Volunteer Opportunities
Click here to post a volunteer opportunity.
Do you want to volunteer in the Culver City or Westside community but don’t know where to start? Our RSVP office has information on more than 80 sites looking for volunteers. We are happy to help all community members in their efforts to find the perfect opportunity to give back. Please stop by our office at the Culver City Senior Center Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or contact Volunteer Specialist Jill Thomsen at 310.253.6722 or via
email.
Hard copies of the Directory may also be found in the volunteer office located in the Senior Center at 4095 Overland Avenue. Please feel free to
email Jill if you have any questions about any of the opportunities listed.
REACH Reading Intervention Program
Greetings!
The Wonder of Reading is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to inspire in children the love of reading. Since 1994 we have helped open over 200 newly renovated and restocked libraries, trained more than 5,000 volunteers and family members as reading mentors, and provided services for more than 130,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District and surrounding districts.
The Wonder of Reading has chosen Baldwin Hills Elementary School to launch our pilot reading program called R.E.A.C.H. (Reading, Encouragement, Access, Challenge, Hope). R.E.A.C.H. is designed to strengthen reading skills and to inspire a love of reading in students who would benefit from additional instruction, guidance, and mentoring opportunities. It affords students a second opportunity to work one-on-one and in small groups with a credentialed teacher, enriches the mentoring component of the Volunteer Reading Program already in place at the school, and introduces the student to SuccessMaker, a digital literacy curriculum. SuccessMaker supports reading instruction in the areas of: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Baldwin Hills Elementary and The Wonder of Reading are recruiting volunteers for the Volunteer Reading Program. Our goal is to have at least 50 volunteers from the community!
The Volunteer Reading Program allows students the opportunity to read with a caring individual from the community once a week. Students in R.E.A.C.H. will benefit greatly from the encouragement of a mentor. The volunteers participate in a mandatory three-hour training session that is student-centered and teaches reading comprehension strategies and techniques, and commit to reading with a student for one hour a week for at least six months (though many volunteers often developed relationships with their student that last beyond the elementary school years).
Volunteers must:
• Complete a background check and TB skin test
• Attend a 3 hours of training
• Commit to read with a student one hour per week between the hours of 9:00am and 2:00pm for the 2009-2010 school year
What volunteers do:
• Be a mentor to a child. No teaching or instructional skills are required - just time and commitment!
• Build a positive personal relationship with the student (including inspiring the love of reading)!
• Work with a student one-on-one (the students may be one to two years below their reading grade level and will be well-behaved)
If you or anyone you know is interested in positively impacting the life of a child by becoming a Reading Mentor, there is a mandatory New Volunteer Training on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 from 8:45am-11:30am. It will be at Baldwin Hills Elementary School in the Wonder of Reading library.
Refreshments will be served and the interactive training is exciting!
Thanks!
Contact: April Wind
(323) 634-7111
awind@wonderofreading.org
Volunteer “Victims” Needed for Disaster Drill
The drill will take place on the Sony lot Saturday, January 30 from 7:30 a.m. until around noon. We need adults, Scouts, and children 10 years or older to participate. Volunteers should wear old clothing that may be torn, soiled, or stained. Moulage and fake blood will be used on some of the volunteers. Many volunteers will not be injured, but will be part of the crowd on the lot.
Students and Scouts will receive Scout and School Community Service.
If you would like to volunteer or obtain additional information, please email sonydrill@culvercitycert.org.
Contact: Culver City CERT
310-253-5903
sonydrill@culvercitycert.org
Culver City Gives
Meet our local nonprofits and find ways to get involved!
Culver City boasts a strong tradition of neighborhood involvement. Our residents volunteer as coaches, tutors, emergency responders, and more. There are more than 50 non-profit organizations in Culver City whose good work enriches our lives – and they need us!
Just CLICK HERE to get started. Come on in and see what's happening in your own back yard.
Contact: Claire Peeps
ccgives@ca.rr.com
Literacy Program of Culver City Adult School
Individual tutoring of adults of basic English and reading. No experience necessary. Attendance at a 3 hour training program is required.
Contact: Edith Elbaum
(310) 306-4873
ccliteracyprogram@yahoo.com
America Scores LA
LA SCORES mission is to empower students in urban communities using soccer, writing, creative expression and service learning. With teamwork as the unifying value, LA SCORES inspires youth to lead healthy lifestyles, become engaged students, and become agents of change in their communities. We have volunteer positions for Assistant Coaches, Assistant Writing Teachers, Referees, After School Homework Helpers, and Special Events Volunteers.
Contact: Natalie Sanford
310-204-6455
nsanford@americascores.org
Share Your Love of the Natural World!
Help teach inner–city L.A. students grades 3–8 all about the great outdoors!
The Kenneth Hahn Education Program at the Native Plant & Wildlife Garden offers docents an opportunity to interact with children learning about the ecology of the Baldwin Hills through scientific inquiryCOMMA field sketching and orienteering.
Docent training begins FridayCOMMA Oct. 2nd from 9–11 a.m. and the program will be Feb–April 2010 during the schooldayCOMMA so docents will need to have some time available between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the workweek.
No background in science is neededCOMMA you do need to have a love of the natural world and the energy & enthusiasm to teach young students about natural science!
Contact: Stacey Vigallon
(323) 481-4037
tern@laaudubon.org
Share the Wonder of Reading!
Help share the Wonder of Reading with an elementary school student. There are two local WOR schools, Palms Elementary Motor & Palms and Charnock Road Elementary Sepulveda & Venice.
Please join us for our West L.A. training, held twice a year. Training is Thursday, Sept. 17th from 8:45 a.m. – noon.
For more information please contact us at: www.wonderofreading.org
Contact: Wonder of Reading
323-934-5540