With help from Literacy Volunteers Valley Shore (LVVS), 47 Clinton residents are working to improve their English-language speaking and reading skills, and thanks to a series of nationally accredited training workshops, three newly certified tutors—also residents of Clinton—are prepared to see that they meet their goals.

LVSS provides tutoring services for adults throughout the shoreline community.

“In the 11 towns we serve, there are between 14,000 and 17,000 residents ages 16 to 65 who perform at or below a 3rd-grade level,” said LVVS Executive Director John Ferrara. “This impacts their ability to obtain and hold employment, make a living wage, and better their place in the community. It also burdens our towns with higher social service demands, less involvement in children’s education, and a lack of qualified workers for area businesses.”

In the towns it serves, LVVS tutors 238 students from more than 70 countries; nearly 20 percent of those students live in Clinton. According to Ferrara, the most recent Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and U.S. Census data indicate that roughly 900 adults in Clinton are in need of literacy support.

“But numbers only tell part of the story,” Ferrara said. “The real impact of the services our wonderful volunteers provide can only be fully appreciated in the lives and achievements of our students—students like Meiying, who came to this country from China with very little in the way of English language skills and who, less than a year later, earned her citizenship and is working toward a promotion at her job.”

Literacy tutoring also enables adults to earn their GEDs, apply for jobs, help their children with schoolwork, and discuss everything from their kids’ educational progress to their medical needs with teachers and healthcare providers.

“There is a long list of people who want to learn the language, to work and be productive and fit in,” said Deborah Huddy, one of 11 tutors who recently completed LVVS’s eight weeks of training. “The fact that someone wants to continue their education is very important.”

Huddy’s first student is a young man from Syria. They met and began working together on Jan. 5.

“The trickiest part,” she says, “is explaining what certain words mean. Take a word like ‘sentence.’ How do you show that?”

Huddy said tutors are trained in strategies such as role-playing and matching up words with pictures. She was also given an adult English-Arabic dictionary, which has proved invaluable.

“The whole program is very needed, and the training is absolutely fantastic—very helpful and informative,” she said.

A Long Island native, Huddy worked as a residential program director for mentally challenged adults in upstate New York before retiring and relocating to Clinton to be near her daughter and granddaughters.

“I moved to the area about a year and a half ago and wanted to give back to the community,” said Huddy, who also volunteers at the Clinton Meals on Wheels site.

“We attract a diverse set of people who are not characterized by any single trait other than a belief in the power of literacy and a desire to help someone change their life,” said Ferrara. “Our tutors come from all walks of life and include retired teachers, former executives from large corporations, college students, stay-at-home parents, and people who have run their own small businesses. We have many who balance work, family, and their volunteer activities quite successfully and whom we count among our most prized tutors.”

In addition to Huddy, the LVVS fall 2015 class of certified tutors includes Susan Taylor and Rosanne Vinci (also of Clinton), Jane Gonzalez of Old Saybrook, Paul Aresta and Karol Gardner of Deep River, Joseph Katan of East Haddam, Tricia Carey of East Lyme), Margaret Azarian of Guilford, Sandra Maccarone of Madison, and Anne Maxwell of Niantic.

The eight-week tutor training session consists of seven, two-hour workshops covering rules for tutoring, characteristics of adult learners, lesson planning, phonics, reading, writing, and assessing students’ competencies. After a month, tutors reconvene for a final session where they share their experiences and discuss their challenges and best practices.

“Many tutors are intimidated when they first begin, thinking that they need to have a complete grasp of grammar and syntax and how to teach a student proper English,” Ferrara said. “In some cases, communicating with a beginning student can be difficult at first. What almost every tutor discovers is the wonderful connection they make with another human being and the absolute joy they derive from helping another become a person, a better worker, and a better member of the community.”

Tutor training is free, and the next session runs March 24 and 29; April 5, 7, 12, and 26; and May 19. Participants may choose morning or evening workshops. In addition to tutors, LVVS needs volunteers to help with fundraisers and special events, mailings and office projects, and book sales, as well as those wish to serve on its board of directors.

For more information, call 860-399-0280 or email info@vsliteracy.org.