Volunteer

Our volunteers are the heart and soul of New Haven Reads, and we are always accepting new applications. Read the descriptions below to learn about the different ways you can volunteer with New Haven Reads.   

Literacy Tutor

Literacy Tutors provide one-on-one reading instruction for students from 1st to 12th grade. You don’t need any prior experience teaching or working with children, just a love of reading and a desire to help a child succeed. We ask for a commitment of one hour per week, Monday-Friday 3-7pm or Saturday 10-2pm. Our tutors are trained in the New Haven Reads model which follows the science of reading. We provide a required one hour training session and a site orientation before your first session. You may also shadow a session, and we offer ongoing, in-depth training 3-4 times each year.

View our tutoring locations here!

Book Bank

Book Bank volunteers accept book donations, sort and shelve books, and fill book orders for pick-up by community organizations. You will surely find many books to take home! We ask for a commitment of one shift of 2 hours per week. Shifts are on weekdays between the hours of 12 PM and 4 PM Monday to Wednesday and 12PM and 2:30 PM Thursday to Friday. On-site orientation is provided during your first shift. Please note, we have limited opportunities due to space limitations.

Field Trips

Field trip volunteers work in pairs to help run the field trips program for Pre-K through 5th grade classes from the Greater New Haven area. During each class visit, volunteers read stories out loud and help each student pick out five books. We ask for a commitment of one field trip per week for an entire school year (approx. 1.5 hours). Field trips visit Tuesday-Friday mornings at 10AM. We provide On-site orientation prior to your first field trip, and shadowing is also an option. Please note, we have limited opportunities.

Volunteer Application