Older Volunteers Tutor Students
The Older Adult Services and Information Center (OASIS) and the Los Angeles Unified School District kicked off an intergenerational tutoring project last week in 11 elementary schools in Southwest Los Angeles.
The OASIS Center, based in the May Co. store in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, recruited and trained 24 older adults to tutor local children in basic language skills through an “experiential approach,” said Jacquelyn Snead, a tutorial coordinator for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Students will use their own stories to develop reading and writing skills,” Snead said. “It’s more involving and motivational than simply reading assigned stories.”
The elementary schools in the project are 52nd Street, Cienega, Coliseum Street, Dublin Avenue, 49th Street, Hillcrest Drive, Hyde Park Boulevard, Menlo Avenue, 6th Avenue, 68th Street and Lenicia Weemes.
OASIS, a nonprofit organization in 22 cities that focuses on humanities, health and arts projects for seniors, wants to implement the tutoring program in all 26 of its chapters. It is sponsored nationally by May Department Stores, parent of May Co. in California. The Baldwin Hills chapter of OASIS, which boasts 5,000 members, was begun in 1986.
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