Children who are not encouraged to read at home are less likely to be successful in reading later. Parents who were unsuccessful in school or who were not read to themselves are less likely to read to their own children and may need direction in how and what to read. Parents can be taught how to talk through a story with their children through…

This volume tells the story of the concerned adults who have come forward to mentor disadvantaged urban youth, one-on-one, in cities across the country. It illustrates what middle-class volunteers can do to ameliorate the conditions of young people living in poverty. Mentoring can complement government efforts and contribute to the broader…

Volunteers can serve as a means to educate the public about environmental issues and increase stewardship ethic. This booklet is designed to provide much of the key information about designing and managing environmental volunteer programs to educate the general public. The booklet is based on the experiences of a volunteer program called Island…

This guide is intended to help people improve their reading, writing, and numeracy skills within existing organizations, services, or community activities. It is divided into two sections. The first gives some background information on literacy in Canada, adult learners, and the rationale for integrating learning into existing opportunities. The…

This paper describes a pilot project designed to provide a training and implementation program for volunteer, paraprofessional facilitators of a marriage and family intervention method known as Structured Enrichment. The intervention, which was designed to teach couples and families to negotiate specific problem issues in their relationships, is…

Designed for Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors at Olympic College, this handbook provides information on the college's efforts to train volunteers as classroom assistants in ABE/ESL education, as well as guidelines for working with volunteers. The first section of the handbook provides background on the…

A second-grade teacher implemented a practicum intervention designed to increase involvement of black parents in their children's educational and social development during the primary school years. Practicum goals were to improve social development of the students; increase the number of volunteers who had fulfilled city requirements; and increase…

This booklet was developed to help Peace Corps trainers relate to older volunteers and facilitate the older volunteers' orientation into the organization. The manual is organized into four short sections. Each section raises some potential problems likely to be experienced by older volunteers and offers suggestions for overcoming the problems.…

The Kansas Volunteer Tutor Utilization (KV-TUTOR) project was undertaken to explore some of the possibilities of using volunteer tutors in adult basic education (ABE) programs. A volunteer structure was developed at 16 local ABE programs throughout the state. KV-TUTOR actively promoted these volunteer systems by contacting (through letters, phone…

This resource guide was designed to help school volunteer coordinators develop and maintain a school volunteer program. Topics addressed include: (1) making maximum use of volunteer resources; (2) building a network of resource people from school support groups; (3) setting up a school volunteer program; (4) responsibilities of volunteers and…

This manual provides a practical approach to effectively using volunteers in Head Start programs. It can be used as a training tool, a "ready" reference for often-needed information, and a source of simple, easily duplicated charts and forms. Topics discussed and/or illustrated include (1) components of a successful volunteer program;…

The purpose of this project was to strengthen a volunteer literacy council's ability to offer an innovative curriculum and program monitoring system that meets the total literacy needs of O-4 level students, thus increasing student and tutor motivation and retention. The project designed volunteer staff training seminars to meet these objectives.…

From October 1982 through May 1984, the Council for Community Services--a private, not-for-profit community planning council--carried out an Institutional Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Project, in close cooperation with the state of Rhode Island's Office of the Child Advocate. The project approach relied heavily on monitoring teams of…

In response to growing concern about assaults and rapes on campus and in the surrounding community, the staff of the Womencenter at Oakland Community College (OCC) initiated a program of rape/assault prevention and assistance to victims. After collecting data on violence in the community and on campus, Womencenter representatives obtained support…

Parents of delinquents often display unconstructive behavioral patterns. The effects of behavior contracting with juvenile delinquents in response to these patterns was examined. Delinquent youth (N=72) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) controls, receiving normal court treatment; (2) a Family Contracting (FC) group, diverted…