Anyone know of good mentor/tutor type volunteering opp?

Hi all,

Now that I'm fairly settled in the bay area, I'm starting to look for some volunteering opportunities. I'm mostly interested in tutoring/mentoring kids (maybe ages 8-17). I tried contacting someone at Bay Area Community Resources, but the woman in charge of tutoring never got back to me. Basically, I'm looking for something that's maybe 2-4 hrs/week around Palo Alto.

This post has been edited by redpoint on Jan 10 2005, 02:45 AM

Boys and Girls Club
YMCA

Thuan, you should go over to The Haas Center at Stanford. It's right across from the campus bike shop. They have a volunteer center on the ground floor that's staffed during business hours, and they have huge listings of all sorts of local volunteer opportunities which they'll help you go through until you find the one that's right for you. It's a great resource for Stanford folks (it used to be one of the friendliest buildings on campus), and they're sure to help you find something. There will be plenty of mentoring/tutoring opportunities available, especially for someone like you with a science background.

You also could look into volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). CASAs mentor and advocate for foster children, and no legal experience is necessary. Check out www.nationalcasa.org for more information. The local CASA organization is Child Advocates of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. I have a friend who serves as a CASA with his wife, and they love the program; I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you if you're interested.

VolunteerMatch has a lot of opportunities for volunteers/mentors. Just punch in your zip code:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
-Mark

my friend does some kind of mentoring/tutoring gig for kids. i'll have to find out where.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I looked into a few of the opportunities and found a couple of promising ones. There's a mentoring/tutoring program that's run in E. PA , that I'm applying for, so hopefully that'll turn out positively.

One of the best programs for kids in the entire Bay Area is Plugged In. http://www.pluggedin.org/ The young people who started it GOT GUTS. If you've got a background in engineering, it might be a really nice fit.

Also check with the Y and Rec as many have after-school programs where they could really use people to come in and help kids with homework. You can get 4-5th graders doing 7th grade math, dying to learn more then their teachers can teach, and kids that would love to practice reading to others, any age range.

I know that you are looking for a volunteering opp that is local and weekly, but I thought I'd give you a heads-up on an opportunity maybe you could do in the summer. Camp Okizu is a non-profit camp for children with cancer and their siblings. They are always looking for volunteers. I personally volunteer for weekend family camps several times a year and for a week of siblings camp in the summer. Very rewarding. My new year begins in June when I am with the kids at camp. Check it out at www.okizu.org