Programmatic - Reading to Children
Do you love reading aloud and wish to spread the joy of reading to children? San José Public Library is looking for volunteers to read to young children.
How You Will Make a Difference
Sharing books with children demonstrates that reading is enjoyable and establishes a pattern of lifelong reading and learning.
Volunteers are needed to:
- Select age-appropriate books for reading aloud
- Understand how to search the SJPL catalog for titles
- Read aloud to individual children or a small group of children for 60 minutes
- Help children hone their reading skills by reading aloud to you
Benefits
- Foster a lifelong love of books and reading in our youth
- Improve early literacy skills
- Connect with your community and provide much-needed social engagement for children
Commitment/Schedule
Willingness to volunteer once a week for at least a 6-month duration. Ideally, this would be late afternoon (after 3:30pm) on Fridays, or Tuesdays after 4:15pm, however, we'll try to make it work!
Prospective volunteers should:
- Be comfortable engaging with youth and families
- Have strong oral communication skills
- Be dependable, patient and flexible
- Complete a fingerprint background check, at no cost to you (required for all volunteers 18+)
Language Skills
- Bilingual skills are highly desired, but not required
