, some students need to do their 30 minutes of home reading at school because of circumstances beyond their control. The goal is to pair volunteers with the same students in order to build relationships.
Why Riverside School? We believe that reading is a fundamental, life-long skill and feel community members can inspire a love of reading by volunteering their time to listen to children read.
What do reading volunteers do? Volunteers listen to students read books and talk with the students about their books.
What is the time commitment? Most volunteers dedicate an hour a week. Volunteers meet with around four students each week, spending about 15 minutes with each student.
What is our church’s connection? In 2016, when long time church member, Ray Phelps-Bowman, was the chair of the NAACP Education Committee, he and his co-chair, Mark Stevenson, initiated the reading program. They spent a year reading about schools that successfully taught minority students and visited local schools and one in Minneapolis that seemed to have been the most successful. Paying close attention to the individual students was definitely one of the key elements to successfully teaching the students, but that, of course, wasn’t enough. They also needed a structured program designed to meet the needs of the students they were paying attention to.
How do you volunteer? Contact Riverside Volunteer Coordinator, Jody Peterson, directly, jopeterson@rochesterschools.org.