Keri Humphries, Outreach Director at New Haven Reads, visited GNHCC during a recent rehearsal, to introduce New Haven Reads to the group and invite new volunteers to sign up. Among their many activities, NHR provides a book bank, entirely free of charge to the local community, and hosts an annual Spelling Bee extravaganza, in which GNHCC’s team of spellers the “B-Sharps” regularly competes. By far the greatest need, however, is for volunteer tutors to provide one-on-one sessions for Greater New Haven Area public school children. NHR provides tutors on a weekly basis to more than 500 students, who attend sessions at one of NHR’s four locations around the city, but the waiting list holds another 100 students eager for greater literacy! In New Haven, nearly two-thirds of third-grade students are not reading at the appropriate grade level, and since 2001, NHR has helped more than 3,500 students and donated nearly 2 million books! GNHCC singer Ann Tramontana-Veno shared from her experience tutoring for NHR, and encouraged others to join as well.
The NHR Mission:
“New Haven Reads, founded to “share the joy and power of reading,” increases the literacy skills of children to empower their academic success by providing individually tailored one-on-one after-school tutoring, educational family support, and a community book bank, all at no cost to participants.”
