This spring our students have been busy sharing the joy and power of reading in new ways. Take a look at our video below to see for yourself!
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Here at New Haven Reads we want to share some data and testimonials about the IMPACT our tutors are making as volunteers with us!
Our volunteers continue to be the heart and soul of New Haven Reads. NHR tutors currently tutor a total of 454 hours with 279 students each week! Their impact is immeasurable. Enjoy this video of students expressing how much their tutors mean to them. Their smiles speak volumes!
Andrew Nguyen has been volunteering with New Haven Reads for two years at the Bristol Street location. He started volunteering back in 2019. He has always enjoyed working with the younger generation. Andrew states volunteering here has been a privilege because he is able to connect with the amazing children and help play a role in their education. He remembers having someone there for support when he was learning to read as a child and wanted to be there for someone else, because that experience was pivotal to his growth. “Being a volunteer tutor with NHR was a chance for me to give back, even if in the smallest way possible, and that’s important to me because it’s the small interactions that shape us into who we are and who we will become,” Andrew explains.
Something that keeps Andrew coming back is witnessing the growth in the children. “Seeing the moment they learn something new is an awesome feeling,” he says. Each of his students have helped him become a better teacher and a better human being. He doesn’t hesitate to come back because the site directors make it positive and stand for a mission he fully support.
Thank you to Andrew and all our volunteers for their dedication to our mission!
Volunteers are the heart and soul of New Haven Reads! The month of April is Volunteer Appreciation Month. Although we celebrate you everyday, we are excited to have a whole month dedicated to celebrate YOU!
From all of us here at New Haven Reads, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!
We at New Haven Reads have always felt that connecting with our community is crucial to our mission. For us to succeed as an organization, other organizations must also succeed, because only through working together can we truly create long-lasting positive change for the entire New Haven community. To that end, we partner with several schools and organizations every year to further our mission. For several years now, we have worked closely with the University of New Haven.
“Through the Community Work Study Program, we have 5 to 8 interns join our team every semester, with most of them staying for a full year or even longer,” explained Natosha Wengreen, the Outreach Director at New Haven Reads.
However, the CWS Program only accounts for a portion of the interns from the University of New Haven. University of New Haven Professor Allison Geballe has long been responsible for the other portion. She teaches PSYC 4480, “Psychology Internship,” a course for which students are matched with internships at local organizations that fit their goals and interests.
It would be hard to overstate the impact of this course on New Haven Reads over the years. In fact, two current staff members — Eimanuelle (Emma) Pendon and Aimee Curtis-Travaglini, the Assistant Site Director at Dixwell and Site Director at Bristol Street, respectively — originally came to New Haven Reads as interns from Professor Geballe’s course.
Geballe discussed the structure of the program, saying, “I partner with community, clinical, or research-based organizations for the course. After hearing about what they are looking for in their interns and what roles might be possible, I interview my students and get a sense of what sites might be the best match for them. I then encourage them to apply to the best fit, and the student goes on to interview with that organization.”
She explained that in order to recommend that a student seek an internship at New Haven Reads, a few criteria have to be met: they must have an interest in working with younger students, they should ideally have some prior experience working with children, other nonprofits, or schools, and they should be following a path that relates, even if indirectly, to the organization’s work and mission.
Although she partners with many organizations for the course, Geballe has a special connection to New Haven Reads. As a long-time supporter of New Haven Reads, she lauded the work and the mission of the organization. “I really can’t say enough about the important work that New Haven Reads does,” Geballe said. “Having worked with kids for 20 years, I know that it can be very challenging for them in school, so having the support system and individual attention that New Haven Reads provides outside of school can really help promote their development and learning.”
But New Haven Reads, Geballe feels, not only provides this important individual attention for students, but does so in a truly effective way. “I think New Haven Reads does it in a way that is appealing and fun for kids, and they look forward to that one-on-one interaction with their tutors,” she explained. “Yet it also functions as a support system for families, working with them to meet their needs. The impact that New Haven Reads has had on the youth in the community is amazing.”
When we have the opportunity to partner with organizations and schools in New Haven, we are always extremely excited to see what we can do together. The UNH-NHR partnership shows just how impactful these collaborations can be. NHR benefits from the phenomenal work of UNH interns every semester, and the interns get an inside look at what a future in the nonprofit or education spheres could look like.
If you’ve visited the New Haven Reads blog or social media recently, you likely noticed the Take a Trip with New Haven Reads project. From February 15th to February 19th, New Haven Reads uploaded a daily video of a staff member reading books and poems written by BIPOC authors. These videos ranged from Aimee Curtis-Travaglini, the Site Director at Bristol Street, reading I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee, to Science Park Site Director Audra Clark reading The Turtle with an Afro by Carlotta Penn.
Eimanuelle (Emma) Pendon, the Assistant Site Director at Dixwell, led this project, seeking to keep our kids engaged over the February break while also highlighting diverse authors.
While planning the readings, she focused on her own background, asking, “What would I have wanted to hear when I was a student growing up? What would have made me feel represented and respected?”
All too often, authors of color are not given the same platform or opportunities as white authors, and Emma continued to notice this throughout her life, first as a child and now as an Assistant Site Director. Emma wanted to place an emphasis on what our students look like at New Haven Reads, ensuring that our kids are being exposed to books written by authors that look like them, with characters they can relate to and empathize with.
“I curated a selection of works that featured BIPOC authors, authors who are not always highlighted or recognized in the way that they should be,” Emma explained. “Really, I just wanted what I am doing to be good for the community and for the kids.”
In the end, she couldn’t have been happier with the results. Five New Haven Reads staff members read the books aloud, and these videos have been uploaded to YouTube for anyone to view. We encourage all of our New Haven Reads parents to show these videos to their children, and parents can specifically choose a video of the staff members who their child knows from their tutoring sessions!
One year ago today, New Haven Reads shut our program doors and went completely virtual. Take a look at what we’ve been up to and how we continued to share the joy and power of reading!
Every year, New Haven Reads celebrates Black History Month at every tutoring site, with Site Directors and Assistant Site Directors deciding what the celebration at their location will entail.
This year, Site Directors and Assistant Site Directors had to adjust to the virtual format, figuring out what could be done online to celebrate Black History Month.
Carol Sarmiento, the Site Director at Willow Street, explained her past efforts, saying, “In-person, we would put up posters of past and present influential Black Americans. The kids would always walk around and look at them. I also had these Black History comprehension cards, and we used to go around and ask the kids to pick a card, then we would read it to them. There were also lots of books on display for the kids to read, and they loved it.”
With the distance-learning model still in effect, Carol decided to use two digital platforms, Epic and ReadTheory, to assign books and articles relevant to Black History Month to all grade levels, so that tutors could read the stories with their students. Other sites took similar steps, including using worksheets with biographical information for the students to investigate and learn about Black History.
Audra Clark, the Science Park Site Director, created a slideshow presentation for the students. The first slide names the accomplishments of a certain Black American, and then asks, “Who Am I?” The students have a moment to posit a guess, then the answer is revealed on the next slide, along with further information with pictures and text.
“The students seem to enjoy learning about the individuals from a first person perspective and it made it more of a riddle,” Audra explained.
We were thrilled that our Site Staff were still able to honor and celebrate Black History Month, despite the limitations of the virtual format. We look forward to being able to celebrate in-person with decorations at all of the sites next year!
Week in the life of the Outreach Director Natosha
Every week comes with certain tasks that must be done without fail. First thing I do in the morning is read and reply to my emails, usually 15-30 emails each day. Every Monday calls for approving intern timesheets and emailing them to their designated University program supervisor. Right now we have a total of 28 interns from various universities and high schools in New Haven, many working with us as tutors. Early in the week, I have a few weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly meetings scheduled, with the Education team, Communications team, Outreach team and the Executive Director. Collaboration between the departments is crucial to my work, to make sure the volunteer experience is smooth as they move through intake, training, tutoring and program evaluation.
A sizable part of my position is to bring on new volunteers. This requires 5 steps: recruitment, interviews, onboarding, training and assignments. This part of my job feels like juggling, because volunteers are all at different stages in the process. In one of my interviews this week a new volunteer asked “What is the best part about New Haven Reads?” I didn’t have to think before replying: “Getting to know someone who might be totally different from you, and helping each other to be better people.”
I am motivated by this kind of work, and have been involved with volunteers for years. My previous role was as a California State Parks Foundation Field Consultant, leading large scale volunteer habitat restoration projects in the California State Parks. I love to work to make the volunteer experience positive and rewarding. At New Haven Reads our volunteers are giving so much of themselves, and our priority is to make sure that they have all the tools they need to support our students and feel supported in return.
One way I do this is through training sessions. Taking input from volunteers and staff helps form topic-specific training sessions with experts. Our most recent training was about the effects of Covid-19 on students, led by Nakesha Alleyne, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Another part of my position is building community partnerships. We do this through our robust internship program, organizations which send employees for service days, lecture series and community collaboration projects. Some examples of the groups we work with are Design for America and Teach for America, who did two important projects for us and helped provide invaluable materials and content for our programs. Some of the big projects I am working on this week include developing a Volunteer Ambassador Team, setting up our Distance Learning: Mission Possible Meetings, our second annual Lecture Series (coming this summer!), an annual volunteer survey, and collaborating on creative ways to thank our wonderful volunteers.
Many of my Thursdays mornings are spent in monthly staff meetings or Site Director meetings. This is the time when we all come together to discuss big picture plans and everyday best practices. Thursday’s are also busy with tutor training sessions in the evenings. By Friday evening I have wrapped up the week feeling accomplished and prepared for the following Monday.
