This week I interviewed someone from "Tufts Literacy Corps." This year's Tufts Literacy Corps includes 90 student members, who visit six community-based sites in Medford and Somerville, and work with roughly 300 children. Eighty-seven children have been paired with one-on-one tutors this year, and about 200 children work with TLC members in their classrooms, homework centers, through BookMatch and in an after school drama club. Their mission is to help all children succeed in school and gain a lifelong love of learning. This mission is very noble, and as I've said in my other posts, I feel that this group could be a potential. They could use their tutoring skills to educate younger children about important topics that would help them to perform better or reach higher levels of socioeconomic status. By doing this it would help the area of Somerville in the long term, but growth has to start somewhere.
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I talked to GIRLS (Girl Interaction Raising Levels of Self-esteem) this week, and like TLC, it is a group with potential. They currently work with the Malden YMCA and Girl Scouts, and have worked in Medford before, but not Somerville. The head of the club this year, however, indicated a strong interest in Somerville if an opportunity to work there were to come about. GIRLS is also in the midst of starting a group called Strong Women, Strong Girls, which would be a similar sort of preteen mentoring program. However, I am not quite sure if this group has a direct relationship to the economic situation in Somerville. I guess they could be considered a benefit to young girls whose home life may be currently affected by the changing economy. If a parent loses a job or money is tight, it is always good for children to have someone to go to.
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