Uptown Organization Needs Volunteers

Uptown Update,
My name is Annette and I work at the Chinese Mutual Aid Association (CMAA), located at 1016 w. Argyle. I’m sure many uptown residents have walked by and wondered what happens in our building. I just came across this blog and thought I’d both share information about us and beg for volunteers at the same time. First, the information …
We are a community based organization that was founded in 1981 in order to help promote the interests and well being of immigrants and refugees in Chicago and to foster their participation in American society. We offer a lot of different programs meant to provide the language skills and job training needed by a non-English speaker to become an active and productive member of this community and eventually, an American citizen
CMAA offers a variety of services such as job placement and job training, citizenship, family and individual literacy programs, homework help and youth programs that serve the Uptown area and its residents. Our literacy, citizenship and Certified Nurse Assistant classes are all free of charge and serve immigrants and refugees from all over the world including Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.
We offer 4 different computer classes for everyone based on availability and are all free except one. The A+ Certification computer repair class costs $70 for 8 weeks, with $20 returned to you after class completion. The Computer Literacy class, Office Application and 2 different Web Design classes are all free and meet for 8 weeks at a time.
Now comes the begging part….
Due to the fact that we a nonprofit agency we are always looking for ways to recruit new volunteers to the ESL and literacy program. It only takes about two hours a week to tutor English as a Second Language (ESL) and we’ll show you how. Helping a person learn how to speak English is a lot of fun (No, really, it is!) and a lot easier than you think. If you have any free time and are the slightest bit interested or even curious, please contact me.
Not to mention we are in your community so you might be able to walk (Yup, don’t want to lose that parking space!) .We currently have a need for tutors to teach students in a one-on-one or small group setting. I match students and tutors based on a variety of factors. One of the most obvious is the availability of time. People typically meet once a week for about one and a half to two hours at a time. Saturday morning and weekday evening tutors are always in demand as a majority of our students work full time however, any availability is valuable.
We have a variety of training avenues for people who have never tutored before. There is a sister organization that runs training programs and we also utilize a hands on approach that includes observation, and one on one lesson planning with an experienced tutor. I am personally available via phone and e-mail, if not in person for any thing you may need.
Please contact me at your earliest convenience with any questions or interest you may have (and I’m hoping there shall be lots), so we can set up a time to meet.
Sincerely,
Annette Joyce
Volunteer Coordinator
Chinese Mutual Aid Association
AnnetteJ@chinesemutualaid.org
(773)784-2900 Ext 140