How We Serve

Literacy*AmeriCorps Pittsburgh members are adults of all ages and backgrounds who have a passion for volunteer service and education. Members believe in education’s power in helping individuals and communities to overcome social ills. Members trust in their own ability to serve and in the magic of one person making a difference.

Members are expected to make a full commitment to their year of service. This commitment includes serving wholeheartedly, keeping students as the top priority throughout the year, and completing a minimum number of service hours. Full-time members complete at least 1700 hours within the 11-month program year. AmeriCorps service is not without its sacrifices: financial sacrifice adds stress for some members, and the experience can be a very intense year of growth. Overall, a year served in Literacy*AmeriCorps Pittsburgh is a truly amazing experience that yields many lasting benefits!

Before the year of service begins, a member is placed at a service site of his/her choice. Members spend at least 35 hours per week (at least 80% of hours) at their service site by teaching and tutoring students, managing community volunteers, and serving at outreach events for their service site.

AmeriCorps members also serve as a group or local corps. Members are encouraged to form a solid support group within the corps. This support provides encouragement within fellow members and has resulted in lasting friendships. Members collaborate on designing community service projects and serving on AmeriCorps committees. Members also participate in semi-monthly trainings and unity events. This time spent away from the service site consists of roughly 20% of service hours.

Teaching & Tutoring

All Literacy* AmeriCorps members teach and tutor. Most members tutor small groups of students or one-on-one; some members teach larger classes. The member’s service site provides guidance, support, and materials. Members participate in an 8-hour tutor training at the beginning of the year, and subsequent training is offered throughout the year at AmeriCorps Friday trainings.

Each service site offers their member(s) a unique teaching experience, but most teaching done by members can be informally placed into five different categories. The categories are Adult Basic Education (ABE), GED preparation, English as a Second Language (ESL), Family Literacy, and Children’s Literacy.

Our Students

Each of our students is unique. They bring their own background knowledge, barriers to learning, past educational experiences, and different levels of motivation to the table.
ABE students are adult learners. Most are native Pittsburghers and do not have a high school diploma. For some students, earning a GED is a long-term goal. Some ABE students want to learn to read or to read better, or brush up on basic skills.

GED students are adult learners reading at or above the 8th grade level. AmeriCorps members who help GED learners teach reading comprehension in the content areas of literature, social studies, and science. Grammar, essay writing, and math are also taught.
Our ESL students are adult immigrants and refugees. AmeriCorps members teach to a very wide range of educational levels. Some ESL students qualify as illiterate in their own languages; others were highly educated professionals in their native countries. Most AmeriCorps members who teach ESL are not fluent in foreign languages, and they find that they are comfortable teaching English.

Family literacy programs are a unique initiative within adult literacy. Parents (usually mothers) bring their pre-school aged children with them to the program. While parents are mostly preparing for the GED, their children are in a room close by with an early childhood educator. Parents and children have scheduled time to learn together during Parent and Child Together (PACT) time. AmeriCorps members who serve in family literacy programs primarily tutor parents, but they also have contact with the children and help in planning events that celebrate families.

Children’s Literacy provides a few members the opportunity to serve children only. Members may serve in after-school programs or by serving on the Storymobile, a fun mobile library that visits low-income housing neighborhoods and low-income day care centers in Pittsburgh.

Volunteer Mobilization

All Literacy*AmeriCorps Pittsburgh members are required to recruit community volunteers. Full-time members are expected to recruit at least two volunteers; part- time members are challenged to recruit at least one. Recruited volunteers serve at members’ service sites or service projects. Some service sites require their AmeriCorps members not only to recruit volunteers, but to manage and support them as well.

Service Projects

Planning and attending service projects is a central part of a Literacy*AmeriCorps member’s service year. All full-time members are required to design a community service project during their year of service. This experience can be very enjoyable and fun, and it presents an opportunity to network within the Pittsburgh community on a large scale.
Members may organize a project from scratch, one that’s never been done before. However, most members collaborate with a nonprofit of their choice and support a service project that is already in the works. In addition to organizing one service project, members are required to participate in nine (9) other member-organized projects throughout the year. This ensures a great collaborative effort for members to get things done together.

Training & Unity

Members are provided with a week of orientation at the beginning of the service year. After orientation, members disperse to their service sites where they begin site orientation. Most members take two to three weeks to ease into their service site. Starting with the second month of the year, members attend Friday AmeriCorps trainings, which take place on two Friday afternoons per month. Friday trainings provide time for members to spend time together and share their experiences. Training topics range from teaching tips to social issues to CPR certification. Orientation and Friday training attendance is mandatory for full-time members. Part-time members are encouraged to attend when their schedule allows.

Once the service year gets going, many members want to take on a larger role within the corps. This usually results in participating on a member-formed and member-led AmeriCorps committee. Past committees have produced corps newsletters, health/wellness outings, unity events, and more.

The unity event committee may form up to two unity events per month. Unity events are fun times for members to get together outside of AmeriCorps sites and continue to form a strong support group.

Benefits

Financial benefits for full time members:

Living Allowance of $11,400 directly deposited semi-monthly. The living allowance is an important item to consider when thinking of joining AmeriCorps. Serving full-time and receiving little to live on makes AmeriCorps a financial sacrifice for many. The ideal AmeriCorps member is one who is willing to live simply and receives personal rewards from service.

Education Award of $4,725, issued at completion of at least 1700 hours of service, used to pay for current school expenses or federal loans or can be saved for up to seven years for future education expenses. The education award is taxed as income in the year it is used.

Health Care and Dental Care provided. Most members meet a $100 deductible, then the plan covers 80% of most usual expenses. Our health care plan is not an HMO.

Child Care expenses are reimbursed to a provider of the member’s choice. Eligibility for this benefit is determined based on the member’s household income.

Transportation: Mileage or bus fare from service site to service site is reimbursed. Unfortunately, we do not issue bus passes. Since members are responsible for transporting themselves back and forth to their service site, we encourage members to live relatively close to where they serve.

Thinking of moving to Pittsburgh to join AmeriCorps? Out-of-state members have been some of the best members in the past years. Unfortunately, no relocation funds are available, but the program coordinator will welcome you to Pittsburgh, assist you in finding an apartment, recommend roommates, etc.

Intangible benefits for all members:

Members who serve with passion, creativity, and an open mind receive many intangible benefits.
Members have freedom.
Members are expected to be creative, insightful and to think of new ways of teaching and serving that will benefit both their service site and AmeriCorps.
Members can experience a high level of responsibility with little to no prior experience in teaching.
Some members’ level of service could be compared to the level of work expected from a person with high credentials. Instead, service sites welcome members with little experience but who are full of passion for their service.
AmeriCorps service results in a great résumé at the end of the service year for most members.
Members grow both personally and professionally. Literacy*AmeriCorps Pittsburgh is a very supportive and friendly environment. Members are expected to make mistakes and learn lifelong lessons from them.
Most members can look back on their year of service and point to specific personal improvements they made through the year.