News Photo by Reagan Voetberg READ adult literacy program Coordinators Pat Garant and Leslie Kirchoff discuss tutoring materials on Thursday in the READ program office.

ALPENA — For the last 40 years, the READ adult literacy program has served more than 400 Northeast Michigan residents, helping adults with literacy skills, learning English as a second language (ESL), and earning their GEDs, all at zero cost.

The program is currently looking to train volunteer literacy tutors.

Pat Garant and Leslie Kirchoff are the coordinators of the program in Alpena, which is supported through the Alpena County Library. Both are former educators.

“I think the secret of our success here is that we train tutors and then one tutor works individually with one learner,” Kirchoff said. “So they’re getting special individualized tutoring or programming that meets their specific needs.”

Kirchoff and Garant take great care in making sure that tutors and their students are a good fit for each other before assigning a tutor.

Volunteers can choose what skills they’d like to tutor students in. Some aren’t as comfortable tutoring students trying to pass their GED, for instance, so they would only tutor students in literacy or ESL. Tutors do not need to have any prior teaching experience.

Currently, there are 18 learners. The number of learners at any given time tends to hover around that figure, Kirchoff said. Of those, two are studying to earn their GED, seven are learning literacy skills, and nine are learning ESL. There are currently about 25 tutors on the volunteer list so not all of them are actively tutoring.

Adult learners walk through the door for a variety of reasons. Some never learned to read at all. Others want to boost their skills to the next level. Some have a specific goal in mind.

“We had a gentleman that was trying to get his disability…benefits renewed,” Kirchoff said. “And he had to write a short–I’m going to call it an essay, but I’m sure that’s not what they called it–explaining why his benefits should be renewed and he couldn’t do it on his own, he needed help…that’s one example of the very specific needs that they sometimes come with.”

Volunteers are rewarded with community and the feeling that comes with knowing they truly helped someone.

“This is a way that people can help–really help people one-on-one, and that’s very rewarding,” Garant said.

Garant said that she’s had tutors that recently moved to the area and started tutoring to get involved with the community. One tutor in particular has been part of the program for about two years. He walked through the door not knowing anyone in the community and has now built relationships through tutoring. The program has enriched his life, Garant said.

Tutors commit to at least a year with the program, but many choose to continue beyond that.

“So many of our tutors after that year commitment is over, they don’t say, ‘see you later’, they just still are willing to serve,” Kirchoff said.

The annual in-person tutor training run by Garant and Kirchoff is kicking off at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at the library. There will be four other sessions after that, and volunteers can choose to go to the ones that interest them. Each session will last from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The Jan. 20 session will be Basic Literacy one, Jan. 22 Basic Literacy two, Jan. 27 ESL, and Jan. 29 GED training.

Even if you miss the in-person training, you can participate in an online training anytime throughout the year.

Contact Kirchoff and Garant at 989-356-6188 ext. 15 or readprogram@alpenalibrary.org.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.