Volunteer With Tutoring Plus

Our committed volunteers allow us to advance educational equity by offering free tutoring, mentoring, and enrichment programming for Cambridge youth in grades 4–12. As a volunteer academic mentor, you are supporting youth as an academic tutor and a personal mentor. All youth benefit from having an additional person in their lives to look up to and talk to, and you make an impact by offering consistent support and enthusiasm.

Volunteers commit to at least one academic semester for 1 hour per week at their program location.

In-person volunteer opportunities are available from Monday–Thursday at our 6 program locations:

  • Fletcher Maynard Academy (225 Windsor Street, Cambridge, MA 02139): 6-7 pm
  • Cambridge Street Upper School (840 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141): 6-7 pm
  • Fresh Pond Apartments (362 Rindge Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140): 6:15-7:15 pm
  • Rindge Commons (402 Rindge Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140): 6-7 pm
  • Finch Apartments (675 Concord Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138): 6-7 pm
  • Community Art Center (119 Windsor Street, Cambridge, MA 02139): 5-6 pm Note: This is our High School Program Location.

Fill out our Volunteer Application!

Complete the CORI Form

You will need to provide your ID for this step.

Review Our Orientation + Information Slides and Complete the Quiz

During the orientation you will learn more about the Tutoring Plus approach to engaging youth and a typical evening working with students. Additional trainings will be offered throughout the school year, providing you with the tools and techniques to be an effective volunteer.

Tutoring Plus Staff Will Reach Out to Schedule a Listening Conference With You

This is where we can get to know you better, academic and personally, to thoughtfully match you with one of our students!

My favorite part has been seeing him grow up and become a young man. Tutoring Plus is helping him become more focused on achieving academically but he is still the fun-loving boy I met last year!

Tutoring Plus Volunteer

Your Role as a Volunteer

Tutor Mentors volunteer to support our youth by being academic tutor and positive mentors and role models.

Successful Volunteers…

  • Are consistent and dependable
  • Are patient and understanding
  • Are mindful and considerate
  • Share their excitement for learning
  • Are actively involved in helping their match to work through homework and other academic activities/projects
  • Check-in with staff regularly for both positive feedback and any concerns
  • Ask staff for extra assistance or support when they need it
  • Encourage their young person to challenge themselves with a growth-mindset approach
  • View behavior management and motivation levels as opportunities for learning and improving
  • Realize that their volunteer experience is as much of a learning opportunity for them as it is for the youth

What does mentoring mean at Tutoring Plus?

Our volunteers connect with our youth by building relationships beyond homework and academic help. This can take shape through conversations about interests and hobbies, discussing long-term and short-term goals, and sharing stories of life experiences.

Expectations For Volunteers

Tutoring Plus encourages our volunteers to engage in activities separate from homework. We like to remind our volunteers to think of themselves as not only tutors, but also as mentors to our youth. For this purpose, we have other academic activities available, hold game nights, and are willing to help coordinate mentoring activities outside of tutoring time.

Volunteers Can Expect

  1. To receive individual match support on any issues or challenges you are facing.
  2. To spend the majority of the session working on academic work (75-80%) and some of the session mentoring/relationship-building (20-25%). However, this can vary depending on the young person and the day.
  3. To be flexible around subject matter. On some nights, the youth may have homework in other subjects or on multiple subjects.
  4. To encourage their young person to finish their homework while you are there to help and to prioritize working on homework with you that they may need extra support with.

Volunteers Should Not Expect

  1. Direct access to teachers and parents. Volunteers should notify Tutoring Plus staff if they would like to be in contact with their match’s teacher or parents. We can work with the teacher and parents to provide you support.
  2. To see a semester syllabus (not all teachers provide them) or to see all graded work/tests, etc. However, some youth carry this work in their school binder and may have it with them.

One-on-One Structure

When you arrive at a program, one of the first things you will be asked to do is sign in on our attendance tracker. Then, based on the program site, you will find a seat somewhere with your match.

Sessions with your young person may look different from week to week, based on their homework, activities they are interested in, or simply how they are feeling.

We encourage our students to work on homework for a majority of their session. However, there is no strict structure to tutoring time, and what you work on beyond homework is up to you and your young person. If you have an idea of what you would like to do with your student, we always encourage our volunteers to apply their creativity and flexibility in shaping a session that will be enjoyable for them and their match.

Tutoring Time

Volunteers arrive during the second half of our program for tutoring time, which is a time for students to quietly work on their academic assignments, with support from you.

A student may not have homework to work on every week. If a student has already completed their homework but has brought it to tutoring time, one strategy is to review their homework and **check for understanding**. Ask your student to teach you about what they are learning, or how they got to the answers on their homework.

This can be an effective strategy for any topic or subject that you know your student is learning about, as practicing the content and being able to teach you about it encourages a deeper understanding of the information.

Mentoring

As a volunteer, your role is not just that of a tutor but also a mentor. While tutoring time is a space for homework, you should also utilize this time to get to know your young person.

If you feel that your student has completed enough work or is not having the best day, then we also have board games and other activities that students and volunteers are free to use. As you get to know your young person, you can use your best judgment to structure your session in a way that you feel is best for that day.

Volunteer Session Notes

At the end of the night, we ask all volunteers to fill out Volunteer Session Notes (VSNs). Volunteer Session Notes serve as a space for volunteers to let the staff know how the session went overall, how your match did, what you worked on, and to share any comments about the night. These comments can simply be how you felt your session went, funny anecdotes from your student, or anything else that you feel is worth mentioning. We highly encourage you to leave a comment, because any feedback we receive is extremely helpful for the program and for supporting you in working with your student match.

Although we do review the Volunteer Session Notes after each session, we also strongly encourage volunteers to contact staff directly if there are any issues, concerns, or questions so that we can provide support as soon as possible.


Update for the 2023-24 academic year

We are currently accepting volunteer applications for the 2023-24 school year! Volunteers will be placed at one of our in person sites at various locations in Cambridge.

Volunteering FAQ

  • I have never tutored before. What kind of training and support will I get?

    Volunteers will get an introduction to Tutoring Plus through the application process and will receive orientation before they begin tutoring. We also have training opportunities throughout the school year, including a mentor training.

    Each site also has program staff who are there to support volunteers and students throughout your sessions. We encourage you to communicate openly and in a timely manner with staff and to use them as a resource. The Director of Engagement is also available as a resource and support.

  • As a volunteer tutor/mentor, will I be expected to develop lesson plans?

    No, youth are expected to bring their assigned homework. If youth do not have homework, Tutoring Plus has supplemental academic materials available at all program sites.

  • Where do programs take place?

    All programs take place in trusted community spaces across Cambridge and are accessible by public transportation.

  • Once I submit my volunteer application, how long is it before I know if I'm accepted or not?

    We will acknowledge the receipt of your application within one week via email and will follow up to schedule an informational interview with candidates who are good fit for our program.

  • Questions? Please contact us at info@tutoringplus.org.

    Tutoring Plus is committed to recruiting volunteers who reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. People of color, bilingual candidates, and differently abled people are encouraged to apply. Volunteers will receive training on the volunteer tutor/mentor role in addition to ongoing support from Tutoring Plus staff.

    Tutoring Plus does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, military veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law.