Adult Literacy & ESL
Literacy Volunteers of America
Life is limited when you can't read medical label warnings, correspondence from your children's teachers, instructions on a new appliance, complete a job application, read a street sign, directions, or apply for a driver's license. Yet many adults find themselves in exactly that position, particularly here in Essex County, where one in every four adults is considered functionally illiterate in English, according to U.S. Department of Education data.
Get Literacy Help
We understand that, to achieve the highest level of success, it is important to provide each adult student with quality literacy services in a supportive learning environment. That’s why LVA strives for quality in the free literacy services it provides to adults, 16 years and older, who need instruction in Basic Literacy (BL) or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).
Basic Literacy (BL) programs are offered to those adults who have been identified as reading below the 6th grade level and who need to improve their literacy skills (understand, read, write, speak, and listen).
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs are offered to those adults who have been identified as limited English speakers and who need to improve their literacy skills (understand, read, write, speak, and listen).
Become a Volunteer
When you help an adult, you help her or his entire family. At Literacy Volunteers of America, Essex & Passaic Counties, we have a long list of U.S. citizens and immigrants, among them refugees and asylum seekers, waiting for help in learning to speak, understand, read, and write in English. But we need volunteers to teach them.
LVA recruits and trains volunteer tutors; pre-tests, post-tests, and instructs adult students; provides continued in-service training to tutors; provides peer group seminars for students and tutors; and provides ongoing communication with the community it services. LVA provides supervision and continued training to volunteers and professional staff through a systematic process of communication, observation and evaluation.
For more information on becoming a LVA volunteer, please contact Cristhian Barcelos, Executive Director at 973-566-6200 x 217 or 225, cbarcelos@lvaep.org.
Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) has an office location in the Bloomfield Public Library and is open Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 4:00. More information can be found online at lvaep.org.