Volunteer Opportunity: English Tutor

Position Summary:

English Tutors tutor an English language learner in English vocabulary and practical conversational skills. English Tutors and English language learners (ELL) are matched in one-on-one pairs. The English Tutor will be given worksheets and training resources to help them have materials to go through with the ELL. The goal is to spend one hour per week, for at least 10 weeks, committed to tutoring and becoming friends in the process.

 

Key Responsibilities:

1. Regularly communicate with the tutee and schedule weekly meet-ups for tutoring.
2. Tutor the tutee for one hour per week, for a minimum of 10 weeks.
3. Ask the tutee if they have goals related to learning English. Use those goals as a guide for what you tutor and practice weekly.
4. Prepare an English lesson or identify and print worksheets to do together during the tutoring session.
5. Encourage the tutee to talk, read, and write English, recognize progress, and celebrate wins.
6. Log volunteer hours in the WR Portal.

 

Qualifications:

1. 18+ years old.
2. Complete the World Relief volunteer onboarding (application, online workshop, live orientation, background check, reference check).
3. Willing to meet at the tutee’s home or drive together to a public meeting place.
4. Comfortable navigating language barriers using translation apps like Google Translate and Tarjimly.
5. Reliable, flexible, and respectful towards other cultures.

 

Time Commitment:

1. One hour per week for a minimum of 10 weeks (for tutoring).
2. One hour per week spent preparing for the tutoring session.

 

Benefits to Volunteer:

1. Gain cross-cultural skills and experience.
2. Begin mutually transformative friendships with refugees and other immigrants.
3. Gain experience teaching English to an English language learner.

 

Onboarding and Training:

1. General short term/long term volunteer onboarding process, including an application, online workshop, live orientation, background check, reference check.
2. The English Conversation Partner online course on The World Relief Workshop (coupon code wrmemphis).
3. The ESL Tutor online course on The World Relief Workshop (coupon code wrmemphis).
4. English Tutoring worksheets and other resources will be provided by the Connect Language Center.

 

Management and Communication:

English Tutors will be collaboratively managed. Church and Community Engagement (CCE) will recruit and onboard volunteers. When onboarding is complete, the Volunteer Coordinator will email the English Tutor the tutoring worksheets and additional resources provided by the CLC staff and let the volunteer know that the VC will present them as a new tutor to the Service Lines at the next Wednesday Tracking Meeting. The Volunteer Coordinator will hand off the English Tutor to the WRM Service Line who has a client who is interested in being matched to an English Tutor.

 

The Service Line will communicate the tutee and tutor expectations to the client interested in being matched to a Tutor. Once the Service Line receives confirmation from the tutee that they want to move forward and agree to the purpose of the match, the Service Line will share context (neighborhood, availability, English level, gender, age, and other relevant demographic or background information) about the client with the Tutor. The Service Line will confirm that the Tutor wants to meet with that client. The Service Line will provide the Tutor and tutee with each other’s contact information and ask them to communicate with each other to set up a first meeting date. The Service Line should communicate the name of the client and the first meeting date to the Volunteer Coordinator to log in Dynamics. The Volunteer Coordinator will communicate to the Connect Language Center that a match has been made so CLC staff can enroll the tutee in the correct program in Dynamics.

 

Feedback Loop:

After the first meeting date, the Service Line will check in with the client to hear their initial thoughts about the match. The Service Line will check in with the Tutor to hear their initial thoughts about the match and ask if they have questions or need resources.

 

At the 5-week mark, the Service Line will do another check-in with the client and with the Tutor, separately.

 

Toward the end of the 10-week commitment, the Service Line will ask the Tutor if they want to end the match or continue the match. The Service Line will check in with the client to see if they want to end the match or continue the match. If both Tutor and tutee want to continue the match, they will keep meeting and the check-in process will restart with the next check-in being 1 month later.

 

All check-ins and communication between staff and the client or volunteer should be documented in Dynamics as a Communication on the client’s and volunteer’s contact profiles.